Global InformationThe Three Musketeers information
 D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos Image by Maurice Leloir | |
| Author | Alexandre Dumas in collaboration with Auguste Maquet |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Trois Mousquetaires |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Historical novel, adventure novel, swashbuckler |
Publication date | March–July 1844 (serialised) |
| Pages | c. 700 (depending on edition) |
| Followed by | The Count of Moret, The Dove, Twenty Years After |
The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois Mousquetaires, [le tʁwɑ muskətɛːʁ]) is a French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in collaboration with ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.[1][2] It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight for justice.
Set between 1625 and 1628, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan (a character based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although d'Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he is befriended by three of the most formidable musketeers of the age – Athos, Porthos and Aramis, "the three musketeers" or "the three inseparables" – and becomes involved in affairs of state and at court.
The Three Musketeers is primarily a historical and adventure novel. However, Dumas frequently portrays various injustices, abuses and absurdities of the Ancien Régime, giving the novel an additional political significance at the time of its publication, a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce. The story was first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 established the Second Republic.
The story of d'Artagnan is continued in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.
- ^ Samuel, Henry (10 February 2010). "Alexandre Dumas novels penned by 'fourth musketeer' ghost writer". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
- ^ Schopp, Claude (1988). Alexandre Dumas, Genius of Life. trans. by A. J. Koch. New York, Toronto: Franklin Watts. pp. 325–326. ISBN 0-531-15093-3.