Audiobook · read by volunteers
Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870)
Read by Kristin LeMoine, Mark F. Smith, R. Francis Smith, shanda_w, Kevin Kivikko, David Barnes, Simon Taylor, Meredith Hughes, Kirsten Ferreri, Gesine · 69 chapters · 24 h 49
About the book
A young Gascon named d’Artagnan sets out for Paris with a letter of introduction, an old horse and big ambitions. Within days he has quarrelled with three of the king’s musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and agreed to meet each of them in a duel. Instead, the four become inseparable. Their motto is “all for one, one for all,” and they will need it, for they are soon caught up in a plot touching the queen, the king and the formidable Cardinal Richelieu.
Alexandre Dumas’s novel of swordplay, intrigue and friendship is one of the most popular adventure stories ever written. This recording uses William Robson’s English translation. In sixty-nine chapters and about twenty-five hours, it carries you through duels, secret journeys, ambushes and a brilliant, dangerous woman, in the company of four heroes you will not want to leave.
Introduction
Alexandre Dumas, known as Dumas père (1802–1870), was one of the most prolific and popular French writers of the nineteenth century. The Three Musketeers, whose French title is Les Trois Mousquetaires, was published in 1844 in instalments in the newspaper Le Siècle. It is the first part of a trilogy of d’Artagnan novels, which continues with Twenty Years After.
The title is a little misleading: the hero, d’Artagnan, a young man who leaves home hoping to become a musketeer, is not one of the three. They are his new friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who do everything together. The story is set in the 1620s, during the reign of Louis XIII, and it combines real historical figures, such as Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham, with invented characters and incidents. Dumas had a gift for dialogue and for pace, and the narrative moves briskly from one scene to the next. The tone is light, but beneath the swordplay there are real questions about loyalty, honour and the abuse of power.
The English version recorded here is by William Robson, from the mid-nineteenth century. The recording has 69 sections and lasts nearly twenty-five hours. It is read by volunteers for LibriVox, and the many voices bring out the book’s great number of speaking characters.
Why listen today? Because The Three Musketeers is the model of the adventure novel: humorous, exciting and generous in spirit. It has been adapted for stage and screen more often than almost any other book, yet nothing quite replaces the original with its energy and its fondness for its heroes. It is entertainment of the highest order.
Public domain
Alexandre Dumas died in 1870: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text