The Three Musketeers

Book Report by Dante von Foerster

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The Three Musketeers is a novel set in 17
Century France, written by
author Alexandre Dumas, originally in French. The novel follows a young man
from the Gascony region of France (Southwestern area including Bordeaux),
named d'Artagnan. He travels to Paris with a letter from his father to the Captain
of the King's Musketeers. We find out that d'Artagnan's father used to know the
Captain, M. de Treville.

On his way to Paris, d'Artagnan stops in the city of Meung. Here he duels
with a man who seems to haunt him for the rest of the book. D'Artagnan is badly
beaten by two of the man's friends, and stays a couple of days to heal.
Unfortunately, he loses his letter of recommendation, which he thinks was stolen
by the man he fought with.
D'Artagnan arrives in Paris and sells his horse. He arrives at the hotel
where M. de Treville was, and requests an audience with the Capitan. Here
D'Artagnan waits in M. de Treville's cabinet while he scolds Athos, Porthos, and
Aramis for fighting with the Cardinal Richelieu's guards. It should be known that
the Cardinal at the time had a great deal of power in France. M. de Treville then
congratulates the Three Musketeers when they tell him the real story. These
three will be our musketeers in the novel. M. de Treville, forgetting about
d'Artagnan completely, then talks with him a while. D'Artagnan tells him about
everything that happened on the way to Paris.
M. de Treville warns him about the man he fought in Meung, and promises
to get him into the Royal Academy for free. M. de Treville talks with him a bit
longer, suspicious he might actually be an agent of the Cardinal.
Suddenly, d'Artagnan exclaims he sees the man from Meung, dashes out,
and literally runs into Athos. He agrees to duel with him later. He also runs into
Porthos, agreeing to duel with him later. He nearly duels with Aramis on his way
to Athos, and says he might duel with him later.
He meets with all three, and after some confusion, d'Artagnan and Athos
draw their swords. But just then the Cardinal's guards showed up, and tried to
arrest them. D'Artagnan and the Musketeers fight back. The four eventually win,
with M. de Treville scolding them in public, congratulating them in private. They
are invited to the Louvre, the King's Palace, where d'Artagnan is rewarded with
forty pistoles (A coin at the time). He also gets placed in the King's Guards, just
under the Musketeers.
A man named Monsieur Bonacieux hired d'Artagnan to find his wife, a
seamstress to the Queen of France. The man thinks his wife was kidnapped for
political reasons, he tells him. Monsieur then tells d'Artagnan who he thinks the
kidnapper is, which happens to fit the description of our man from Meung.

After a little more conversation they happen to see the Man of Meung, and
d'Artagnan dashes out. He runs into his new friends the Musketeers, and they ask
him to explain what is going on. D'Artagnan explains, and goes off searching for
the Man of Meung, but can't find him. He meets up with his friends later.
D'Artagnan and his friends start to think the abduction of Madam Bonacieux
might be connected to the presence of the Duke of Buckingham in Paris, who is
the rumored lover of the Queen, Anne of Austria. After some time talking, the
Musketeers and d'Artagnan come up with their famous motto, which is only used
a couple times in the book.
We now learn that the man who hired d'Artagnan, Monsieur Bonacieux, is
under surveillance by Cardinal Richelieu. Anyone going there is taken and
interrogated by the Cardinal's men. The author compares it to a mousetrap.
There was a private passage that led to the first floor where our young Gascon
lived at the time. People going there were exempt from interrogation. But no-one
came except the Three Musketeers. They had been looking for information on
Madam Bonacieux's disappearance, but found absolutely nothing.
D'Artagnan happened to hear men downstairs searching Madam Bonacieux,
and after ten minutes had rescued her. Unfortunately, Monsieur Bonacieux had
been taken to the Bastille, an infamous French prison in Paris.
Madam Bonacieux then gives d'Artagnan instructions to deliver a message
to someone in the Louvre for her. He does so, and once he delivers the message,
he follows the man's advice to go to someone with a slow clock. D'Artagnan visits
M. de Treville, and informs him something new is happening between the King
and the Cardinal. But with his clock being slow, and M. de Treville seeming to see
d'Artagnan when he was actually at the Louvre, he had a good alibi.
D'Artagnan later finds Madam Bonacieux in front of Aramis' house, but we
find out she was just talking to a woman who happened to be there. We also see
that d'Artagnan starts to fall in love with this woman.
Later, we learn that Athos has been imprisoned, and d'Artagnan can't find
the other two Musketeers. Then d'Artagnan sees Madam Bonacieux, with who he
thinks is Aramis. However, after d'Artagnan stops the man and draws his sword,
we find out the man is none other than the Duke of Buckingham.
As it turns out, Madam Bonacieux was supposed to take the Duke to the
Queen, making her disappearance more suspicious. The Duke and the Queen
finally meet again and talk. The Duke, who was obsessed with the Queen,
threatens to kill himself unless the Queen says she loves him. She does say this,
and gives him a diamond necklace to remember her by.

The author then goes to Monsieur Bonacieux being interrogated by the

Cardinal and his men at the Bastille. Athos is presented to Monsieur Bonacieux as
d'Artagnan, and then the police realize they arrested the wrong man. Bonacieux
is even interrogated by the Cardinal Richelieu himself, but released. The Cardinal
was convinced he knew nothing of his wife's plans.
Not long after this the Cardinal and M. de Treville argue in front of the king
over why Athos was in jail and what he had done. The King was convinced he had
done nothing, and set Athos free.
The King, thinking the Queen might be unfaithful, orders the Keepers of the
Seals to search through her things. He takes a letter from her and gives it to the
King. It is not a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, as the King thought it was, but
a plan to ruin the reputation of the Cardinal Richelieu.
The Cardinal says that the King should hold a ball for the Queen in apology
over the incident with the letter. He suggests that the Queen should wear her
diamond necklace at the ball. But as you might remember, the Queen gave this
to the Duke of Buckingham.
Madam Bonacieux shows up, and agrees to find somebody to go get the
necklace. She first tries her husband, but he has become a Cardinalist.
D'Artagnan hears everything from upstairs, comes down, and agrees to go. He
asks for a leave of absence for himself and his friends, but then goes to ask if
they will come. Aramis agrees, and they go to Athos' house. Porthos happens to
be there too, and both Athos and Porthos agree to go.
For several days d'Artagnan, his friends, and all of their servants constantly
fight off the Cardinal's men. Only d'Artagnan and his servant make it to England,
the others having to stay behind because of injuries. The Duke of Buckingham
meets d'Artagnan, and reads the letter from the Queen about the necklace. At
once d'Artagnan, his servant, and the Duke set out for London. The Duke brings
the necklace, but it only has ten of the twelve diamond studs. The Duke's
goldsmith was able to recreate diamonds with the exact same cut. With the new
closure of ports between France and England, the Duke of Buckingham gives
d'Artagnan a letter allowing passage to France.
Quite fortunately for the Queen of France, d'Artagnan was able to get the
necklace to her in time for the ball. Later, she secretly gave d'Artagnan a very
nice ring in repayment. M. de Treville's advice was to sell it.
D'Artagnan and his servant set out the same day to find his friends. They
find Porthos and his servant at an inn and paid their bill. The four then set out to
find Aramis. They find him trying to become a Jesuit. After listening to an
uninteresting theological discussion (At least to d'Artagnan), Aramis tells
d'Artagnan how he became a musketeer. D'Artagnan then gives Aramis a letter
from a girl he loves, and Aramis gives up on trying to become a Jesuit. Aramis

and his servant join the four, and the four become six. They find Athos and
servant, and become eight. They all return to Paris together.
Now our Three Musketeers plus one are trying to get money for equipment.
This will be used in the Siege of La Rochelle, a *Huguenot stronghold. D'Artagnan
and his friends duel with a man named Lord de Winter and his friends.
After the duel, de Winter introduces d'Artagnan to his sister-in-law, who
d'Artagnan is suspicious of. On an unrelated note, Porthos was able to get money
for equipment from his cousin. After visiting Lady Clarik a few times, d'Artagnan
falls in love with her. But, her servant tells him the truth, that she does not love
him. Using her servant, Kitty, he wrote false letters supposedly from the man she
actually loves, M. de Wardes. Lady Clarik then tells d'Artagnan she loves him,
angry at de Wardes. She asks d'Artagnan to kill him, and at first he agrees, but
then confesses what he did with the letters. Lady Clarik runs away, but
d'Artagnan grabs her dress and it comes off her shoulder. D'Artagnan is horrified
as she has been branded with a fleur-de-lis, the mark of a criminal. Then Lady
Clarik tries to kill him.
After d'Artagnan ran out of Lady Clarik's house in mismatched clothing
hastily thrown on d'Artagnan by her servant, Kitty, he goes straight to Athos'
house. When he shows up Athos' servant thinks d'Artagnan is a prostitute. Selling
the ring that Lady Clarik gave d'Artagnan, both Athos and d'Artagnan got the
equipment they needed.
We do find out Madam Bonacieux is still alive, passing by d'Artagnan in a
carriage where a mysterious letter said to meet her. D'Artagnan then goes to the
Cardinal's Palace, where he politely refuses a position in the Cardinal's Guards
from the Cardinal himself.
Athos, paying a visit to our infamous Lady Clarik, took her letter of
immunity from the Cardinal. Later, the Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan agree to
a bet. They stay in an abandoned fort for an hour, fighting off quite a few men.
The Musketeers and d'Artagnan waste no time in getting back to camp and
collecting.
For a while, we follow Lady Clarik during her imprisonment by her
brother-in-law, Lord de Winter. The Musketeers had warned him that the true
purpose of her visiting him was to kill him. She seduces her guard, convinces him
to kill the Duke of Buckingham, and escapes back to France.
Lady Clarik then goes to a convent where Madam Bonacieux happens to be.
They agree to escape together, but Lady Clarik poisons her. Wanting revenge for
all she had done, the Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan, and the newly arrived Lord
de Winter set out to find her.
Eventually they do find her, try her, and execute Lady Clarik. The Musketeers and
d'Artagnan then return to Paris. D'Artagnan is soon arrested and brought to the

Cardinal, where he is accused of many crimes. D'Artagnan then gives the

Cardinal the letter of immunity Athos took from Lady Clarik earlier in the book.
The Cardinal rips it up, and offers d'Artagnan a lieutenancy in the Musketeers,
which he accepts. We also find out that the Man of Meung is one of the Cardinal's
Guards, Rochefort. The Musketeers and d'Artagnan all split up and go their
separate ways, and the novel comes to a close./
L'extremite
(The End)

*An ethnic group that follows Protestantism, originally from France