I read The Count of Monte Cristo about 10 years ago, and I remember really liking it. I also remember it taking me nearly 3 weeks to read, but I’ve always thought it was because it was 1500 pages long. However, The Three Musketeers, which is roughly 1/3 of the the length took me about as long to get through, so maybe it’s the way Dumas writes and not the length of the book?

Because Dumas is a long-winded writer. In one of the Breaking Dawn reviews, someone pointed out that Stephenie Meyer writes lousy sentences but tells good stories. The same could be said for Dumas. The story — convoluted and complex and labyrinthine as it is — is a lot of fun. The actual page-to-page reading…. not so much.

We begin with d’Artagnan (that’s ar-tanyan; I had problems until someone pronounced it for me), a young hot-headed Gascon (I’m sure there’s some significance here, but not knowing 17th century French history, it was lost on me) headed to Paris to become a musketeer. He’s denied his request, but because he’s courageous, willing to get into duels, and a good swordsman he 1) makes friends with three musketeers — Athos, Aramis, and Porthos — and gets a place in the king’s guards. From there things get complicated. D’Artagnan falls in love with his landlord’s wife, gets involved with the queen’s affair (of sorts) with the Duke of Buckingham, chases a mysterious stranger who offended him, gets involved with the pretty evil Lady de Winter, is involved in a “war” (of sorts) with England, doesn’t quite save the day, and ends up getting promoted. In all this, his three friends come along, mostly, for the ride, though Athos plays a more significant role than either of the other two. Trust me, it makes slightly more sense reading it than typing the plot out.

Was it worth it? I’m not sure. On one hand, it’s a classic adventure story that has inspired movies and other novels for a couple hundred years. There must be something there. On the other hand, it’s incredibly dull for long periods of time interspersed with quick — and interesting and fun — bursts of action and plot. I suppose what Dumas really needed was a good, solid editor, someone to say: “Hey, Alexandre, do you really need four sentances to say what could be said in one? Or, do you really need to include Latin poems? Really? And the point of the whole Porthos-Madame Coquenard chapters are?”

Either that, or I just need to find a good, solid abridged version. At who knows: ten years down the line, I may be telling people that I absolutely LOVED The Three Musketeers, even though it took me three weeks to read.

I got this one as an audio book to read on our trip to Spokane. We didn’t get it on the drive here (we listened to Prisoner of Azkaban instead — Jim Dale is really an excellent narrator. We thoroughly enjoyed it, even though we’ve all read the book… some of us numerous times.) so Hubby and I took it on a little 15th anniversary jaunt we took to Portland over the last couple of days.

I’m not sure if it was the full version, a radio production of it — it was the full story, but only 3 CDs — but I wasn’t that impressed. Sure, there were funny moments (there’s always funny moments) but I think I’ve been forever warped when it comes to Jeeves and Bertie by Fry and Laurie. I enjoy watching the episodes so much more than I enjoy reading or listening to them. I kept comparing the voices to the ones on the series and it just wasn’t doing it for me. (I have to admit that I even fell asleep during part of it; that’s how engaging I found it… either that, or I was just really tired.) I think I’ll stick to the Blanding Castle stories Wodehouse wrote; I find them infinitely funnier.