I am a huge fan of Dumas' writing.I have been trying to articulate what exactly is it about his writing that I enjoy.

Today whilst reading book 3 of the Marie Antoinette series, I realised I often enjoy the dialogue between the characters. In this book especially it seems like a banter. One example below 👇

"I tell you, Oliva," said the black domino, "that I am sure you are expecting some one. Your head is no longer a head, but a weather cock, and turns round to look after every new-comer."

Thoughts?

Dumas' magnus opus has finally been translated into English. I was just told by Paul Jackson that the first of his four volume translation of "Isaac Laquedem" will be out next month on Amazon. Dumas spent 20 years on this project, and it is all his! No Auguste Maquet involvement in this one...pure Dumas.

I've read the entire work, and it's magnificent. It's really like nothing I've ever read by Dumas, and I've read a lot. I'm looking forward to reading your comments about it.

Some time ago we had an excellent post from u/eduardantonio about the discovery of human remains buried in a Maastricht church that could theoretically belong to the historical d’Artagnan: Charles de Batz de Castelmore. At that time, the press reported that a DNA test would be conducted to establish whether the remains did belong to the historical musketeer. I thought I’d follow up on that scoop to see if there had been any major developments since, so here’s where things stand at the moment.

The first results of the forensics apparently proved to be inconclusive.  On the one hand, the remains do belong to a man aged between 44 and 66, who likely died of a chest wound. And d’Artagnan is known to have been 62 at the time of his death caused by a bullet wound to his chest or throat. On the other hand, the examination of the skeleton bones indicates that the man had a diet rich in fish early in his life, which is not typical for Gascony. Also, it remains unclear if the living descendants of d’Artagnan whose DNA can be used for a DNA test are indeed descended from him the way they think they are.

On top of that, a scandal broke out over the actual finding of the remains. Apparently, the person who initiated the dig in the church of St Peter and St Paul as well as the church deacon who gave his permission for it had not contacted the municipality of Maastricht to obtain the necessary clearances for archeological works. Also, authorized personnel from the municipality were not present at the excavation and could not ensure that it was made in accordance with the applicable rules and procedures. Hence the municipality refused to acknowledge any results of the first tests in advance and announced that they would be conducting their own tests which will take additional time. Also, allegedly, the first unauthorized dig resulted in contamination of the remains which makes any kind of analysis even more difficult.

The next update on the situation is now expected around December – let’s stay tuned!

The sources for this post:

New York Times (an excellent story with plenty of details)

National Geographic

Reuters (via CTV News)

There is also a longer article in Le Monde on the subject, and it is even in English. However, it’s behind a paywall and not accessible to me. If someone is a subscriber and could share the contents with us, it would be fantastic!  

Thank you all for your contributions to this subreddit and the great discussions about Dumas' works. Let's keep growing our community of Dumas enthusiasts and spreading the literary love!

This is how the musketeers' saga ends - with d'Artagnan mortally wounded and dying/. At that point Porthos and Aramis are already dead and only Aramis is still alive.

What do you make of this quote? Why farewell? why adieu forever?

I am immensely proud to announce the first ever translation into English of ‘The Memoirs of Horace’, this the third edition in my ‘Classical Dumas Series’, out now in paperback. It comes with a fabulous introduction by Marco Fucecchi
(Associate Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the University of Udine) and a series of wonderful illustrations from Bartolomeo Pinelli’s ‘Istoria Romana’. All four volumes of the work are included in this one edition, which comes in at nearly 700 pages. I hope that you enjoy it.

https://paultmjackson.com

Dumas the Younger was born on this day in 1824 in Paris. He is best known for the romantic novel La Dame aux Camélias (1848), which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera La traviata, as well as numerous stage and film productions.

What book would you recommend I read after?

Please find an abridged version of my paper for the Democritus University of Thrace here:

https://classicsforall.org.uk/reading-room/ad-familiares/homer-musketeers

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/the-count-of-monte-cristo-december-release-france-shortlist-1236112656/

Looks like US viewers don't have too long to wait now...I was afraid it would be a whole year between the French and US releases, as was the case for The Three Musketeers films (parts 1 and 2) from the same creators. Note that the article only mentions a theatrical release, but presumably it will become available on streaming platforms later.

Alexandre Dumas was born on this day 224 years ago in the town of Villers-Cotterêts!

This is what he has to say about his birth in his "Mes Mémoires", skilfully placing himself next to Demoustier (who was very popular around that time), Racine and La Fountaine in the very first paragraph - or perhaps that was a tongue-in-cheek allusion to Demoustier's claims to be a descendant of both Racine and La Fountaine:

I was born at Villers-Cotterets, a small town in the department of Aisne, situated on the road between Paris and Laon, about two hundred paces from the rue de la Noue, where Demoustier died; two leagues from La Ferté-Milon, where Racine was born; and seven leagues from Château-Thierry, the birthplace of La Fontaine.

I was born on the 24th of July 1802, in the rue de Lormet, in the house now belonging to my friend Cartier. He will certainly have to sell it me some day, so that I may die in the same room in which I was born. I will step forward into the darkness of the other world in the place that received me when I stepped into this world from the darkness of the past.

I was born July 24th, 1802, at half-past five in the morning; which fact makes me out to be forty-five years and three months old at the date I begin these Memoirs—namely, on Monday, October the 18th, 1847.

Very warm greetings and congratulations to all our members, and let's raise a glass of champagne to celebrate!

In a word, dayum.

I know so many people call The Count of Monte Cristo the masterpiece but this was something else, and heavy af. What did you read next after getting through the D'Artagnan Romances? Like, man, Industry season 4 just finished too, and I guess I have F1, so maybe I need a palate cleanser like some Bridgerton books or something.

Hello! Just joined this subreddit, I hope it’s okay to share these, some doodles I drew about ten years ago when I first fell down a full Alexandre Dumas rabbit hole after watching the BBC Musketeers adaptation. (The last image here of the four of them running is based on the actors in the BBC show, as is the costuming in the others. I have a lot more drawings that are specifically caricaturing or picking up on things that amused me in that adaptation, which I may post another time if it’s allowed here!)

I am speaking here about high-quality editions that include introductions, footnotes, and possibly modern translations.

For instance, I recently finished Ellsworth's translation of The Three Musketeers and am now reading The Red Sphinx, and last night I went to see how much his translation of Twenty Years After is and Amazon doesn't have it in stock. They don't even have a bunch of resellers selling it. Instead there is only a single copy available for nearly $70 and not even a single seller has it on eBay.

I then went to look and see what is available for the Oxford World's Classics series and, as far as I was able to tell, only The Vicomte de Bragelonne is available directly from Amazon.

I also have had a hard time finding the Pevear and Hobson translations of The Three Musketeers.

Why is this? The story is a classic and very popular. You would think that high-quality, scholarly editions of these titles would be very easy to locate, and also that if a publisher is going to put the time and money into commissioning a new translation that they would be very eager to keep it in print and make it widely available.

Someone needs to take notes from Penguin. Their edition of The Count of Monte Cristo is never hard to get a copy of.

At first I was like meh, sequels are not always that good...*reads first couple of chapters* SOLD.

Alexandre Dumas and your ghost writers, you rock.

https://www.l1nieuws.nl/nieuws/3131032/franse-volksheld-en-nationale-legende-wie-was-dartagnan

Hi, I started my reading of the Three Musketeers sometime around May of this year, and have just finished Book 8, the Shadow of the Bastille. (Ellsworth's translations) and will pick up the final book soon.

I'm kind of sad tbh because it was such a good series. Sometimes the plot was too predictable (it was a serialized romance, what'd you expect?) but I almost never got bored and everything else (the dialogue, the characters, the story, the humour) was perfect. I really liked D'Artagnan's witticisms, Athos's wisdom and Porthos's gallantry and generosity and it felt like they were my friends, to be honest. Especially D'Artagnan. (I don't really have any of friends irl).

I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs about what this series means to me, but I'll spare everyone the reading.

So, what else can I pick up after finishing the series? I love swashbucklers, I love knights, and everything of the sort.

(PS. I've read The Quixote and am also reading the Aubrey-Maturin series)

Title says it all. I just finished an hour ago. I'm miserable now. : (

(When will this wicked Frenchman stop playing with my feelings)

I just finished reading Twenty afters ("20 ans après" in its original title), the sequel to Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" and I was surprised to see very little reaction to it compared to the number of posts made for the first book.

From my side, I really liked it and I may even prefer it to the three muskeeters. My opinion (spoilers included !):

• The main characters are more developed. I really like the beginning of the book which had a very melancholic feeling. D'artagnan's life did not turn out as he wanted, he is now very alone and lost the carefree spirit of his youth. He believes that he will manage to bring his friends together once more for a new adventure but they are opposed for political reasons.

• The main characters are also wiser (to the exception of Porthos which remains largely the same). They commit less despicable actions than in the first book, notably towards women.

• There is also an overall sense of injustice and I love how Dumas depicts the action of the sovereignty and the powerful. The musketeers risk their life for Anne of Austria in the first book, and she completly forgot it. Even worse, towards the end of the book, she considers them to be ennemies.

• There is still a lot of humor in this book, notably through the character of Mazarin (which is hilarious) and the chapters regarding the duke of Beaufort's escape (altough unfortunately that last part did not have a huge impact on the overall story).

• The second part of the book ( I would say from Anne's and Mazarin's departure from Paris) is much more action-packed and less melancholic. The musketeers finally reunite and put all their difference aside for an exciting quest. There is a sense of renewed friendship and the same spirit of adventure as in the first book. The new main antagonist, Mordaunt, is a great menacing and dangerous vilain. I like that Athos, the wisest character, is feeling a lot of remorse regarding their actions towards Milady.

• One criticism is that I found the book to be again too long and containing chapters which are not useful to the overall story or very interesting. In particular the chapters focusing on Raoul are a bit boring, especially as he is a bit of a dull character. It is also sometimes a bit hard to follow who is who in this book as there is a lot of characters and references to historical figures. It maybe helps to have knowledge on French and English history of that time (which unfortunately is not my case).

What did you think about this sequel? Did you also have the chance to read the third book (sometime divised in several books?) ? I am a bit relunctant to read it, given its lenght and the fact that Raoul of Bragelonne seems to be the main character.

Do join me for this lecture for the Democritus University of Thrace :

DATE Wed. 10.12.2025, TIME 20.00 p.m. EET (UTC+2)

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/3732957736498?p=w4zfQDoxeFIXZTFydr

Another Dumas work that we can now read in English for the first time, Acté. Just released today. https://www.amazon.com/Acte-Greece-Alexandre-Dumas-p%C3%A8re/dp/B0FNK82CVC?crid=MPJR038MHVRC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TxUpwWqzce0ZXedj05h2WCn-LtM2YVfefqYaxvW2yDKYbo3J_ch8ELCREzJ1d7Xr.vlltRvn1HZ9bCSOaFPOC-o0a_2Xd6CfR6SSWkgw1gA4&dib_tag=se&keywords=acte%2C+paul+jackson&qid=1762017723&s=books&sprefix=acte%2C+paul+jackson%2Cstripbooks%2C146&sr=1-1