经典阅读Ⅱ

Three Musketeers

By Flora in 2012

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), the author of Three Musketeers, was a famous French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure. Many of his novels are originally serialized, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte de Bragelonne. His son, Alexandre Dumassfils, the writer of The Lady of the Camellias, was a famous writer, too.

Three Musketeers recounts the adventures of a young man named D'Artagnan after he leaves home to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard, a group of swashbuckling adventurers who serve King Louis XIII. However, D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title. Those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and the four are inseparable friends who live by the motto "all for one, one for all”.

On the way to Paris the poor D'Artagnan suffers misadventure and is challenged to a duel by each of three musketeers (Athos, Aramis and Porthos), but he achieves a lot in the group of musketeers. One day, D’Artagnan and his new love interest, Constance, help the French queen give a particular piece of jewelry to her paramour, the Duke of Buckingham. The Cardinal learns of this and coaxes the French king to hold a ball in which the queen must wear the jewelry and its absence will reveal her infidelity. The four young men work together to foil the King's evil rival, Cardinal Richelieu, so they try to get the jewelry back from England. The Cardinal kidnaps Constance who is later rescued by the queen, while D’Artagnan meets Milady de Winter and discovers she is a felon, the ex-wife of Athos and the widow of Count de Winter. The Cardinal recruits Milady to kill Buckingham, also granting her a hand-written pardon for future killing of D’Artagnan. Athos learns of this, takes the pardon but is unable to warn Buckingham. He sends word to Lord de Winter that Milady is arriving so that Lord de Winter can arrest her. However, with the help of her guard, Milady escapes to the monastery in France where the queen secreted Constance. Sorrowfully, Milady kills Constance. The four companions arrive and Athos identifies Milady as a multiple murderess. She is tried and beheaded. On the road, D'Artagnan is arrested. Taken before the Cardinal, D'Artagnan relates recent events and reveals the Cardinal's pardon. Impressed, the Cardinal offers him a blank musketeer officer's commission. D'Artagnan's friends refuse the commission, retiring to a new life, and telling him to take it himself. He takes it and finally becomes a well known lieutenant.

I read this book because I watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire, a good Indian movie. In this movie, there were a girl and two boys, and they named themselves the three musketeers. Firstly, I didn’t know what was the three musketeers’ mean. And then I was so shocked by the plot of the movie that the poor boy’s last question to be the millionaire was what the three musketeer’s names are. On watching this, I thought there must be more stories about the three musketeers. Gradually, I found it a masterpiece written by Alexandre Dumas, so I had the desire to read it. In my mind, D’Artagnan is a brave man, riding a horse to Paris by himself. He is also courageous to fight with others who he doesn’t agree with, so he has a series of adventures .Besides, he cares a lot about the friendship, though he had fights with the other three musketeers. What’s more, he has the sense of responsibility and justice, for his hope to save the queen and help her to get the jewelry. There is a penetrating sentence “all for one, one for all”, which has left a big impression on me. I think this sentence must have far-reaching impact on the readers just as on me. When people in difficulties, they fight together just as the three musketeers do, realizing “all for one, one for all”. It is the friendship among people that can change the difficult situation to be a better one. And we should have the courage to pursue the beauty of life and hold the notion that we can change something in the span of our life.

《三剑客》英文读后感