This is an exceptional novel. You first start out with the youthful and easily excited,
D'Artagnan, and soon meet the three
musketeers,
Athos,
Porthos, and
Aramis, who become his good friends. You are also introduced to their
servants;
Planchet (D'Artagnan),
Grimaud (Athos),
Mousqueton (Porthos), and
Bazin (Aramis), who come close to being main characters themselves. With many secondary charaters;
Treville,
Rochefort,
De Wardes,
Cardinal Richelieu, the
Duke of Buckingham, and the
Countess de Winter;
Alexandre Dumas weaves his
history and fiction into an extrordinary, but beleivable tale.
The adventures of D'Artangnan and the musketeers is continued in the books Twenty Years After, and Ten Years Later (or The Vicomte de Bragelonne). The last book is so large it is often broken into three volumes; The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de Vallerie, and The Man in the Iron Mask; and somtimes as many as five. Together this set is often refered to as the D'Artagnan Romances and, along with The Count of Monte Cristo, are considered Dumas's greatest works.