Three Musketeers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Read Free Page A

Alexandre Dumas & Cie (Paris: Tous les marchands de nouveautés, 1845). Bernard Fillaire, in Alexandre Dumas et associés (Paris: Bartillat, 2002) follows in his footsteps. Gustave Simon, in Histoire d‘une collaboration: Alexandre Dumas et Auguste Maguet (Paris: G. Crès, 1919) gives an overly generous view of Maquet’s contributions. On Dumas’s father, see John G. Gallaher, General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997) and Claude Ribbe, Alexandre Dumas, le dragon de la reine (Monaco: Editions du Rocher, 2002).
    26. Milady is described as “that invincible power of evil” on page 556 of the novel. Like many other nineteenth-century French writers, Dumas often condemns women in positions of power. On this and related subjects, see Lise Quefflélec, ”Inscription romanesque de la femme au XIXe siècle: Le Cas du roman-feuilleton sous la monarchie de Juillet“ (Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la France 86:2 [1986], pp. 189-206) and Odile Krakovitch, Peurs et obsessions du XIXe siècle (forthcoming).
    27. In fact, the image of the woman who loses consciousness in such cases is so well established that, in Madame Bovary (1857), where Flaubert routinely ironizes Romantic clichés, Emma Bovary feels faint after reading the letter Rodolphe Boulanger has sent her to announce the end of their adulterous relationship.
    28. Indeed, the plan Milady adopts in chapter 36—she makes love to D’Artagnan in the hope that he will agree to punish “De Wardes” for insulting her—seems to link Milady to another famously strong-willed literary villainess: Choderlos de Laclos’s Madame de Merteuil (Dangerous Liaisons, 1782). In that book, Merteuil uses the naive and inexperienced Chevalier Danceny as an instrument of vengeance against a former lover.
    29. The panther image returns in chapter 50 when, chastising his prisoner, Lord de Winter
    pointed, with a slow and accusing gesture, to the left shoulder of Milady, which he almost touched with his finger.
    Milady uttered a deep, inward shriek, and retreated to a corner of the room like a panther which crouches for a spring.
    “Oh, growl as much as you please,” cried Lord de Winter, “but don’t try to bite, for I warn you that it would be to your disadvantage....”
    The eyes of Milady darted such flashes that although he was a man and armed before an unarmed woman, he felt the chill of fear glide through his whole frame (pp. 541-542).
    The comparison of Milady to a serpent, also present in chapter 36, appears again in chapter 52.
    30. For a summary of the numerous reasons Milady will have to hate our hero, see pages 556-557. For similar scenes where Milady’s prostration is followed by resolve, see page 536 and page 558.
    31. The name is a homonym of mordant, the present participle of the verb mordre, “to bite.” When used as an adjective, the participle can also mean caustic, corrosive, bitingly critical, or sarcastic. The name describes the man’s character as well as his actions.
    32. Balzac’s Rastignac (in Old Goriot) must affirm his character in face of the temptations offered by the master criminal, Vautrin, who, like Milady, has been branded by the authorities for his crimes.
    33. As the executioner prepares to put Milady to death, D‘Artagnan is moved to pity and declares, “Pardon me, madame, for having by a trick unworthy of a gentleman provoked your anger; and I, in exchange, pardon you the murder of my poor love and your cruel vengeance against me. I pardon you, and I weep for you. Die in peace!” (p. 687). Again, the comparison with Balzac’s Père Goriot comes to mind. That novel, too, shows the hero shedding his final, youthful tears at the book’s conclusion before moving on to a more calculating, adult existence.
    34. Contrast this to Louis XIII of whom the narrator says, “Louis XIII, like every weak mind, was wanting in generosity” (p. 689).
    35. See, among others, Alexandre