The Three Musketeeers

[poliphilo]

The three musketeers, for all their charm, are really nothing more than members of a street gang. They hang about in public places, making a nuisance of themselves and angling to get into fights with the Cardinal's guards. 

It's just Crips and Bloods with rapiers instead of uzis. 

And it's all about nothing. King and Cardinal are actually on the same side. The Cardinal may be wily and unscrupulous, but the king is a mean, ridiculous, money-mad playboy who fails to repay the loyalty he's given. Underneath all the colourful carry-on,  Dumas' universe is as empty as Samuel Beckett's. 

I'd forgotten or never realised- because I read him first as a serious-minded teen with a passion for literachur- just how funny Dumas is.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Hi - surfing randomly and I saw this post - hope you don't mind me commenting. There's a series of fantasy novels by an American author called Steven Brust which are written to ape Dumas.

The first is called The Phoenix Guards - I found them to be a lot of fun.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hi, pleased to meet you.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.