Talk about turning a corner! No sooner had I finished writing the last column and picked up my book again, but things get dramatically better. Where the heroes had been wishy-washy and divided, they become courageous and united. Where the villains had been distant and vague, they suddenly snap into nefarious focus. The last third of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers is not only great reading, but it makes what had bordered on tedious totally worthwhile.
For whatever reason, Dumas’ characters in this last section seem to leap off the page. I felt like I learned more about these people in the last 200 or so pages than I did in the nearly 400 which came before. It’s not just that secrets are revealed either, but we get to see the characters act and react in tense, exciting situations. Of particular note and interest are Athos and Milady, who are linked together by a common past.
SPOILER ALERT! If you are planning on reading The Three Musketeers, you may want to skip down a bit.
Athos has been something of a father figure throughout the novel. He talks less than the others, and is generally the go-to guy when a decision has to be made. This also has the effect of taking him out of much of the action. With the revelation that his young wife, long thought dead by his own hand, is alive and going by the name Milady, he withdraws even more. Like the other characters, however, when the siege of La Rochelle begins in chapters 40-41, Athos comes alive. He takes a more active role in leading the musketeers and becomes determined to help d’Artagnan bring down Milady, especially after she tries to kill the young soldier a couple of times. Ultimately is is Athos leadership, courage and ingenuity which brings about her destruction and d’Artagnan’s salvation. Athos becomes the character I hoped he would be: wise, brave, distinguished, and conflicted. It is the last adjective which truly endeared him to me in the end.
You see, Milady (who is manipulative as hell, but more on that presently) once tricked Athos into marrying her. He was a well-to-do nobleman who fell in love with the beautiful sister of a priest. Turns out she was a liar and a thief, and her priest brother was actually her first husband. Learning all of this, Athos fulfills his role as a nobleman and hangs the woman, his wife. Somehow she survives, even though he thinks her dead, but the weight of betrayal and murder drives Athos to change his name and join the musketeers. While there had been hints of all this early in the story, it isn’t until the last third that Dumas really gets the plot cooking.
Whereas Athos is good and just, albeit conflicted, Milady is nothing short of a Machiavellian nightmare. As an agent of Cardinal Richelieu, she is dispatched to England during the siege to find a way to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham. Fortunately, Athos, d’Artagnan and the boys catch wind of the plot and get messages off to the Duke and Milady’s brother-in-law, Lord de Winter. De Winter intercepts Milady and takes her prisoner. Does this slow the lady down? Not even close. Over the course of five days, Milady uses lies and seduction to drive de Winter’s best guard mad with religious and sexual fervor. The poor John Felton falls in love with her, helps her escape and then murders the Duke for her, while she takes off back to France.
The eight chapters which it takes for all this to happen is some of Dumas’ best writing in the whole book. The tension and conflict between Milady, Lord de Winter, and Felton is expertly played out, and serves to enhance to story, even if it takes the musketeers out of the action for a while. It is a necessary diversion, however, because in seeing the depths of Milady’s duplicity, the reader loses all sympathy for her. Dumas needs his readers to be unequivocal in their feelings about Milady so that, when Athos and d’Artagnan execute their revenge, there is no question that she gets everything she deserves.
There is more to the ending than just Milady’s encounter with justice, but I’ll not give the rest away, as it really is a great ending. That’s the impression I am most left with, a fine conclusion. Dumas ties up the loose ends, including d’Artagnan’s mistress Madame Bonacieux, and all the characters acquit themselves appropriately. There is even room and tension enough between d’Artagnan and the Cardinal to pave the way to the sequel (No, it’s true. Like most people, I didn’t realize that Dumas wrote two more books about d’Artagnan: Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne). But I am left wondering if a good ending can make a mediocre book great.
It’s not as through the rest of the novel was worthless – it certianly held my attention – but it wasn’t great. With the start of Chapter 40, it felt as if I started reading a whole new book. The tone and pace changed; the characters solidified into dynamic entities and it was a race against myself to make it to the end. But is that fair? Can an author put a reader through a so-so beginning and middle just to get to a fantastic conclusion? In the case of this author and this reader, I suppose the answer is yes on both counts. And after all, if the end is what you remember most of any work, I can certainly see why so many people stoutly defend The Three Musketeers.
