The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

In this section we get the following:

Court gossip and plotting by Montalais & Malicorne
Hostility between de Guiche and de Wardes that leads to an illegal duel
Porthos and Louis XIV sharing their love of food
d'Artagnan as a detective!

Louise certainly has a lot of attention paid to her by many men now, wanting to insult or defend her honor. I don't feel like she deserves all those defenders! It seems the real Louise de la Valliere wrote some poems, which Dumas alludes to as not very good. What is your impression of Louise at this point?

De Wardes, if we didn't already know, reveals himself to be sneaky, vicious, and cowardly. Before the duel, he says all the gentlemanly things, but then he basically cheats and runs away.

D'Artagnan's reconstruction from the scene of the crime is fascinating. Detective stories were still barely existing this time. You could say that d'Artagnan is more of a tracker than a detective, but he deduces what happened from clues in the soil, grass, items left at the scene, etc.

The plot hasn't advanced much in that we don't find anything out about Aramis' schemes. And we don't actually see either Louise or Raoul. We hear that the king tried to see Louise but was thwarted, and he doesn't seem terribly concerned about it, having the dinner and then getting interested in the secret duel.

These scenes were somehow a repetition of earlier scenes.
De Guiche and Madame as at her arrival - De Guiche and De Wardes as the scenes with the Duke of Buckingham - the gossip about the possible liaisons and affections.
At least there was some comic relief in form of the dinner scenes with the king and d'Artagnan's criminal deductions. It was almost a little Sherlock Holmes like and I wonder whether Arthur Conan Doyle had this as an inspiration.
The duel itself felt like slow motion for me, and when De Guiche is already on the floor the whole scene gets described from De Wardes's view. The technique as such has its attractions, but in this case I only felt that it was repetitive. I do not know whether you felt maybe differently. I am not a fan of "senseless" killings, and this whole affair seemed totally without sense. I actually like the idea that Louis XIV forbade any duels.

I am also a little annoyed that it seems to take so long to get to the actual plot if the plot around Aramis is supposed to be the main plot. Even if I usually like many characters evolving in a book here it seems as if we are not getting anywhere considering the amount of pages. The events with Charles I and the reinstallation of Charles II had definitely more drive IMHO.

I agree, Hedi, these seem like filler, and it takes forever for a few days to go by. We are the 3rd volume of 4 and the plot that Aramis is behind will mainly be in the 4th volume.

This book does have a lot of filler, but I find the chapters involving D'Artagnan and Porthos to be more engaging. They have more humor, and the dialogue is better. I always dread the plot moving back to Louise, who I find dull.

Anne wrote: "This book does have a lot of filler, but I find the chapters involving D'Artagnan and Porthos to be more engaging. They have more humor, and the dialogue is better. I always dread the plot moving b..."

Yes, a lot of us agree!

I’m finally caught up. I like the letter Raoul wrote. It is so polite and old fashioned. I’m amazed that he refuses to believe anything bad about Louise. Is he really that naive or just blinded by his infatuation?
Why is everyone defending laValiere? She’s really not that innocent 😇 but people talk about her like she’s a saint.

The constant bickering between de Wardes and de Guiche does get old. I agree that all those scenes feel like deja vu.
In the three Musketeers when there was a fight I actually cared , in this book - I’m completely indifferent. I don’t care who wins or who dies.
All these new characters are like shadows of previous characters in other Dumas books, but without any charm or charisma.
De Wardes is supposed to be the designated ‘bad guy’ but he is no match for other villains in the previous novels. Milady was the absolute best 😈, Rochefort was semi-evil and Mordaunt was determined to kill our 4 friends.
De Wardes just doesn’t seem threatening enough. I could see him disliking D’ARTAGNAN if he believed he killed his father.
But this whole game with Raoul and De Guiche - it just makes no sense why he wants to pick a fight with them.

I agree, it does seem like a rehash, basically it's like the movie franchises with unlimited sequels, trying to recapture the old magic but without the same characters or story.

Ana (and everyone), I am putting in a 2-week catch-up (or vacation) time from Dec 19- Jan 2.

Thanks Robin.
Happy holidays :)