Adventure novel by A. Dumas "The Three Musketeers" is a very interesting story about the life and heroic deeds of loyal friends - the musketeers, who risked their lives to defend their honor. The novel leaves no one indifferent, as it is filled with bright events and heroes.
The plot of the novel by A. Dumas "The Three Musketeers"
The protagonist of the work is a young nobleman Charles D'Artagnan, guided by the desire to become a musketeer, goes to Paris. On the way, he gets into a fight with the Comte of Rochefort, the best friend of Cardinal Richelieu, who stole his letter of introduction.
D'Artagnan is sent to serve in the Guards regiment of Desessar, since without a letter of recommendation they could not take him into the guard of the royal musketeers. On the first day of his service, D'Artagnan quarreled with three friends of the Musketeers - Aramis, Porthos and Athos, and challenged them to a duel.
The duel between the friends did not take place, since on that day a royal decree was issued prohibiting such battles between the musketeers. D'Artanyan and the three Musketeers soon became friends and forgot their previous quarrels.
At this time, in the royal palace, one of the friends of Cardinal Richelieu arranged an intrigue against the queen herself. The Musketeers learned of this and went to Paris to defend the Queen's honor.
The Musketeers managed to go through all the obstacles that the cardinal and Milady placed on their way to Paris, and expose the intrigue against the queen.
However, the brave struggle of the musketeers did not end there. Loyal friends many times lagged behind the honor of French women, which the British encroached on, and even managed to defend their kingdom from invaders without outside help. However, the evil Milady and the cardinal also continued to intrigue the Musketeers.
Milady found D'Artanyan's beloved in the monastery - the beautiful girl Constance and poisoned her. D'Artagnan decided to punish Milady: having denounced her for all the atrocities against the French crown, he handed over the villainess to the authorities.
Cardinal Richelieu, frightened that Milady's fate might befall him, decided to go to reconciliation with the Musketeers. He apologized for his actions and presented them with high ranks in the army of the musketeers.
The laws of honor by which the heroes of Dumas live
Honor is a set of moral qualities that at all times aroused respect. What does it mean to live by the laws of honor? First of all, it means being noble, courageous, fair, reliable, honest and being able to defend the interests of weaker people.
This is how we see the heroes of the novel by A. Dumas "The Three Musketeers". Friends-musketeers help each other, together they go to the goal set for themselves. Risking their lives, they, at the first call, go to defend the life and honor of other people.
Musketeers help each other to fight obstacles. Reading the novel by A. Dumas, we admire the dedication and dedication of the protagonists.
The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas the father. Written in 1844, first published in the spring of the same year in the Parisian newspaper Sieckle; the book was soon released, with a circulation of 60,000 over the next five years. The success of The Three Musketeers prompted Dumas to continue the theme; in 1845 the novel “Twenty Years Later” was published; in 1850 the publication of the last book about the Musketeers was completed (“Ten Years Later, or Viscount de Bragelon”). Despite the generality of the main characters, allowing to combine all the novels into a single trilogy, the time gap between its parts and the lack of a direct plot connection allow considering The Three Musketeers as an independent work.
The success of W. Scott's translated novels contributed to the flourishing historical genre and in French literature of the 1820-1840s. Writers and playwrights increasingly sought to find in the past answers to the pressing questions of our time (“Cathedral Notre dame de paris"V. Hugo (1831)," Consuelo "by Georges Sand (1843), dramas by F. Pia and others). Father Dumas, who had previously devoted a number of plays to the events of past eras (Henry III and His Courtyard, The Nelskaya Tower, etc.), first of all sought to give his works a thrilling, fascinating form and did not draw parallels between the past and the present. In contrast to Hugo, who filled the play about the era of Cardinal Richelieu "Marion Delorme" with topical allusions that led to the banning of the production (1827), Dumas turned to the same historical period only to give the adventure plot a romantic flavor.
To work on the novel, the author used the Memoirs of Monsieur d "Artagnan, Lieutenant-Commander of the First Company of the Royal Musketeers ..." (1700), written by Courtille de Santra, and the book by Raederer "Political and Love Intrigues of the French Court" (the writer also refers to mythical "Memories of the Count of the Affair", allegedly found by him in one of the archives.) But Dumas did not at all consider the observance of historical truth as an end in itself, and sometimes quite freely handled the facts, altering them for the sake of plot amusement. "For me, history is a nail, on which I hang my picture, ”he said.
Undoubtedly, The Three Musketeers is the most famous and widely read novel by A. Dumas the father. The plot of this book is characterized by greater integrity and compositional unity than other novels by this master of the "feuilleton novel"; here the writer managed to avoid the characteristic adventure literature XIX in. melodramaticism and schematization even when describing negative characters (Richelieu, Milady), and the exciting adventures of the heroes are presented vividly and cheerfully. The Three Musketeers are also free from the gloomy fatalism of the writer's later novels (The Devil's Gorge, etc.).
But the main thing, thanks to which the "Three Musketeers" by Dumas managed to squeeze on the shelves even the books of this author, so beloved by readers, like "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Queen Margot" are the images of the main characters, the musketeers of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d "Artagnan , whose names have become household names not only in the author's homeland. Selflessly loyal to France and the king, they are always ready to demonstrate courage, dexterity and courage; above all, the brave four values \u200b\u200bloyalty, honesty, the ability to come to the rescue of a comrade. Musketeers are unusual for the exalted "incorporeal" of romantic heroes literature: sometimes they are too hot-tempered (at the beginning of the novel, trifling incidents become the reason for d'Artagnan's duel with his future friends); these brave warriors are not averse to having fun in good company; It is difficult for Porthos to resist excess food, Aramis does not shy away from relations with married ladies, and d'Artagnan once succumbed to the spell of the cardinal's seductive spy, and we will never know what secrets the silent Athos - Count de la Fer - keeps. But when it comes to defense country (the battle at La Rochelle), the honor of the queen (the story of the diamond pendants of Anne of Austria) or helping a friend who got into another alteration, all other problems go aside, and, disdaining the danger, the musketeers rush to the rescue. The heroes are brave, but not cruel, courageous, but not vindictive, and even in Milady they, showing chivalrous nobility, until the last minute see beautiful woman, not a mortal enemy. The combination of characteristic everyday features and individual characteristics with high, enduring value ideals that find concrete embodiment in the behavior of the musketeers makes the legendary four so attractive to the reader (especially the young) that he inevitably seeks to imitate Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d "Artanyan.
The writer was able - without lengthy reasoning and annoying didactics - to give in The Three Musketeers magnificent examples of courage, real patriotism and disinterested male friendship. It is the moral and educational significance of the images of the Musketeers that distinguishes Dumas' novel from the endless stream of adventure literature. Until the end of his life, the author himself retained attachment to his beloved heroes: he wrote plays about the Musketeers, published the historical magazines Musketeer and Dartanyan (Dartagnan "). Enthusiastically received by his contemporaries (the prime minister did not begin cabinet meetings without looking at the latest issue of the newspaper that published The Three Musketeers), the novel subsequently delighted such diverse figures as K. Marx, Dickens, Jack London, M. Gorky, S.M. Eisenstein and A.I. Kuprin (the latter ranked D'Artanyan among the "eternal companions of mankind").
On July 12, 1931, in Gascony (department of Gers), in the city of Osh, a monument to d "Artagnan, the most charming, resourceful and witty musketeer, the fruit of Dumas's literary imagination, was solemnly opened.
The novel "The Three Musketeers" is one of the world record holders for the number of screen adaptations (more than 30 films by the early 1990s); at least three of them at one time were on the screens of Russian cinemas: the closest to literary source the eponymous French painting with Mylene Demongeot as Milady (1962). But the Russian television film (1979) with M. Boyarsky, who played the role of d "Artanyan and sang a popular song about the Musketeers (composer M. Dunaevsky), enjoyed special love in our country.
Belinsky called the 19th century "predominantly historical," meaning the widespread interest in history typical of this century and the reflection of historical events in its literature. This definition is quite applicable to the Fraction, where in the first decades of the XIX century began to flourish historical drama and a historical novel.
French writers carefully studied the past of their country, resurrecting paintings of ancient times for a variety of purposes.
In the novel Saint-Mar, Vigny lamented the "nobility" and "beauty" of the feudal-aristocratic forms of life, looking with bitter despondency at the spectacle of modernity, which, in his opinion, was the graveyard of all his hopes.
Hugo in his works combined the burning issues of our time with colorful scenes from past times. His historical novels are imbued with a sense of deep protest against modern bourgeois social relations. He exposed the egoism of the bourgeoisie and at the same time called upon it to be compassionate and human in relation to the disadvantaged people.
Mérimée presented a historical novel (The Chronicle of the Times of Charles IX), the task of which was to convince the French reading public that there have never been “good” eras in history; and in the old days baseness triumphed over noble dreams, and in contemporary writer in reality, as he depicts it, the rule of bourgeois mediocrity was established, which almost completely destroyed the hopes of any changes in the social order.
Dumas was very different from his contemporaries, who created outstanding examples of the French historical novel.
He did not strive to be a thinker and never made an attempt to solve certain historical problems - whether in relation to the past, whether in relation to the present.
There is no doubt that many French novelists passed the school of Walter Scott, who enjoyed wide recognition in European countries in the 19th century. Dumas perfectly understood the method of creativity of the English novelist, and his first novel, Isabella of Bavaria, was written under the explicit influence of the author of the Puritans. In the subsequent time, when experience and skill were gained, Dumas was critical of the artistic principles of Walter Scott. “Indeed,” he says, “should you start a novel with something interesting or start with a boring one, start with an action or start with preparations, talk about characters after showing them, or show them after talking about them? ? " Dumas emphatically affirms the first method, prefers swift action that immediately captivates the reader with unusual adventures, skillfully woven intrigue, and an unexpected plot twist.
The popularity of Dumas's novels, with their picturesque portrayal of the past, a colorful picture of adventure and struggle, is explained by the fact that they gave the reader a rest from the boredom and vulgarity of bourgeois life. They transferred him to the world of bright and effective characters, to the world of disinterested passions, courage and generosity. However, the ideological limitations of Dumas led to the fact that his novels did not arouse active protest. They called for complete reconciliation with reality.
Dumas revives in a peculiar form the tradition of the bourgeois adventure novel of the 17th – 18th centuries.
But in the 17th-18th centuries, bourgeois society was just taking shape and was moving towards its domination. It was a different matter in the 19th century. In the years of the July Monarchy, the life of the ruling classes in France was imprinted with bourgeois boredom and sober practicality. Not seeing active, bold, resourceful, attractive heroes in modern life, Dumas seeks and finds them in the historical past.
The writer clearly strove to please a wide range of French readers with his novels. On the pages of his works, history loses its epic grandeur, it becomes simple and homely; distant historical events are given against the background of the intimate life of the heroes. The writer seeks to show that kings, queens, generals and ministers were also people over whom passions and whims had great power. Such an image should have inspired the mass reader with good-natured optimism in his attitude towards life and towards the "greats of this world."
Attaching exceptional importance to the amusement of the plot and the dramatic tension of the narrative, Dumas used for this purpose the effective method of constructing a love intrigue, widespread among contemporary novelists. The intrigue was complicated by the fact that the hero and heroine belonged to different nations and parties that are in a hostile relationship to each other.
Thus, a barrier was erected on the way to the triumph of the feelings of the heroes, skillfully overcome by the novelist.
The most popular novel in his series of historical narratives is undoubtedly The Three Musketeers. This novel is characterized by a rapidly and rapidly developing intrigue, an optimistic display of life as a continuous activity, an intense dramatic composition, and an easy and simple language.
The composition of The Three Musketeers was predetermined by the genre of a feuilleton novel, which demanded from the writer not only the completion of the chapters, but also their organic connection in the integral development of the plot. Dumas wrote each chapter of the novel so that its finale would serve as the beginning of the episode set forth in the next chapter. Intended for the general reader, this novel contained many fascinating events, adventures, descriptions of conspiracies, fights, complex intrigues that gave dramatic tension to the narrative.
Energetic, clear, devoid of archaisms, the language corresponds to the rapid flow of events, episodes and incidents unfolding in the novel.
Brave and enterprising musketeers, miraculously intervening in the most important historical events, are persons of the nobility, they trade in their sword, serving the king: for their blood they are paid louis and provided decent content... But at the same time, Dumas tries to preserve the features of some kind of chivalry in the appearance and behavior of his heroes, forcing them to go into fire and water for the honor of the French queen, which not every one of them even saw. And yet in the novel, they appear as ordinary people who play the role of servants.
In order not to diminish the greatness of the heroes and to justify their actions in the eyes of the reader, the novelist refers to the mores of that era that formed the morality of his heroes. “In those days,” notes Dumas, “the concepts of pride that are widespread today were not yet in vogue. The nobleman received money from the hands of the king and did not feel in the least humiliated. D "Artagnan therefore without hesitation dropped the forty pistols he had received into his pocket and even scattered in expressions of gratitude to His Majesty."
Evaluating the past through the eyes of a bourgeois chronicler, Dumas, in his attempt to bring historical events closer to the level of understanding of the contemporary mass reader, had to show the dependence of the fate of the “great” people of the past on the energy and ingenuity of ordinary, ordinary people. In the most critical moments, the three Musketeers must appear, and with them d "Artagnan, who save the honor of the Queen and France with their courage.
Dumas makes the arrogant aristocrat, the Duke of Buckingham, be moved at the news of the amazing exploits of d "Artagnan:" Listening to d "Artagnan, who told all this with the greatest simplicity, the duke glanced from time to time at young manas if not believing that such prudence, such courage and devotion can be combined with the appearance of a young man who is barely twenty years old. "
All "gentlemen", that is, the most distinguished persons of France and England, act in the novel like mannequins. They are hung with jewels, bow politely, perform majestically, at any moment they are ready to die for the love of a beautiful lady, but, in essence, they do nothing, they cannot change anything either in their own or in anyone's fate.
Intentionally or not, Dumas shows in his novel that national energy was by no means embodied either in Louis XIII, or in Anne of Austria, or in the nobles of the royal court.
And it so happened that all the interest of the heroic story focused on the actions of the brave musketeers, who, although they obediently serve the court, at the same time oppose court morality in their views. The cold arrogance of the nobles in The Three Musketeers is contrasted with the generosity and valiant courage of the heroes, in whose minds only occasionally a guess that they, in fact, have to experience a hangover in someone else's feast.
This, in particular, is evidenced by the everyday sober reasoning of d "Artagnan, who, having escaped mortal danger after the duel with the Comte de Vard, was amazed" at the thought of the strangeness of fate that makes people destroy each other in the name of the interests of third parties, completely alien to them and quite often they do not even have a clue of their existence. "
The main characters of the novel always try to act together, as if they were drawing additional energy from companionship with each other. And if it happens to any of them to receive a reward, it is immediately divided equally among all.
This portrayal of the disinterestedness and spiritual nobility characteristic of the Musketeers turned into a kind of reproach directed at the bourgeois society of France, as it developed after the July Revolution of 1830 and as portrayed by the realist writers Balzac and Stendhal.
In the final chapter of the novel, which melodramatically depicts the retaliation that befell the villainess of my lady, whose numerous crimes nearly killed both the three Musketeers and d'Artagnan, Dumas introduces a significant episode: a person who agreed to chop off my lady's head is offered a bag of gold as a reward; him into the river - he is incorruptible, he does his job not for the sake of money, but in the name of just retribution.
Three Musketeers and d "Artagnan act in the novel and perform their feats in an atmosphere of inexhaustible heroism. This heroism is the natural lot of those people who are created for tireless activity, the lot of those who are brave and generous, who value friendship, who are ready to calmly turn away from the pile. The twenty-first chapter of the first part of the novel tells how the Duke of Buckingham tried to reward d'Artagnan with valuable gifts and how it offended d'Artagnan: “He realized that the duke was looking for a way to force him to accept something from him in a gift, and the thought that he would be paid in English gold for the blood of him and his comrades, aroused deep disgust in him.
The trilogy about the three Musketeers covers a significant period in French history - from 1625 to the time when the monarchy of Louis XIV, continuing its aggressive policy, launched a war against Holland in the 70s in order to conquer foreign lands and consolidate its economic and political power in Europe. Having traced the fate of his generous heroes and having delighted the reader with their extraordinary adventures, the novelist concludes his lengthy narration with a picture of the battle of the French troops with the Dutch. In this battle, d "Artagnan, who was promoted to Marshal of France a few minutes before his death, was killed.
Dumas had an amazing gift - the ability to captivate the reader. Among the readers of his works were Marx, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gorky, Mendeleev. In France, connoisseurs of his talent were Georges Sand, Balzac, Hugo. The historian Michelet wrote to Dumas: "I love you, I adore you, because you are a phenomenon of nature."
One can quote Victor Hugo's enthusiastic response: “Alexander Dumas is one of those people who can be called the sowers of civilization; he heals and ennobles the minds, instilling in them an inexplicable light, bright and strong; it impregnates the soul and mind of man. It stimulates the thirst for reading, it loosens the human heart and sows seeds at it. He sows French ideas. French ideas contain so much humanity that wherever they penetrate, they give rise to progress. This is the source of the enormous popularity of people like Alexandre Dumas ”(“ Deeds and Speeches ”).
Dumas's works were extremely popular in Russia. In the 30s and 40s of the XIX century, translations of his novels and stories were published in various magazines, in particular in Telescope, Library for Reading, and Otechestvennye Zapiski. After Dumas' drama "Henry III and His Court" was staged on the stage of a theater in France, it was translated into Russian and published as a separate edition. The famous tragedian V.A.Karatygin staged Dumas's plays on the Russian stage in his own translation.
V.G.Belinsky was one of the first Russian translators of Dumas. In 1834 Telescope published Dumas' works Revenge and Gemmy Mountain, translated by Belinsky. In a review of the book Modern Stories of Fashionable Writers. Collected, translated and published by F. Koni "Belinsky noted the presence of deep poetic thought in Dumas's story" Masquerade "and wrote about the" powerful and energetic talent "of A. Dumas. True, later the great revolutionary democrat condemned the lightweight character of some of Dumas's dramas and novels.
Dumas' shortcomings as a novelist-historian are well known and obvious. But the reader should not look for a genuine depiction of historical reality in his novels. In his best works, Dumas remains a magnificent, fascinating storyteller, a master of intrigue and composition, the creator of forever memorable heroic characters, in which, in a peculiar, even naive, but still embodied the writer's belief that a person with a clear mind, will, confidence in himself and his righteousness, honesty and generosity, can and should actively intervene in life, protecting, to the best of his strength and understanding, good and truth, fighting against lies and evil. Dumas is one of those writers whom whole generations begin to read from childhood and re-read until old age. And we must think that such a recognition is given for a reason.
Quite recently I got acquainted with the great novel by A. Dumas "The Three Musketeers". Of course, before reading the book, I watched a serial film based on this work. And even then I really wanted to read a novel about the Musketeers, once again to become a participant in their adventures.
Reading the book, I never ceased to envy D'Artagnan and his friends. What interesting life had these people! What noble and fearless deeds they were ready for! What a significant epoch the Musketeers had to live in!
Dumas' novel gives us a lot of very important lessons... So, in the pages of this work, we learn courage. The author calls this quality one of the most important dignity of a real man: “Courage always commands respect”.
Already at the very beginning of the novel, we see how D'Artagnan and the three Musketeers bravely fight the cardinal's guards, despite the numerical superiority of their rivals. The young Gascon was not afraid of Richelieu's soldiers and fought on a par with the experienced Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Most importantly, the heroes have defeated their enemies!
The bravery of the young D'Artagnan was appreciated by the musketeers and accepted him into their company: “- If I am not yet a musketeer,” he said on the threshold of de Treville’s house, addressing his new friends, “I can still consider myself accepted as a student, not is it true? ”.
Soon rumors about the hero's valor spread throughout Paris, and after a little more time, D'Artagnan managed to show his courage, saving the French queen herself!
But the main character and his friends are not only brave warriors, they are also true friends, loyal and devoted to each other. The motto of the four friends has long become winged: "One for all and all for one." And the musketeers more than once justified him: they never abandoned each other in trouble, always, even in the face of mortal danger, were together. Let us recall at least the episodes associated with the insidious Lady Winter: D'Artagnan became the sworn enemy of this woman, she did her best to destroy the hero. However, the Gascon, with the help of his friends, who did not leave their young friend for a minute, managed to deal with the villainess: "- Charlotte Baxon, Countess de La Fer, Lady Winter, - ... - your atrocities overwhelmed the patience of people on earth and God on the sky. If you know any prayer, read it, for you are condemned and will die. "
We can say that the heroes of Dumas' novel are my ideals, people whom I want to imitate. I am amazed that D'Artagnan and the Musketeers honor honor and dignity above all else. So, the heroes faithfully serve their king and fatherland. That is why they risked their lives to bring Anna of Austria's pendants from England. That is why D'Artagnan refused to swear allegiance to the cardinal - the worst enemy of King Louis and France. That is why the heroes will never leave a helpless person in trouble (remember how the Gascon saved Constance Bonacieux from the cardinal's soldiers).
I want to admit that I consider myself a student of the heroes of the novel by A. Dumas. In my opinion, a real man should be like D'Artagnan and his friends - brave, courageous, fair, honest, loyal to their convictions and loved ones. I will strive to be at least a little like my favorite characters - real Knights and Heroes.
An essay on literature on the topic: What can the novel by A. Dumas “The Three Musketeers” teach today?
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