King's Musketeers

Have you ever wondered why some stories define an entire genre for centuries? The Three Musketeers is the cornerstone of historical fiction. Alexandre Dumas plunges you into a divided 17th-century France where King Louis XIII reigns, but Cardinal Richelieu rules. Into this powder keg steps D'Artagnan, a hot-headed outcast whose bravery is matched only by his naivety. Alongside Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, D'Artagnan discovers that true heroism requires more than just skill with a blade—it requires the courage to stand for truth when the world is against you.

In 1844, Alexandre Dumas published The Three Musketeers, a novel so famous and still so popular today that it scarcely needs introduction. Shortly thereafter he wrote a sequel, Twenty Years After, that resumed the adventures of his swashbuckling heroes. Later, toward the end of his career, Dumas wrote The Red Sphinx, another direct sequel to The Three Musketeers that begins not 20 years later but a mere 20 days afterward. The Red Sphinx picks up right where the The Three Musketeers left off.

When Twenty Years After opens it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d’Artagnan will find, these are problems that can’t be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. It’s in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumas’s great heroes.