The Three Musketeers

Title: The Three Musketeers
Author: Alexandre Dumas (translated by Richard Pevear)
Genre: Classic Adventure
Pages: 673
Rating (out of 5 stars): **** 1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: D'Artagnan goes to Paris to make his fortune and ends up friend with three of the king's musketeers: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The four men soon become inseparable as they work together to thwart the plans of Cardinal Richelieu and the treacherous Milady.
Thoughts: It took me about a week to read all 673 pages of this book. Maybe I'm just a kid at heart who wants to swordfight and save the damsel in distress, but I really liked this book a lot! There is quite of a bit of action throughout the plot, as well as plenty of mystery and intrigue that makes it difficult to determine what will happen next. Not only did I like the excellent plot, but I really liked Dumas' writing as well; he used great phrases and perfect dialogue (and I give a tip of the hat to Richard Pevear for excellent translation of the version I read). Anyway, if you've been looking for an exciting, fun read, this is your book. As a sidenote, I enjoyed Dumas' other famous book, The Count of Monte Cristo, even more than The Three Musketeers. Both are great books.
Disclaimer: As you can imagine, there is some blood and gore in this book. Also, several of the men have mistresses, although Dumas is completely modest in his treatment of that aspect of the way things were back then. Lastly, there dialogue is filled with French oaths (sacrebleu!), so if that offends you, you might want to stay away from this one!

P.S. Can anyone tell me how Cervantes' Don Quixote might compare to Dumas' work? I'm thinking of reading that one in the near future...thanks.
P.P.S. Blogger isn't letting me upload any images at the moment, no picture with this one. Sorry! BCI