Tuesday, April 05, 2011

"The Three Musketeers" or Why the French Had a Weird Sense of Honor


"The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas... sorry I couldn't be bothered to put the acutes and obtuses in there. I don't know why I was so impressed by this book when I first read it. I guess it was the swashbuckling-sword-fighting-dash-and-romance that veiled me from the baser depravity in the novel.
CJ was reading it recently so I got into it as well. What on earth were they thinking? Everyone of the so called heroes, are, by today's standards at least, at best, morally depraved hooligans. First D'Artagnan starts a fight for no reason, seduces and steals away his landlord's wife, aids and abets in his queen's adulterous affair with the Duke of Buckingham, covers up royal scandals and commits treason by lying to his King - and he wants to be a musketeer, what a poofy joke.
And the Three Musketeers - well they weren't exactly model were they? Killing and pillaging as they pleased, no respect for the law - "ooh we're the King's men, you can't arrest us, nananana" - but a bunch of crock. Athos - now there's a sour cat - marries a woman, sees she's a criminal, thinks of beheading her but let's her go but FTW later kills her - I mean Dumas are you even reading your work - this is what happens when you serialize instead of writing in one sitting - you have no idea what you've done and what you're going to do.
The novel celebrates adultery, murder, treason, hooliganism, vandalism, lying, cheating and all the things that make an ideal candidate for a Fox News anchor. Why do we let children read this stuff?