Recently Kuniko and I watched The Man in the Iron Mask one evening, and afterwards I thought that if I had a chance I should go back and read this book – the start of the series of books about the three musketeers. The book details the origin of the main character d’Artagnan, and how he met Porthos, Aramis and Athos.
Apparently this story was written in serialized form originally, so each chapter is often close to self-contained, and so the book (which is quite long) reads quickly. I found the most interesting point was that the author had a great sense of pacing – the boring stuff lasts just a few lines, and the exciting moments tend to go on for pages at a time.
I did feel that the story, maybe because it is a classic, did seem predictable. Because there are three musketeers, events tend to happen in threes, and we see how each handles their challenges (or opponents). The book serves as an interesting snapshot of the times.
I found myself laughing out loud at some of the jokes, while others were clearly so far out of context that I couldn’t understand them. While the intrigues here were timeless and fun to follow, they sometimes felt a little transparent.
I’m not sure if I’ll continue to the next book in the series – maybe it is good to take a break from the story a bit – but I’m glad I read the first book at least.
Next I’m reading Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult.
