Didn’t you read Three Musketeers? And do not want to waste time reading such a thick book? Gentlemen, you are losing a lot of pleasure.
The ringing of swords, desperate dueling, racing, chasing, treachery and love, friendship and loyalty - this is the cocktail that attracts more than one generation of readers to the immortal work of Monsieur Dumas father. The noble musketeers of the king and the vile guards of the cardinal. The gullible king and the mischievous Cardinal Richelieu, the beautiful Anna of Austria and the cunning Milady Winter ... By the way, most people who didn’t read at all the summary - “The Three Musketeers” as a whole - have long and firmly forgotten that milady is not a name at all, but a title , and so they call this insidious and cruel seducer - Milady, with a capital letter. This name has become common, and if Milady is mentioned somewhere, then it immediately becomes clear to everyone that it is about the wife of the noble Athos.
But we were distracted. Here, in fact, it is not the restoration of biographies and names of the characters of the novel that is being carried out, but an attempt to present a brief summary.
"Three Musketeers", meaning, of course, the novel itself, begins in about the same way as the famous Soviet musical film. Young Mr. d'Artagnan appears on the streets of the little-known town of Meng outside of France. In his pocket he had a letter of recommendation to the captain of the royal musketeers, Mr. de Treville and fifteen coins. He sits astride an old gelding of unusual color. This yellowish-red suit of the horse became the cause of the first brawl in which our Gascon fell. It will not be counted further than these fights, since the character of Herr d'Artagnan and the customs of that time greatly facilitated participation in many duels. But if we dwell on each duel in detail, we get just a verbatim retelling of the novel, and not at all its brief content.
The “Three Musketeers” of Dumas the father are often accused of inaccurate adherence to historical realities, but no one is trying to seriously study history from adventure novels or to study astronomy and physics from science fiction works. The key figures of the novel have real prototypes, nothing more. They are the design of the dish, and not its main content.
But we again went aside. We are not trying to criticize the novel, but write it, the novel "Three Musketeers", a summary.
Where did we leave off? Ah, yes - d'Artagnan in Mengue meets Milady and Rochefort, on the orders of Lady Winter they painfully beat him and take the letter. Without a recommendation from his father, Mr. de Treville refuses to immediately give him the coveted blue cloak and enroll in an elite regiment, and our hero leaves the reception room of the captain of the musketeers, armed only with a vague promise of the latter to enroll him in the company, but only after performing a couple of exploits.
Dreaming of approaching the celestials, he does not particularly notice where he is going, and that his long tongue is chatting, and he suddenly finds himself drawn into three duels in a row at once, moreover with the musketeers. Fate was pleased to prevent a fight with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, but she generously sent a whole company of cardinal guards to the place of the fight right away. The Musketeers, having immediately forgotten that they wanted to fight with the Gascon, enter the battle with the guards. Our hero, too, cannot hold the blade in the sheath and rushes to the aid of his former opponents. The Musketeers and d`Artagnan naturally win. And further events follow precisely from this first large-scale battle of the Gascon.
We will not describe further events in detail, since the size of the article does not allow this, we restrict ourselves to writing a very brief summary. Three musketeers and their new comrade are drawn into many court and political intrigues. Monsieur d'Artagnan falls in love with a married woman and for the sake of her beautiful eyes leaves with his nose love claims of Richelieu himself. In this he is willingly helped by his three friends. Along the way, the good name of Queen Anne is restored , but the beloved d'Artagnan and the English nobleman the Duke of Buckingham are killed. But our young adventurer becomes a musketeer. Now we could begin to say that the novel needs to be renamed, since there are four musketeers, but we still have a summary ... three musketeers, four musketeers - it’s not so important what the numeral is in the title, besides the late gentleman Dumas father still can not convince.
Our desperate four, decides to restore justice and punish the main culprit of the death of his beloved d'Artagnan Constance and the English duke respected by him. Who do you think they appointed the last? Not Richelieu, who started this whole intrigue, and not the queen, because of whose love for Buckingham this story was brewed, but the direct performer of Richelieu's will - Milady.
Having cut off the head of the latter, our heroes decide that their mission has been completed, and now you can just fight without clogging your heads with court intrigues. Richelieu pretended that it should have been according to his plan, and even granted them for four a patent for an officer rank. Which of them should begin to command, our friends must decide for themselves. Who did they choose by open vote? That's right - d'Artagnana. The end.