The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumasdsquo;s most famous and enduring novel, completed its serial publication in the summer of 1844, and by the time of its book publication at the end of that year readers were already demanding a sequel. They got it starting in January, 1845, when the first chapters of Twenty Years After began to appearodash;but it wasntsquo;t quite what they were expecting.
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 desquo;Artagnan will find, these are problems that canasquo;t be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. Itgsquo;s in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumaslsquo;s great heroes.
A true literary achievement, Twenty Years After is long overdue for a modern reassessmentodash;and a new translation. As an added inducement to readers, Lawrence Ellsworth has discovered a dquo;lostudquo; chapter that was overlooked in the noveltsquo;s original publication, and is included in none of the available English translations to dateodash;until now.
