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Essay about The Three Musketeers & Alexandre Dumas

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The Three Musketeers & Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas’s novels and in particular The Three Musketeers are so great for his ability to mix fact with fiction. As a historical novel, The Three Musketeers bases its story around some major characters and events of 17th century, French history. Cardinal Richelieu, Anne of Austria, and other important characters really lived and acted the way they do in the novel. In fact, the historical basis of Dumas's story extends all the way to his initial idea for the novel, even to the Musketeers and d’Artagnan themselves.(history 1)

The Three Musketeers is inspired by a 17th century work entitled Memoires de d'Artagnan by Gatien de Cortilz de Sandras, which Dumas stumbled across in his research. …show more content…

Aramis was Henry d'Aramitz, related to Monsieur de Treville, he was a Musketeer from 1640 and on, we know little of him beyond that. Athos was Armand de Sillegue, also related to Treville. He was a King's Musketeer who died in Paris in 1643, but little is known beyond that, there is some proof on his death certificate that he died as a result of a duel.(history pg. 3)

The major historical figures in the novel are all more or less accurate, in terms of the basic facts presented. Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, Cardinal Richelieu, and Monsieur de Treville are all presented without any historical inaccuracies. And there were indeed, King's Musketeers under Louis XIII, they existed as a sort of training ground for the elite of the French army, and served as the King's personal escort in peacetime. Treville and the Cardinal were great enemies, as Dumas portrays them, in fact, Treville was involved in a 1642 plot to assassinate the Cardinal, and Louis XIII was forced to banish his friend. Richelieu did have his own, similarly elite, company of Guards, which did have a great rivalry with the Musketeers, as Dumas describes.(history pg. 4)
In general, we see that Dumas's novel is at least based in history, although he takes great departures. The one great exception to this is Lady de Winter.

Courtilz's "Milady" is an entirely private individual, one of the

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