The Three Musketeers is a historical romance, filled with adventure. Its brave and gallant heroes are generous to those who need help, chivalrous to women, and above all loyal to each other as their famous motto proclaims: “All for one, one for all.” Their adventures may sometimes appear far-fetched, but the musketeers believe in their own abilities so strongly and carry off their deeds with such style that the reader has little difficulty in believing them capable of all that they do. The individual Characters are easily distinguishable, but they are not profoundly developed, for fast-paced and suspenseful action is more important to Dumas’s storytelling than is character. Dumas clearly differentiates good and evil Characters, although the novel’s treatment of good and evil is not as straightforward as it might first appear. The society of the period differs considerably from today’s, and the novel provides an interesting look at 17th-century social hierarchy, religion, and relationships between men and women.
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