Review: Adventures of Monsieur de La Donaree the Musketeer by Ted Anthony Roberts

The readers of this blog know that I always appreciate a good adventure tale, especially if it can be described as a swashbuckler. It is a disappointingly scarcely populated genre these days, but one does tend to find a novel or two every now and then. This time, my attention was drawn to T.A. Robert's Adventures of Monsieur de La Donaree the Musketeer. The author mentions grand-masters like Alexandre Dumas, Rafael Sabatini and Sir Walter Scott in his bio, so taking a look at his work is something that one simply must do.

Review: The Wedding of Cyrano (D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled, #3) by Paul Féval, fils

In 1928 Paul Féval, fils' wrote a trilogy known as D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled, continuing an earlier series that he wrote with M. Lassez, called The Years Between. The stories are set after Alexandre Dumas' Twenty Years After and show d'Artagnan and some of the rest of the musketeers in various adventures with Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. I've read and reviewed all the other parts of the story and now it is time to tackle the last one: The Wedding of Cyrano. It should be noted that this review will likely spoil some of the events of the earlier parts of the story, but no more than the title of this novel itself already does.

Review: The Escape of the Man in the Iron Mask (D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled, #2) by Paul Féval, fils

Paul Féval, fils' wrote a trilogy known as D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled. The story is set after Alexandre Dumas' Twenty Years After and spans the years between 1649 and 1655. I've previously reviewed the first part of the trilogy and was somewhat annoyed by the uneven plotting. The second part works much better, but takes a serious deviation of the Dumas' original story, introducing a plot with the Man in the Iron Mask much earlier than Dumas did and leading to a vastly different plot, cunningly mixed with actual historical details.

Review: The King's Passport by H. Bedford-Jones

I've previously reviewed H. Bedford-Jones' pastiche of Alexandre Dumas' classic work. Interestingly enough, his other story featuring the classic hero, d'Artagnan, The King's Passport, is not in any way connected with the longer work and is not really a pastiche at all: rather than being set in 1630 and featuring the Dumas version of d'Artagnan (who was born at least a decade before his historical counterpart), the story is set ten years later, in 1640, when d'Artagnan has only recently arrived to Paris and is serving in the Guard.

Attending the Opening Ceremony of the Heavy Metal exhibition

My wife and I were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Heavy Metal exhibition at the Häme Castle on the 21st April. First things first, the exhibition has next to nothing to do with certain genre of music, and a lot to do with heavy metal armour and weapons used in the 16th to 18th centuries. The arms and armour come from the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria and they are, therefore, historical equipment used by the soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire under the Hapsburg rule. These are displayed for the first time in Northern Europe, so it was simply a chance of a lifetime to be one of the first people to enjoy the exhibition.

The Three Musketeers at the Lahti City Theatre

Last night, my wife and I attended the last performance of The Three Musketeers (Kolme Muskettisoturia) at the Lahti City Theatre (Lahden kaupunginteatteri). I'm not going to review it, as there is no sense in doing so for a play that no one can see anymore, but I wanted to bring up some of the highlights and some of what-one-might-call the low points in this interpretation of Alexandre Dumas' classic story. Let's begin with the trailer:

Review: State Secret (D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled, #1) by Paul Féval, fils

I've previously reviewed Paul Féval, fils' and M. Lassez' The Years Between series that saw d'Artagnan meet up with Cyrano de Bergerac and go on adventures with each other. A few years later, Paul Féval decided to revisit the characters and wrote a trilogy that is known as D'Artagnan and Cyrano Reconciled. The story is set after Alexandre Dumas' Twenty Years After and spans the years between 1649 and 1655.

Review: The Musketeers Second Season

Last year, I had a few words to say about the first season of the BBC series, The Musketeers, and since I've now seen the second season, I thought that I should say something about it as well. In short, on its second season, the series continues with its free interpretation of history and Dumas' characters. But, given that Dumas himself bastardised history with relatively free hand, this is not something that we can blame the series very much for.

Review: The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The long journey is now over. I had planned to save the last part of Alexandre Dumas' d’Artagnan Romances until later in the year, but somehow, after reading the previous part, I decided to finish off the series. The Romances consist of three works: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. The last of these has been published in several different editions that divide the novel into separate books in different ways. I was reading the Project Gutenberg version, which separates the novel into four parts. You can find the reviews of the first, second and third part here, here and here.

Review: Louise de La Vallière by Alexandre Dumas

I've been slowly reading through Alexandre Dumas' d’Artagnan Romances that consist of three novels: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. The last of these has been published in several different editions that divide the novel into separate books in different ways. I am reading the Project Gutenberg version, which separates the novel into four parts. You can find the reviews of the first and second parts here and here.

Review: D'Artagnan: A Sequel to The Three Musketeers by H. Bedford-Jones

H. Bedford-Jones' D'Artagnan: A Sequel to The Three Musketeers is a fast-paced adventure set after the events of The Three Musketeers, in the year 1630, when Cardinal Richelieu was fighting for his position against powerful enemies - and eventually solidified his power. The novel features all the familiar musketeers and several new characters in a relatively simple but fun adventure. The author uses the traditional gimmick of the time, claiming that the story is based on Dumas' lost papers, just like Dumas based his story on earlier documents.

Review: The Heir of Buckingham by Paul Féval, fils and M. Lassez

It is time to take a look at the fourth and last part of Paul Féval and M. Lassez's The Years Between series, called The Heir of Buckingham. The series stars the famous characters originally penned by Alexandre Dumas and Edmond Rostand: d'Artagnan and Cyrano de Bergerac. The events of the series take place in-between Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After, in 1641.

As this is a four part series, this review will necessarily spoil some of the events taking place in the first three parts. However, I try to keep these at minimum. Feel free to jump to the last paragraph if you are worried.

Lego - King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards

A while ago, Lego sold a nice minifigure of the classic King's Musketeer in one of their minifigure series and I - a known fan of all things 17th century - could not keep my hands off of them. Later, they also released a swashbuckler figure, but I was dismayed by the lack of a nice set of Cardinal's Guards to face off with my Musketeers.

Review: The Secret of the Bastille by Paul Féval, fils and M. Lassez

I've now progressed to the third book in my read-through of Paul Féval and M. Lassez's The Years Between series. This is a 4-part series where they take the famous characters (more or less loosely based on real historical people) created by Alexandre Dumas and Edmond Rostand, namely d'Artagnan and Cyrano de Bergerac. The events of the series take place in-between Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After, in 1641.

The third novel continues directly from the events of the second novel and thus the following review will contain spoilers for those not familiar with the story. If you don't want to be spoiled, you can jump directly to the last paragraph.

Review: Martyr to the Queen by Paul Féval, fils and M. Lassez

In my previous blog entry, I reviewed the first part of Paul Féval and M. Lassez's The Years Between series of novels where they take the characters created by Alexandre Dumas and Edmond Rostand, namely d'Artagnan and Cyrano de Bergerac, and bring them together in a new adventure that takes place in-between Dumas' The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After.

The second novel in the series continues immediately after the first one ended and thus the following review will contain spoilers for those not familiar with the story. If you don't want to be spoiled, you can jump directly to the last paragraph.

Review: The Mysterious Cavalier by Paul Féval, fils and M. Lassez

In my search of historical fiction set in the 17th century, I happened across the name of Paul Féval, fils and his series of stories, some of them written in collaboration with M. Lassez. What makes them especially interesting is that the authors quite freely took characters created by other authors - d'Artagnan and the familiar three musketeers and Cyrano de Bergerac - and wrote new stories about them.

Review: Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas' d’Artagnan Romances consist of three novels: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. The last of these is a problematic novel because it has been published in several vastly different editions that divide to novel into separate books in different ways. I recently started reading the Project Gutenberg version, which cuts the novel up into four parts. I reviewed the first part, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, some time ago, so it is now the high time to move on to the next instalment: Ten Years Later.

Review: The Musketeers First Season

The Musketeers is a BBC series based on the characters of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, but taking the story to new directions and re-imagining the characters and history itself with relatively free hand. But, what could have been a confused mess and as uncomfortable to watch as the similarly envisioned Young Blades from ten years ago, actually turns out to be rather a decent adventure series. For a history enthusiast, it has quite a few problems, of course, but - then again - every film and TV series set in historical era usually does.

Review ‘Sadan miekan mies’ (1951)

Sadan miekan mies (‘The man of a hundred swords’) is a Finnish adventure comedy from 1951, set in the year 1634, two years after the death of Gustavus Adolphus in the battle of Lützen. It tells a story of a captain who is conducting a never-explicitly-stated mission for the King as he roams the countryside of Eastern Sweden (i.e. Finland). Even though it has its weaknesses, it also has its fun moments.

Firing a musket with and without armour

An interesting field test of musketeer armour. Historically, musketeers did not wear armour, because it would have got in the way of the musket butt when aiming. But the officials of Jamestown apparently tried to find a way to modify the existing armour in order to protect their musketeers better. Check out this test run by Jamestown Rediscovery group to find out how it goes.