The Three Musketeers

*The Three Musketeers* , by **Alexandre Dumas** , is part of the **Barnes & Noble Classics* *series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of *Barnes & Noble Classics*: * New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars * Biographies of the authors * Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events * Footnotes and endnotes * Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work * Comments by other famous authors * Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations * Bibliographies for further reading * Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. *Barnes & Noble Classics *pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works. Mixing a bit of seventeenth-century French history with a great deal of invention, **Alexandre Dumas** tells the tale of young D’Artagnan and his musketeer comrades, Porthos, Athos and Aramis. Together they fight to foil the schemes of the brilliant, dangerous Cardinal Richelieu, who pretends to support the king while plotting to advance his own power. Bursting with swirling swordplay, swooning romance, and unforgettable figures such as the seductively beautiful but deadly femme fatale, Milady, and D’Artagnan’s equally beautiful love, Madame Bonacieux, *The Three Musketeers* continues, after a century and a half of continuous publication, to define the genre of swashbuckling romance and historical adventure. **Barbara T. Cooper** is Professor of French at the University of New Hampshire. She is a member of the editorial boards of *Nineteenth-Century French Studies* and the *Cahiers Alexandre Dumas* and specializes in nineteenth-century French drama and works by Dumas.