The Man in the Iron Mask
- ISBN13: 9780199537259
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Product Description
Alexandre Dumas was already a best-selling novelist when he wrote this historical romance, combining (as he claimed) the two essentials of life–”l’action et l’amour.” The Man in the Iron Mask concludes the epic adventures of the three Muskateers, as Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and their friend D’Artagnan, once invincible, meet their destinies…. More >>
I oredered this book but I thought I was order a DVD my mistake, but its always a pleasue doing business bie Amazon.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:27 amRon
Rating: 3 / 5
I saw and loved the movie so I just had to get the book to compare, books are usually better. The problem is that it doesn’t compare, the stories are totally different. That being the case the book was interesting, exciting at some points and a little difficult to understand because of the era in which it was written. It has little to do with the “man” in the iron mask and it is more an extension of the Three Musketeers.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:42 amRating: 3 / 5
Don’t be fooled. This is NOT Dumas, it is a rewrite. The target audience seems to be kindergarteners.
August 15th, 2010 at 11:48 amRating: 1 / 5
This one’s a real curate’s egg. Buy this if you love a good historical yarn, constant plot development, intrigue and speculation on one of the great periods and what-ifs of any period in any country’s history. It’s a page-turner and lovely if it catches you in the right mood.
Do not buy this if you’re more the sort that doesn’t care so much what happens as how it’s described. Character development is limited and nobody really comes to life in true 3-D, which would have been the making of this novel. On the other hand some of the intrigue we see is quite nicely developed.
I am the sort who likes to have a few books on the go at once and to deliberate over things and savour the status quo at any point, always expecting never to re-read (I’m sure you’re thrilled at this insight). I must say that menas I’ve tended to hurry to another book from this one and it’s not holding my attention. It reads like a play and would have been better in that format, but by trying to have a main plot and subplot it all reads too cleanly.
If you really love the genre of historical novels nothing quite beats ‘The Leopard’ by Lampedusa, but it’s more after my likes. I wish this book were really about something, be it “How far it is possible in politics to achieve what you want with a bi of talent and status” but other books do much better and this doesn’t have such lofty ambitions.
Ultimately, some good effects but really unmemorable.
August 15th, 2010 at 2:10 pmRating: 3 / 5
The Penguin edition of “The Man in the Iron Mask” is taken from the larger novel “Vicomte de Bragelonne” about the son of the famous musketeer Aramis. Dumas wrote countless potboilers for French periodicals but a few of his works have become immortal. This is especially true of the trilogy of French muskeeters during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The novels are all episodic making the varous plots sometimes hard to follow. While the works are set in a romantic historical time they are fictional. Dumas used history as a repository of stories to pluck out of them his historical romances. These novels were popular at the same time as were the romantic thrillers of Victor Hugo and Sir Walter Scott.
August 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pmThe Man in the Iron Mask is the final book in the Musketeer trilogy. The other books are “The Three Musketeers” and “Twenty Years After.” In this novel we meet the aged musketeers who earlier proclaimed, “One for All and All for One!”. The musketeers are:
1. D’Artagnen the leader of the musketeers serving under Louis XIV. This great fictional hero will become an antagonist to his three old musketeer pals. They have decided to support Phillip )the fictional twin of Louis XIV) who has been a prisoner in the Bastille for many years. The plot will fail and the musketeers will have to flee for their lives. As this novel ends we experience the death of D”Artagnan in battle. All of the other musketeers also die in this series finale.
2. Athos-Now a wealthy landowner his son Vicomte de Bragelonne is in love with a beautiful girl who has become the mistress of Louis XIV. The son dies in battle and Athos dies of a broken heart.
3. Aramis-He is a powerful Jesuit official who seeks to wrest the throne of France from Louis XIV. He persuades Prince Phillip to join him in the plot. As the novel ends he dies after having fled to Spain and become a well respected diplomat for that nation.
4. Porthos-The fat Falstaff of the musketeer quartet he too dies after being trapped in a cave by soldiers of the king. He is the most foolish and lovable of the musketeers.
Don’t read Dumas for historical truth but do read him for the man’s love of friendship and honor in a vanished seventeenth century world.
Rating: 5 / 5