Twenty Years After
A Sequel to The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas author Lawrence Ellsworth translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pegasus Books
Published:15th Oct '19
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The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas’s most famous and enduring novel, completed its serial publication in the summer of 1844, and by the time of its book publication at the end of that year readers were already demanding a sequel. They got it starting in January, 1845, when the first chapters of Twenty Years After began to appear—but it wasn’t quite what they were expecting.
When Twenty Years After opens it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d’Artagnan will find, these are problems that can’t be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. It’s in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumas’s great heroes.
A true literary achievement, Twenty Years After is long overdue for a modern reassessment—and a new translation. As an added inducement to readers, Lawrence Ellsworth has discovered a “lost” chapter that was overlooked in the novel’s original publication, and is included in none of the available English translations to date—until now.
With Twenty Years After Dumas’s Musketeers Cycle becomes a real ongoing series, beginning a long story arc that will be continued in The Son of Milady, adventure following adventure until the final climax in The Man in the Iron Mask.
“Dumas never stints the action, witty dialogue and surprising plot developments.” -- The Washington Post
“Newly translated, a sequel to The Three Musketeers is as fresh as ever. In Lawrence Ellsworth’s excellent, compulsively readable translation, The Red Sphinx is just the book to see you through the January doldrums. And maybe those of February, too.” -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“The Red Sphinx sparkles and shines in a new translation. Races along with pointed humor and broad quips. Fun permeates this big book. The rest of this year's fiction will have to look sharp: An old master has just set the bar very, very high.” -- Christian Science Monitor [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“The test of a translator is his capacity to capture this characteristic interplay of the heroic and the ribald; the sincere and the ironic; the vanished past and the approaching present. And at this task Ellsworth succeeds, giving us a Three Musketeers with more clarity, energy, and simplicity than any previous English edition.” -- Open Letters Review [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“Dumas’s trademark gifts at crafting engaging historical romances are amply in evidence in this lengthy yet fast-paced volume. Ellsworth’s translation captures a complete narrative. A very entertaining epic.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred) [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“A royal treat for fans of historical fiction. I am confident that librarians and English literature teachers around the world are leaping for joy at the publication of The Red Sphinx, and I join them in this excitement.” -- Bookreporter [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“Fans of The Three Musketeers can rejoice in the 800-page English translation of this largely forgotten sequel.” -- Newsday [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
“There is swash and buckle aplenty, and even plumage if that’s what does it for you. And it is great fun.” -- The Spectator [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]
ISBN: 9781643132020
Dimensions: 236mm x 160mm x 41mm
Weight: 639g
480 pages