A French historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is in the swashbuckler genre, which has heroic, chivalrous swordsmen who fight for justice.

Set between 1625 and 1628, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d’Artagnan (a character based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d’Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although d’Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he is befriended by three of the most formidable musketeers of the age – Athos, Porthos and Aramis, “the three musketeers”, or “the three inseparables” – and becomes involved in affairs of state and at court.

The Three Musketeers is primarily a historical and adventure novel. However, Dumas frequently portrays various injustices, abuses, and absurdities of the Ancien Régime, giving the novel an additional political significance at the time of its publication, a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce. The story was first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 violently established the Second Republic.

The story of d’Artagnan is continued in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.

---

Author’s Preface
1. The Three Presents of D’Artagnan the Elder
2. The Antechamber of M. de Treville
3. The Audience
4. The Shoulder of Athos, the Baldric of Porthos and the
Handkerchief of Aramis
5. The King’s Musketeers and the Cardinal’s Guards
6. His Majesty King Louis XIII
7. The Interior of “The Musketeers”
8. Concerning a Court Intrigue
9. D’Artagnan Shows Himself
10. A Mousetrap in the Seventeenth Century
11. In Which the Plot Thickens
12. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
13. Monsieur Bonacieux
14. The Man of Meung
15. Men of the Robe and Men of the Sword
16. In Which M. Seguier, Keeper of the Seals, Looks More Than Once for the Bell, in Order to Ring it, as he did Before
17. Bonacieux at Home
18. Lover and Husband
19. Plan of Campaign
20. The Journey
21. The Countess de Winter
22. The Ballet of la Merlaison
23. The Rendezvous
24. The Pavilion
25. Porthos
26. Aramis and his Thesis
27. The Wife of Athos
28. The Return
29. Hunting for the Equipments
30. D’Artagnan and the Englishman
31. English a31. English and Frenchnd French
32. A Procurator’s Dinner
33. Soubrette and Mistress
34. In Which the Equipment of Aramis and Porthos is Treated of
35. A Gascon a Match for Cupid
36. Dream of Vengeance
37. Milady’s Secret
38. How, Without Incommoding Himself, Athos Procured his Equipment
39. A Vision
40. A Terrible Vision
41. The Seige of la Rochelle
42. The Anjou Wine
43. The Sign of the Red Dovecot
44. The Utility of Stovepipes
45. A Conjugal Scene
46. The Bastion Saint-Gervais
47. The Council of the Musketeers
48. A Family Affair
49. Fatality
50. Chat Between Brother and Sister
51. Officer
52. Captivity: The First Day
53. Captivity: The Second Day
54. Captivity: The Third Day
55. Captivity: The Fourth Day
56. Captivity: The Fifth Day
57. Means for Classical Tragedy
58. Escape
59. What Took Place at Portsmouth August 23, 1628
60. In France
61. The Carmelite Convent at Bethune
62. Two Varieties of Demons
63. The Drop of Water
64. The Man in the Red Cloak
65. Trial
66. Execution
67. Conclusion