Dumas' Novels

Alexandre Dumas père was born in 1802. Like his hero D'Artagnan, he came from a poor rural family and travelled to Paris as a young man to seek his fortune; Dumas, however, favoured the pen rather than the sword.

He wrote an incredible number of plays and novels, some of which are The Count of Monte Cristo, The Lady of the Camellias, The Black Tulip and, of course, The Three Musketeers.

The adventures of D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis span three novels: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and Ten Years Later, which comprises three books: The Vicomte Bragelonne, Louis de la Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask). Dumas' style mixes romance, action and humour in an appealing combination, and the Musketeers were an instant hit.

Dumas is probably the father of the modern historical romance, which means he was indirectly responsible for Maeve Binchy and Titanic. Cheers Alex mate, nice one, thanks a bunch.

D'Artagnan vs. Dogtanian

The cartoon series is remarkably faithful to the novel, with the exceptions of the baffling swap of Athos' and Porthos' names and the necessary glossing-over of the original raunchiness - Dumas' hero has it away not only with Constance ('Juliette'), who is incidentally married, but with Milady and her maid Kitty, and comes perilously close to making a pass at the Queen.

One effect of this is that Porthos comes over as a kind but rather flat hero, while Athos of the novel is a complicated character with many hidden secrets. Aramis and Athos (Porthos in Dumas' work) I feel have transferred to the cartoon format very well, as they were more caricaturish to begin with. D'Artagnan in canine form loses his cunning and maturity but none of his fiery Gascon spirit. Even Sandy the horse was an integral part of the novel, though unnamed. (Dumas' hero, less compassionate than Dogtanian, sold his father's faithful old horse as soon as possible.)

As seen on the Dogtanian DVD!