THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Rare first complete English translation of the classic swashbuckling adventure — the most acclaimed and influential of the early translations.
Very good plus.
Price: $28,000.00
THE THREE MUSKETEERS
"True," replied d'Artagnan, "I have not the dress, but I have the heart and soul of a musketeer: I feel it, sir, and it impels me along, as it were, by force."
First published in Paris in 1844, THE THREE MUSKETEERS appeared in England and America soon thereafter in a variety of shortened and serialized adaptations: first in two US translations, then serialized and abridged in the UK by Vickers. Barrow's version here, published as part of the Library of Foreign Romance series, is traditionally labeled the earliest complete English translation because Vickers omits "the account of the dinner at Maitre Coquenard's" plus "much of the original French version is compressed"; further, "an entirely new chapter which Dumas had not written is gratuitously interpolated before the final one" (Munro, 80-1). But most importantly, Barrow's translation was the most widely read, among the best for more than a century, and handled with verve and a charming touch of literalism.
The novel has been the subject of three centuries' worth of dramatic adaptations: from the opera produced in Dumas's lifetime, to a Wodehouse-authored Broadway musical, to the 1973 Oliver Reed/Michael York costume extravaganza beloved of middle-school substitute French teachers, to 2009's Barbie and the Three Musketeers. None of these tributes have ever eclipsed the original, which lives and flourishes not by its historical intrigues or even its immortal characters, but by its high spirits, joie de vivre, and dashing style.
Read more: Frank Reed, A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas Père; Douglas Munro, Alexandre Dumas Père: A Bibliography of Works Translated into English to 1910, 80-1.
The Object
London: Bruce and Wyld, 1846. Full title: The Three Musketeers; or, the feats and fortunes of a Gascon adventurer. 7.25'' x 4.75''. Contemporary half brown calf with marbled boards, sympathetically rebacked with original spine laid down. Gilt-lettered burgundy morocco spine label. Translated from the French by William Barrow. Without the additional Library of Foreign Romance series title page, matching Munro 80. Translator's preface bound before Preface to The Library of Foreign Romance. 687, [1] pages. Contemporary ink owner name to front free endpaper, dated 1851. Moderate wear and rubbing to boards, with small indentation to spine. Very slight scattered foxing. Housed in elaborate custom inlaid morocco clamshell case, lined in scarlet wool.
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