Alexandre Dumas' novels of the adventures of the King's musketeers, and especially the first one (titled "The Three Musketeers", but actually dealing more with a fourth one, D'Artagnan) are widely considered classics. There have also been many, many films and stage adaptations of the various stories. My first introduction to Dumas' work was with The Count of Monte Cristo, which I enjoyed very much, so I was expecting quite a bit when I picked up this novel. It did not disappoint, and I was surprised to find how different it is from the movies I had seen on the subject. Any review I could write of this novel would pale in comparison to the fascinating analysis found at www.samizdat.com, which I highly recommend.