Customer Reviews

The Forty-Five Guardsmen: Volume I

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I agree with the review of TK below, but as for the ending leaving the reader "hanging", I know exactly what has happened. If one buys the Fredonia edition of the book, it comes in two volumes. For whatever reason, when searching the Amazon site and calling up the book, only volume one appears. It is possible to find volume two by typing in the ISBN number: 1589631714. After reading volume two, all those loose ends are tied up quite nicely and it makes it a very rewarding reading experience. The whole series of books in Dumas's Valois series: Queen Margot (Margaret de Valois), Chicot the Jester, and the two volumes of The Forty-Five Guardsmen are a wonderful story and deserve more attention.

Yes, I am absolutely crazy about 16th century French history. And Dumas has a whole series for this era. Though "La Dame de Montsoreau" is my favorite of the series, the Forty-Five does not lack young, handsome and rich gentlemen and beautiful and graceful ladies, not to mention the private lifestyle (humorous I found) of the King Henri III and his brother the duc d'Alençon. It was overall just captivating, I felt like I was reliving this time period. Again, I suggest you read the whole series, especially since this is the last book in the series. But I prefer this 'Valois' series to the 'D'Artagnan' or 'Marie-Antoinette' etc. series... It's more fascinating for me. The only thing is, that the end leaves a little something to be desired. I don't know if Dumas meant to write a fourth book in the series, cuz he seems to leave a few things hanging. But if you can ignore that, the rest of the plot is great!