Get ready to Swash your Buckle!
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It must be 35 years since I last read an Alexander Dumas novel. Add to this the sub-title "The Lost Masterpiece" and you can imagine that I approached this book with a little trepidation even though I had read a good review in a Saturday newspaper. My thoughts went along the lines that if it that much of a masterpiece why had it lain forgotten for 130+ years?!
Well - I need not have doubted it for one minute! The book is a great read - it bubbles along so quickly that you can not put it down (I went past my stop on the train because of a specially exciting part) - the characters both real and imaginary are well drawn, the action is compelling (maybe slightly gory for, say, the under 10's) and it is all beautifully written.
Yes it truely is a masterpiece and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historic fiction. It does help if you are familiar with the period but if you are not please do not let that put you off.
I have only two tiny quibbles - the translation is not brilliant all the time - only the odd word - and I think it was probably printed for the American market because the word 'gotten' crops up too often for my liking but, hey, please do not let that put you off either.
The Last Cavalier has left me wanting to re-read The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo and to seek out other Dumas works.
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