One of my all-time favorite books is The Three Musketeers, and one of my all-time favorite characters is Milady De Winter. So of course, when I saw this book, I had to read it. I even ordered it before it came out. Now there is a strange myth and lore surrounding The Three Musketeers. It truly is a masterpiece. However, like most great things it didn’t come entirely from Dumas. Large portions of the story come from The Memoirs of M. d'Artagnan by Charles de Batz de Castelmore. What’s even worse, One of my all-time favorite books is The Three Musketeers, and one of my all-time favorite characters is Milady De Winter. So of course, when I saw this book, I had to read it. I even ordered it before it came out. Now there is a strange myth and lore surrounding The Three Musketeers. It truly is a masterpiece. However, like most great things it didn’t come entirely from Dumas. Large portions of the story come from The Memoirs of M. d'Artagnan by Charles de Batz de Castelmore. What’s even worse, I’ve read that Dumas did not give any credit to Castelmore when he published the book, and instead eluded to a fabricated historical document about the Comte de La Fère to throw his readers off. It's also quite possible Dumas didn't know, like we do now, that d'Artagnan is actually a true historical figure.However, this does not in any way take away from the brilliance of The Three Musketeers. Dumas was a master storyteller, and he gave his characters a life of their own. And while the musketeers may have been taken from other sources, Milady De Winter is almost solely a creation of Dumas. Yes, she makes an appearance in Castelmore’s The Memoirs of M. d'Artagnan as well as the Mémoires de M. le Comte de Rochforte. But she is a minor character, and Dumas changed her backstory drastically. Consequently, I look at Milady as being all Dumas, and she's an awesome character.My first exposure to The Three Musketeers is actually from the old Richard Lester movies that were made in the 1970s with Faye Dunaway as Milady. The thing about Faye Dunaway’s performance though, is that she looks dangerous as hell and is a force to be reckoned with. I keep thinking of this line Faye said in The Thomas Crown Affair -- “All right, Eddie, I'm immoral. So is the world.” lol This fits Milady too. However, I was really young when I saw this movie, so I didn't quite appreciate her determination. I thought Milady was vile.However, when I read the book, my opinion changed drastically, and one of the main reasons was this etching from Maurice Leloir called And he hanged her to a tree
. This is where Athos, aka the Comte de La Fère, hangs Milady because he sees that she has been branded with the fleur de lis marking her as a criminal. Now he doesn’t ask her about how she got the brand. He doesn’t talk to her. No, he just hangs her to a tree, like in the picture, and keep in mind she's only sixteen years old. Nice guy right?Suddenly, my whole point of view started to change, and I started to come to the conclusion that Athos was actually kind of an asshole. In fact, there's all kinds of evidence that the musketeers are not really the good guys. They're gray. This makes Milady gray as well. In fact, an excellent review I read from Brad describes this complexity extremely well. Brad's reviewSo in other words, Dumas characters are wonderfully complex. That’s one of the reasons I love the book so much.So now you might be asking, what did I think of Laura L. Sullivan’s Milady? Well, it’s all right. Sullivan writes very well, and parts of the book are really inventive and entertaining, especially when Milady is in England in King James’ court. I liked how she mixed historical figures and true events with the action. Especially when I was already somewhat familiar with these characters after reading The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser. For instance, when Milady starts a romance with George Villiers, I just started laughing. That was awesome.However, Sullivan's Milady is definitely not my idea of Milady. Sullivan goes through a lot of hoops to try to make Milady a heroine. She makes her a protector of women and loyal to her friends. She talks about how being a spy and an assassin is a noble calling. She has Milady outsmarting the musketeers, always being three steps ahead of them.Yet, this makes her less interesting I think. I say that because I wanted the fiercely ambitious Milady, who came from nothing and moved up to a higher and wealthier class. The Milady who was a valued spy and assassin because she was willing to do the dirty work that was necessary. The Milady who was so enraged by d'Artagnan taking advantage of her, she would kill his mistress to get even. I wanted the morally questionable Milady, warts and all. A woman who could say, "All right, I'm immoral. So is the world."Consequently, I was disappointed. I shouldn't have been though. There are not many who can create characters as fascinating as Dumas.I’m sure other readers will enjoy it. ***1/2
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