[Bloggers Note: So, I've been fretting over one particular entry for a while - a review of a game product that I'm spending way too much time fiddling with. I'd take it off the shelf, rewrite chunks of it, then put it aside as more immediate matters (the Political Desk, plays that have a closing date) get in the way. But as a result, I have created a backlog of books on the corner of my desk I want to talk about. So this is the Book Backlog. I will (once again) put aside the much longer piece and try to whittle it down, though that may be a fool's errand.
Anyway:]
Court of Daggers by Alexandre Dumas Translated by Lawrence Ellsworth, Cyrano Productions, 2022.
Provenance: It is no surprise to long-term readers (both of you) that I've been a fan of Lawrence Ellsworth's translations of the Musketeer Cycle. So I was a little disappointed when I could not find the continuance of the series on the Pegasus Books site or its distributor Simon & Schuster. But I found this volume and the next one on Amazon, continuing the story under Ellsworth's own imprint.
Review: I'll be frank - we're in the doldrums here. It is season 5 of 7 seasons and the movie. The original Musketeers stories were written to be serialized in newspapers, and while that makes for reading them fairly neatly and compartmentalized, collecting them together lacks a bit of heft as we move further away from the original adventures.
This is the second part of the Visconte de Bragelonne, which started in Between Two Kings. As such we get a a chance to deal with other characters than the four core musketeers. In particular, the rising star is the titular viscount, who is the son of the almost saintly Aramis. Of the others, Athos is now a clergyman. Porthos is nobility. D'Artagnan has land in France and England, and still works, off and on, for the Crown, resigning whenever the Crown displeases him.
There are three arcs within the text. The first centers the conflict between the Superintendent of Finance Fouquet, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who controls the late Cardinal Mazarin's wealth. The King sides with Colbert and signs the death warrant for two of Fouquet's underlings. Fouquet hires mercs to capture his minions, escaping through a nearby building, and then covering their tracks by setting the building ablaze. Oh, yeah, the building is owned by D'Artagnan, who is on the scene when this goes down. D'Artagnan foils the plot, kills Fouqet's mercs, and lets Fouquet's men be properly hanged.
D'Artagnan is then hired by Colbert to investigate Fouquet's building up a fortress on the coast. D'Artagnan finds that Porthos is charge of the fortifications, and since Porthos is not the sharpest mental blade in the basket, discovers that Athos, now a bishop, is behind this particular development. Fouquet does from fancy diplomatic tapdancing to avoid the noose himself. Interestingly, Dumas (and D'Artagnan) likes Fouquet better than Colbert, even though he is working against him.
The last act consists of the King marrying off his brother to the sister of King Charles of England (who our glad lads helped put back on the throne). A lot of young men are hot for Princess Henrietta, including the second Duke of Buckingham (which worked out SO well the last time). Bragelonne has to be the voice of reason here, even though he is himself smitten with his childhood love, who in turn has been elevated to a Lady in Waiting (and caught the eye of the King). More drama to come, but that will wait for the next volume, Devil's Dance.
Bragelonne, the titular hero, threads his way through all this. He is D'Artagnan's Padawan in the first third. He argues with his father a bit in the second set of chapters, but then we scarcely see him until the final bit, where he comes into his own. And while the Viscount worships his father, he shares much with the bravado and cunning of D'Artagnan.
Ellsworth acquits himself well here, covering a lot of territory that most Americans and English-speakers have not heard of in the canon. He trims, edits and modernizes, without losing the plot or burying small bits. An earlier translation of the text can be found here, and it is clear that Ellsworth makes the work readable and engaging for the current readers, just as it was for serial readers in Paris itself. He smooths things out and reduces the stuffiness (to our ears) of the earlier translations. Plus he backs up with footnotes and character descriptions in the back that help clarify where everyone is standing with each other and what any asides and allusions refer to.
In short, I'm still enjoying the series, through we are now 30 years out from when D'Artagnan first entered Paris with his wobbling horse. And it gives me wonderful source material for Miseries & Misfortunes. And I'm looking forward to reading the next volume as well.
More later
