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A Sequel to The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas (Author), Lawrence Ellsworth (Translator)
For the first time in English in over a century, a new translation of the forgotten sequel to Dumas's The Three Musketeers, continuing the dramatic tale of Cardinal Richelieu and his implacable enemies.
In 1844, Alexandre Dumas published The Three Musketeers, a novel so famous and still so popular today that it scarcely needs introduction. Shortly thereafter he wrote a sequel, Twenty Years After, that resumed the adventures of his swashbuckling heroes.
Later, toward the end of his career, Dumas wrote The Red Sphinx, another direct sequel to The Three Musketeers that begins, not twenty years later, but a mere twenty days afterward. The Red Sphinx picks up right where the The Three Musketeers left off, continuing the stories of Cardinal Richelieu, Queen Anne, and King Louis XIII, and introducing a charming new hero, the Comte de Moret, a real historical figure from the period. A young cavalier newly arrived in Paris, Moret is an illegitimate son of the former king, and thus half-brother to King Louis. The French Court seethes with intrigue as king, queen, and cardinal all vie for power, and young Moret soon finds himself up to his handsome neck in conspiracy, danger?and passionate romance!
Dumas wrote seventy-five chapters of The Red Sphinx, all for serial publication, but he never quite finished it, and so the novel languished for almost a century before its first book publication in France in 1946. While Dumas never completed the book, he had earlier written a separate novella, The Dove, that recounted the final adventures of Moret and Cardinal Richelieu.
Now for the first time, in one cohesive narrative, The Red Sphinx and The Dove make a complete and satisfying storyline?a rip-roaring novel of historical adventure, heretofore unknown to English-language readers, by the great Alexandre Dumas, king of the swashbucklers.
"Starred Review. Dumas's penchant for addressing his readers ... remains endearing, and his wit helps sustain interest despite many fewer action sequences than in the author's better-known works. A very entertaining epic." - Publishers Weekly
"The Red Sphinx is a vivid and beautifully-crafted story dense with colorful characters and an irresistible charm." - Tony Cliff, author of the New York Times bestselling "Delilah Dirk" graphic novels
This information about The Red Sphinx was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
One of the most famous French writers of the nineteenth century, Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) first achieved success in the literary world a playwright, before turning his hand to writing novels. In two years from 1844 to 1855, he published two enormous books, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Both novels have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Lawrence Ellsworth is the pen name of Lawrence Schick. He began his career as a writer at TSR Hobbies, where he was instrumental in the early popularity of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. His long career in games publishing includes the role of Executive Director of Interactive Entertainment at AOL in the late 1990s, where he managed all games content. Lawrence lives in northern Maryland.
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