Alexandre Dumas

A simple retelling of the four Musketeers' final adventure, during which they plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king.

A prize of 100,000 guilders awaits the gardener who can produce a black tulip, a rich reward that incites a bitter competition in 17th-century Holland. Cornelius von Baerle, a gifted and passionate florist, has dedicated himself to cultivating the elusive flower. But a ruthless rival, capitalizing on accusations that led to the assassination of Cornelius's godfather, falsely accuses the young horticulturist of treason. Sentenced to life imprisonment,...

The third volume of the d'Artagnan Romances, of which The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After constitute the first and second volumes, was first serialized between October 1847 to January 1850. It has subsequently been published in three, four, and five-volume editions. Our edition follows the four-volume edition. The books in this edition in their chronological order are as follows: 1. "The Vicomte de Bragelonne" (chapters 1-75), 2. "Ten Years...

CELEBRATED CRIMES Vol I, Part 1: The Borgias There are dreadful - perhaps scurrilous - rumors about the Borgias of renaissance Italy, and here Dumas, author of such classics as THE THREE MUSKETEERS, in his Celebrated Crimes series, dishes up the dirt in all its ugly glory. This book was not written for children. Dumas has minced no words in describing the violent scenes of a violent time. In some instances facts appear distorted out of their true...

Une édition de référence des Trois Mousquetaires d'Alexandre Dumas, spécialement conçue pour la lecture sur les supports numériques. « — Et maintenant, messieurs, dit d'Artagnan sans se donner la peine d'expliquer sa conduite à Porthos, tous pour un, un pour tous, c'est notre devise, n'est-ce pas ? — Cependant... dit Porthos. — Étends la main et jure ! s'écrièrent à la fois Athos et Aramis. Vaincu par l'exemple, maugréant tout...

A man makes a devil's bargain with a mysterious wolf in one of the first werewolf novels ever written from the author of The Three Musketeers. When the shoemaker Thibault is unjustly abused by the Lord of Vez, he encounters an unlikely chance at revenge. A huge wolf approaches him, walking upright on its hind legs, and offers Thibault a pact. Every time he wishes harm on another man, the wolf will grant the wish, in exchange for one of Thibault's...

One September afternoon in 1751, towards half-past five, about a score of small boys, chattering, pushing, and tumbling over one another like a covey of partridges, issued from one of the religious schools of Chartres. The joy of the little troop just escaped from a long and wearisome captivity was doubly great: a slight accident to one of the teachers had caused the class to be dismissed half an hour earlier than usual, and in consequence of the...

If our readers, tempted by the Italian proverb about seeing Naples and then dying, were to ask us what is the most favourable moment for visiting the enchanted city, we should advise them to land at the mole, or at Mergellina, on a fine summer day and at the hour when some solemn procession is moving out of the cathedral. Nothing can give an idea of the profound and simple-hearted emotion of this populace, which has enough poetry in its soul to believe...

There were two tables in the principal eating-room. The provost took possession of one, leaving the other to the soldiers, who went in turn to tether their horses under a shed in the back yard; then he pointed to a stool for the prisoner, and seated himself opposite to him, rapping the table with his thick cane. "Ouf!" he cried, with a fresh groan of weariness, "I heartily beg your pardon, marquis, for the bad wine I am giving you!" The young man...

In the night of the 15th of January 1343, while the inhabitants of Naples lay wrapped in peaceful slumber, they were suddenly awakened by the bells of the three hundred churches that this thrice blessed capital contains. In the midst of the disturbance caused by so rude a call the first thought in the mind of all was that the town was on fire, or that the army of some enemy had mysteriously landed under cover of night and could put the citizens to...