Twenty Years After (Vingt ans après) is a novel by
Alexandre Dumas, père.This sequel to
The Three Musketeers and a book of the so-called
D'Artagnan Romances (the third and last book being
The Vicomte de Bragelonne, including the famous volume, The Man in the Iron Mask) was serialized from January to August, 1845. The novel follows events in France during
La Fronde, during the childhood reign of
Louis XIV, and in England near the end of the
English Civil War, leading up to the victory of
Oliver Cromwell and the execution of
King Charles I. Dumas comes out on the side of the monarchy in general, or at least he supports the idea of a well-meaning, liberal monarchy. His musketeers are valiant and right in their efforts to protect young Louis XIV and the doomed Charles I from their attackers. Readers learn as much about Dumas and mid-19th century politics from reading this work as they do about the mid-17th century. This book is the least well-known of the
Musketeer saga but works effectively as a sequel, with reapperances by most main characters (or children of main characters) and an interesting set of subplots.
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