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The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (French: Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third and last of the d'Artagnan Romances, following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. It appeared first in serial form between 1847 and 1850. In the English translations the 268 chapters of this large volume are usually subdivided into three, but sometimes four or even five individual books. In three-volume English editions, the three volumes are titled "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", "Louise de la Vallière", and "The Man in the Iron Mask." Each of these volumes is roughly the length of the original The Three Musketeers. In four-volume editions, the names of the volumes are kept, except that "Louise de la Vallière" and "The Man in the Iron Mask" are pushed down from second and third to third and fourth, with "Ten Years Later" becoming the second volume. There are usually no volume-specific names in five-volume editions. French academic Jean-Yves Tadié has argued that the beginning of King Louis XIV's personal rule is the novel's real subject.[1]
[edit] PlotThough there are many digressions, the heroes of the novel remain d'Artagnan and the rest of the original musketeers who find adventure, perform fantastic feats, grow older, and - with one exception - come to the ends of their lives. The action takes place between 1660 and 1667 and has as its thematic background the transformation of Louis XIV from a weak boy king dominated by his ministers and mother to the Sun King in absolute control of the French state. Near the beginning of the first part of the novel "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", d'Artagnan, who is no longer captain of musketeers because of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, resigns from the King's service in disgust over the young King's weakness. Louis would like to help Charles II retake the throne of England but allows his prime minister, Mazarin, to talk him out of giving such aid. The novel then shifts its focus to events in England as d'Artagnan--who is trying to make his fortune--and Athos--who is fulfilling the duty that he believes men owe to monarchs--restore Charles II to the English throne. Near the end of the novel, Charles II is restored thanks to Athos and d´Artagnan, Cardinal Mazarin dies, and d'Artagnan resumes his role in the service of Louis XIV as captain of musketeers again. The first part of the novel also introduces the titular hero, young Raoul de Bragelonne. Raoul is the son of Athos, one of the original musketeers, now known as the Comte de la Fère. De Bragelonne is loosely based on a real-life character, Nicolas de Bragelonne, who was in love with Louise de la Vallière.[citation needed] As in the novel, the real-life Louise preferred Louis XIV. Raoul plays a relatively small role in the novel. He spends a small part of his time fighting and much more of his time infatuated with Louise, absent in England, or depressed over being "betrayed" by Louise. Ultimately, he fails to recover from Louise's betrayal and ends his own life with rash behaviour in battle. "Louise de la Vallière", the middle section of the novel, is devoted in large part to romantic events at the court of Louis XIV. To a lesser degree, this portion of the novel shows the efforts of Louis to dominate the nobility by depicting the King's steps to impoverish the powerful superintendent of finance, Nicolas Fouquet. The man who encourages the King in bringing down Fouquet, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, is portrayed as an envious, unscrupulous social climber, clearly showing the author's antipathy towards the character. Towards the end of the novel, however, when Colbert has replaced Fouquet as minister of finance, Dumas, for the sake of historical accuracy perhaps, mentions in a dialogue Colbert's future achievements: building granaries, edifices, cities, and ports; creating a marine and equipping navies; constructing libraries and academies; and making France the wealthiest country of the period. The last section of the novel is famous, in part, for building its plot around Dumas' hypothesis that the Man in the Iron Mask, Philippe, was Louis XIV's identical twin brother. Aramis plots a coup d’état to replace Louis with Philippe, who Aramis believes to be the rightful king. Aramis entangles the trusting strongman Porthos in his scheme. When Fouquet, France's Superintendent of Finance, throws a lavish party for Louis at Fouquet's chateau in Vaux, Louis become jealous. Colbert, who wants to take Fouquet's position, easily convinces Louis that Fouquet has financed the extravagant estate by stealing money from France and therefore from Louis. Louis then orders d'Artagnan to arrest Fouquet. That same evening, Aramis kidnaps Louis, imprisons him in the Bastille, and places Philippe on the throne. Aramis reveals the plot to Fouquet, expecting an ally. To his amazement, Fouquet is incensed by the event and quickly rescues Louis from the Bastille. Louis returns, exposes Philippe, and regains the throne, ending Philippe's brief reign and his part in the novel. Louis banishes Philippe, ordering that "He will cover his face with an iron visor, which the prisoner cannot raise without peril of his life." Aramis and Porthos are forced to flee. Despite Fouquet's rescue, Louis ultimately orders d'Artagnan to arrest Fouquet and to arrest and execute Porthos and Aramis. d'Artagnan feigns carrying out the king's orders while secretly giving his friends Aramis and Porthos every chance to escape from their hideaway on Belle Isle. However, Colbert anticipates d'Artagnan's motives and outmaneuvers him with orders circumventing his efforts. Trying to escape from Belle Isle, Porthos becomes the first of the four musketeers to die, when he is crushed by boulders as a sudden loss of strength in his legs prevents his escape. Curiously, Porthos' father and grandfather died as a result of a similar loss of strength. In the meantime, Raoul, Athos' adopted son, is recruited to fight a war against the Arabs, and after his departure Athos sinks into a deep depression, rapidly becoming old and feeble. When he learns Raoul has died in the war, Athos succumbs to his grief and dies, with Dumas providing a touching and unforgettable description of Athos' decline and final moments. Aramis finds his way to Spain and inexplicably turns up as the Spanish ambassador to France, working to ensure the neutrality of Spain in France's campaign against the United Provinces (the Dutch Republic) in 1667 (about 5 years after the deaths of Porthos and Athos). In the final chapter, Louis surprisingly has transformed into a wise and powerful king, and Colbert assists him in masterminding France's return to power via the military campaign against the United Provinces, with d'Artagnan in charge of the attack. During the war, d'Artagnan, almost 60 by then, is killed moments after reading the letter declaring him Marshal of France, his lifelong ambition, uttering the final words, "Athos, Porthos, au revoir! Aramis, adieu for ever!" [edit] See also[edit] External links
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