• Louise de La Vallière

  • By: Alexandre Dumas
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (328 ratings)

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Louise de La Vallière  By  cover art

Louise de La Vallière

By: Alexandre Dumas
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's summary

As part of the d'Artagnan Romances following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After, and devoted in large part to romantic events at the court of France's King Louis XIV, Louise de La Valliere is the second part of Alexandre Dumas's 268 chapter novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, which first appeared in serial form between 1847 and 1850. Filled with behind-the-scenes intrigue, the novel brings the aging Musketeers and d'Artagnan out of retirement to face an impending crisis within the royal court of France.
Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"One of the very best of the series, mixing amorous and political intrigue with an élan peculiar to Dumas...this quasi-historical series remains remarkably readable" ( The Irish Times, Dublin)

What listeners say about Louise de La Vallière

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
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  • 4 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Mr
  • 08-28-09

A Soap Opera with Musketeers

This story seems quaint and very subtle by modern standards.

Large tracts are devoted to the minutiae of French royalty and the surrounding courtiers, where sometimes there is a very long and (impeccably narrated) winding road to reach a climax where one of several gallant knights squeezes one of several ladies-in-waiting hands or some other equally scandalous body part.

I suppose this must have titillated in it's day, but it really doesn't measure up to the excitement of "The 3 Musketeers", "20 Years After" or even "The Man in the Iron Mask", which follows on from this, and is well enough written that you could probably jump from "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne" to "The Man in the Iron Mask" without losing much in the bargain.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Louis and Louise

Please give us all of the Dumas that is available in audio format -- commission new recordings, if necessary. Louise de La Velliere is another fine prequel to The Man in the Iron Mask, even if you have already read that classic. Louise, Raoul, Athos, and many other characters are understood more easily when The Vicompte de Bragilonne, Louise de La Valliere, and The Man in the Iron Mask are taken in the proper order. No wonder Aramis wants to replace Louis on the throne with his twin brother!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not the best book in the series

I loved the performance by Simon Vance as with all his work. However, this installment is not up to the great level of Dumas' previous three books in the series. A romantic farce rather than a tragedy it just doesn't hold up. Can't wait to get back to his great writing with Man in the Iron Mask.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A bridge

This is the middle third of book 3 of the D’Artagnan series of which book 1 is the most famous (The Three Musketeers). Book 3 was so long that it has been divided into three books in modern times and even each of those thirds is as long as books 1 and 2. By now, only D’Artagnan is the only one who is still a musketeer, now at the top and the closest to the king. The other three musketeers have all gone their own way. All four musketeers appear in this book, but they are not the main focus. Athos only appears once in the beginning when he asks the King for his approval for his son Raoul to marry Louise, for whom this book is named. And, she becomes the center of the rest of the book, not that she is the focus, but that she becomes the axis for the stories of all the other different personalities in the court to spin around. The musketeers have already reestablished the monarchy in England in the first third of book 3, “The Vicomte de Bragelonne” and this book is as the throne of Louis XIV has become strong. His power is now without practical limit and his rule has become decadent with everyone trying to do their best to please him. Yet, the rumors are flying and his affairs with different mistresses are not helping his reputation with the people. As the middle third of the book, this volume serves as a bridge leading to the last third, which is also one of Dumas’ most well-known books, “The Man in the Iron Mask.” As a bridge nothing is completely resolved, but the narrative is engaging and keeps you interested. If you’ve read “The Man in the Iron Mask” before having read this book, you’re missing a lot of that story also.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

better love triangles than Shakespeare

guess its not surprising that a worldly black Frenchman could write better love triangles than Shakespeare

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

absolutely loved it

This book is a very good continuation of the story. There is little of the musketeers but it sets up the finale very well.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • x
  • 01-21-10

Subpar for Dumas, redeemed by Simon Vance.

As others have said, the velvet and lace romantic intrigues are subpar for Dumas, but the novel as a whole is redeemed by its enlargement and shading of the series' characters, insightful flourishes, and above all by the sublime performance of Simon Vance, who intones new meaning into otherwise hackneyed soap opera.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

So much intrigue

90% intrigue and courtly love, 10% adventure. Rather dull compared to the books before it. Lacks the bawdy humor of the earlier books, too. But Vance is great, at least. I kind of suffered through this one hoping that The Man in the Iron Mask will live up to the previous books.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

If you think royalty is worthless, skip this.

I won't go on a rant on how much I disdain royalty/royal romance. But that is essential what this book is about. Shallow, adult children complaining and acting like spoiled brats. I recommend skipping this extremely slow and difficult to listen to book. Don't get me wrong, the narrator is great and if anyone did a good job he did. Just the material is almost as lame as Louise de La Vallière.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

low point of the series so far

I really am not interested this much in the love affairs of the French king...

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