The Red Sphinx

Or, The Comte de Moret; A Sequel to The Three Musketeers

De: Alexandre Dumas, Lawrence Ellsworth - translator

Narrado por: John Lee

For the first time in English in over a century comes a new translation of the forgotten sequel to Dumas' 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 20 years later but a mere 20 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 75 chapters of The Red Sphinx for serial publication but never 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 story line - a rip-roaring novel of historical adventure, heretofore unknown to English-language listeners, by the great Alexandre Dumas, king of the swashbucklers.

Public Domain (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great Narrator

This book was awesome. The narrator used his voice in the best way ever.

I am really struggling to get through the 3 Musketeers. The narrator is... a bit dull.
(in my opinion)

A wonderful story but too many details

A wonderful story but too many detailed and long-winded side stories and recitations of lineage and power trails for me. But if you like details, this is a good book for you.

Which part of sequel don't I understand?

One might expect that a sequel to the novel highlighting D'artagnan and The Three Musketeers might actually contain said characters. But you would be wrong.

One might also think a sequel to a book that paints the Cardinal Richelieu as the key antagonist might consistently carry the same stigma. But again, you would be wrong.

But somehow, even with the missing musketeers and the hero as the Cardinal (it took me a couple hundred pages to accept that), it all worked. And all the political espionage, the intrigue, the duels, the action, and all the witty dialogue made this a fun book to read.

The final struggle was how the original novel (which was never finished - as the novel) was brought to completion with the addendum of The Dove, a short novella written years before. As The Dove is written in letters between two characters, it took some time to transition to that change in style. I will say at the very end that Dumas' stylistic writing brought it to a gripping end with me nearly biting my nails on how it would end.

In all, while it wasn't the book I expected, it was a great book, after all.

Now, onwards to the next in the sequel. I'm scared to have any expectations at this point as I'm sure Dumas will make me abandon those from page one. 😁

Rather disappointing; stick with D’Artagnan series

The Red Sphinx is promoted as a “sequel” to The Three Musketeers. Though it might be placed in sequence to it as far as the timing of it, you will not meet any of the delightful four musketeers, nor will you be entertained as you might expect, especially if you read the full D’Artaganan set of books, culminating in The Man with the Iron Mask. We have a lot of Richelieu and Louis XIII and hear a lot about the intrigue in the court. But that’s the problem - we hear a lot: a lot of narrative, some dialog and conversation (way too much), we hear about way too many characters, but there is little action. The opening seems promising, but then the book gets bogged down and it takes a long time to revive interest, which occurs more than half way in, with the military campaign in Italy. Though the translator’s notes try to justify completing the story of the Comte de Moret with the novella The Dove, I found it totally unconvincing. Until that point, the Comte de Moret is a womanizer, being attracted to (and more) every pretty woman he meets. It was not at all convincing that he would become so besotted with Isabelle de Lautrec, be willing to take vows if they do not come together again, etc. Come on, this guy had the hots for every woman he saw. Further, The Dove was a drawn out presentation of an obvious conclusion, given the path that it started (which, as I said, did not seem characteristic of de Moret). The letters sent between the two lovers are repetitive and boring. We get it already. Move on. And that brings me to the narration. I found the narrator too machine-gun sounding in the way he read, and when it got to The Dove, the tone of Isabelle de Lautrec was grating - we know she is desperate, we know she is anxious, but it was just overdone and irritating to listen to.
I loved all the Musketeer books, I loved the Count of Monte Cristo. I will still read (or listen to) other books by Dumas. But this one was a huge disappointment, and I think the publishers and the translator try to make it sound much better than it is. Listening to the translator’s notes at the end, I felt this very much.

Part action, part gossip, part annoying

This book is made up of 2 different Dumas works. The largest part is a combination of swashbuckling, political intrigue and court gossip in the mold of the musketeer series. The musketeers don't appear but Richelieu, Mme de Chevreuse and others do. I enjoyed that, including the many digressions to tell stories about court figures. The unfortunate part is that the work was unfinished so the author stuck onto it a totally different piece by Dumas. That one is an epistolary novel in a very different style, flowery and long-winded. Theoretically the hero of that piece is the one who was fighting and flirting in the main book, but he has become a poetic wimp. John Lee does a good job and mostly pronounces the names and places right, but that makes it more jarring when some are wrong.