Twenty Years After

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

A new translation of Dumas’s rousing sequel to The Three Musketeers, picking up 20 years after the conclusion of that classic novel and continuing the adventures of the valiant d’Artagnan and his three loyal friends

The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas’s most famous and enduring novel, completed its serial publication in the summer of 1844, and by the time of its book publication at the end of that year, readers were already demanding a sequel. They got it starting in January 1845, when the first chapters of Twenty Years After began to appear - but it wasn’t quite what they were expecting.

When Twenty Years After opens it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d’Artagnan will find, these are problems that can’t be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. It’s in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumas’s great heroes.

A true literary achievement, Twenty Years After is long overdue for a modern reassessment - and a new translation. As an added inducement, Lawrence Ellsworth has discovered a “lost” chapter that was overlooked in the novel’s original publication, and is included in none of the available English translations to date - until now.

©2019 Translation and original material copyright by Lawrence Schick (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Unabridged, except that half is left out

If this were sold as Twenty Years After, Part One of Two, it would deserve high marks. But it's sold as Twenty Years After, Unabridged, EVEN THOUGH IT'S ONLY HALF THE BOOK. So I've cut my Overall and Story ratings in half as well. For what it is, it's a worthy undertaking, but it's NOT an unabridged recording of Dumas' novel. (The remainder is to appear later, under a different title, presumably in order to make it harder for audiences to follow up on. Shrewd marketing all around.)

Don't get me wrong. As Part One of Two, this partial version is worth purchasing, and I look forward to the follow-up. There are plenty of series books in which the reader is left hanging at the end of individual installments, after all, so the mere fact that Twenty Years After has been split in two doesn't provoke that much indignation. But that it has been split in two should be ANNOUNCED on the cover and in the product listing. To release *half* of a famous novel as if it were the *entire* novel is just inexcusable.

14 people found this helpful

Not complete

Great recording! But it is not complete. It ends half way through which is a real bummer.

8 people found this helpful

Great - but where's the other half?

I was thoroughly enjoying this until it came to an abrupt end. Having searched for the concluding part without success I assume I'll now have to buy a different, complete version. Not only is that a waste of my precious credits but it's also very annoying and frustrating. That information should have been made plain. Will I buy the concluding part when it becomes available, after being forced to purchase a different version to complete the story now? No, of course not. A pity, because I was really enjoying this translation.

2 people found this helpful

Half missing

I love the story, I love the narration, but I’m so disappointed that the rest of the story isn’t included, which wasn’t clear from the description, or the translator’s notes at the beginning of the narration. I really hope the rest of it will be released soon with the same narrator.