Louise de la Balliere is the middle section of The Vicomte de Bragelonne or, Ten Years After. Against a tender love story, Dumas continues the suspense which began with The Vicomte de Bragelonne and will end with The Man in the Iron Mask. It is early summer, 1661, and the royal court of France is in turmoil. Can it be true that the King is in love with the Duchess d'Orleans? Or has his eye been caught by the sweet and gentle Louise de la Valliere? No one is more anxious to know the answer than Raoul, son of Athos, who loves Louise more than life itself. Behind the scenes, dark intrigues are afoot. Louis XIV is intent on making himself absolute master of France. Imminent crisis shakes the now aging Musketeers and d'Artagnan out of their complacent retirement, but is the cause just? This new edition of the classic English translation of 1857 is richly annotated and sets Dumas's invigorating tale in its historical and cultural context.
Louise de la Valliere
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By C. Heneghan
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
To read the whole 3 musketeers canon, this must be included, as it is volume 4 of the five. It covers the bit just before the Man in the Iron Mask, and reading this certainly makes TMITIM alot more understandable. Reading the whole lot also tells you that none of the films of TTM of TMITIM have done the stories justice.
They are a retelling of the history of the French court over the period from the about midpoint of Louis XIII's reign (TTM) to the early 1660s, when Louis XIV was taking power from Mazarin. The stories are, like all Dumas's histories, heavily romanticised, historical characters being freely - loosely even -intermingled with fictional and semi-fictional (e.g d'Artagnan), and C17 activities being rewritten for C19 sensitivities - King and mistresses never actually seem to bonk, for example, passionate kissing symbolising it all unspoken.
This translation, with copious historical notes, is a good rollicking read, and highly recommended.
They are a retelling of the history of the French court over the period from the about midpoint of Louis XIII's reign (TTM) to the early 1660s, when Louis XIV was taking power from Mazarin. The stories are, like all Dumas's histories, heavily romanticised, historical characters being freely - loosely even -intermingled with fictional and semi-fictional (e.g d'Artagnan), and C17 activities being rewritten for C19 sensitivities - King and mistresses never actually seem to bonk, for example, passionate kissing symbolising it all unspoken.
This translation, with copious historical notes, is a good rollicking read, and highly recommended.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is part of the final instalment of the musketeers trilogy, and this is no doubt where much confusion arises. After the completion of The Three Musketeers in 1844 and Twenty Years After in 1845 Dumas once again returned to the musketeers for one final outing. Published in serial form between 1847 and 1850 The Vicomte De Bragelonne is a massive work. So massive in fact that it is normally not published as one edition (as is the case with the current Oxford edition) the first part of which is, confusingly, normally called The Vicomte De Bragelonne. The second and third parts are given the titles Louise De La Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask respectively.
Louise De La Valliere should not, therefore, be read out of sequence as it will not make much sense. It is the middle part of a long novel, during which Dumas spends most of his time setting up for the climax that will take place in The Man in The Iron Mask. As such the book can, at times, seem slow and inconsequential with the musketeers barley appearing at all. It is however a good story, although not what we might have expected and it is definitely worth getting through not least because The Man in the Iron Mask is so fantastic and will not make sense without this.
Louise is a beautiful and well told story, if a little slower than one might expect from the author.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book II in the trilogy, less of the Musketeers and more palace intrigue and romance
6 July 2007
By Misfit
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
It's 1661 and Louis the XIV is taking over the reign of government from his ministers. D'Artagnan is captain of the Musketeers, Aramis is now a bishop, Porthos is as big, strong and hungry as ever and Raoul, the son of Athos, is still madly in love with Louise De La Valliere. What we do see of Aramis he is plotting and scheming and has a strong interest in a mysterious prisoner in the Bastille.
Louis' effeminate brother Philippe (Monsieur) has just married Henrietta (Madame) of England, but Henrietta only has eyes for Louis, an attraction that Louis returns. In order to allay suspicion of Louis' jealous brother, Louis feigns an attraction to Louise (who is one of Madame's ladies in waiting), but finds himself trapped by his own schemes when he falls in love with her. LOL, some of the antics involved in trying to be alone with Louise that are constantly hampered by Madame's efforts to keep them apart.
This book is different from the preceding novels of the Musketeers -- there is little if any of the swashbuckling, sword fights and derring do that the other books contained. This book focuses on the love story of Louis and Louise, along with the pomp, intrigues and scandals of Louis XIV's court. Although some readers will be disappointed at the virtual absence of the Musketeers in this book, I was fascinated at the glimpses of French history and court life which was beautifully sprinkled with laugh out loud humor reading the antics of the French court, most especially the "revolving" confessions at the Royal Oak tree.
If you've come this far, you've already read The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte De Bragelonne. The Vicomte De Bragelonne was originally published in French as one large novel, but is broken into three by English publishers, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere and finally culminating in The Man in the Iron Mask. As other reviewers have noted, this book is more palace intrigue and less of the Musketeers and not everyone will enjoy it as thoroughly as I did, I loved the antics of the French court and had many a good laugh. Dumas is just brilliant (as always) and his dialogue (as always) is among the finest I've ever come across. Highly recommended.
Louis' effeminate brother Philippe (Monsieur) has just married Henrietta (Madame) of England, but Henrietta only has eyes for Louis, an attraction that Louis returns. In order to allay suspicion of Louis' jealous brother, Louis feigns an attraction to Louise (who is one of Madame's ladies in waiting), but finds himself trapped by his own schemes when he falls in love with her. LOL, some of the antics involved in trying to be alone with Louise that are constantly hampered by Madame's efforts to keep them apart.
This book is different from the preceding novels of the Musketeers -- there is little if any of the swashbuckling, sword fights and derring do that the other books contained. This book focuses on the love story of Louis and Louise, along with the pomp, intrigues and scandals of Louis XIV's court. Although some readers will be disappointed at the virtual absence of the Musketeers in this book, I was fascinated at the glimpses of French history and court life which was beautifully sprinkled with laugh out loud humor reading the antics of the French court, most especially the "revolving" confessions at the Royal Oak tree.
If you've come this far, you've already read The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte De Bragelonne. The Vicomte De Bragelonne was originally published in French as one large novel, but is broken into three by English publishers, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere and finally culminating in The Man in the Iron Mask. As other reviewers have noted, this book is more palace intrigue and less of the Musketeers and not everyone will enjoy it as thoroughly as I did, I loved the antics of the French court and had many a good laugh. Dumas is just brilliant (as always) and his dialogue (as always) is among the finest I've ever come across. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
louise dl la valliere
very easy download and an extremely good read,as a fan of the musketeer genre i thoroughly enjoyed this series thanks
Published 1 month ago by jimmibob
1.0 out of 5 stars
boring!
Having read many of Dumas' books, including The 3 Musketeers and Twenty years after I was reall looking forward to the Vicomte de Bragleonne trilogy. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2007 by Mike Bostock
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtship and Coquetry
The middle section of this final musketeer trilogy is situated primarily at Fontainbleu, and the court of Louis XIV. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb tale of action & character!
It is very hard to get hold of this book (although I recommend 'Ten Years After' in one volume if you get it), but well worth reading - fans will want to read the volume in series. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2000
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