D’Artagnan is newly arrived in 1625 Paris. He is a young man with dreams of joining the King’s Musketeers, an elite group of soldiers who guard Louis XIII. But as soon as D’Artagnan rolls into town, some hot-headed behaviour leaves him facing a duel with no less than three Musketeers – Aramis, Athos and Porthos. On cooler reflection both D’Artagnan and the Musketeers think a duel might not be a good idea, but a sense of honour pushes them forward. They are saved and brought together, not by someone coming along to talk sense into them, but by a challenge from rivals, the guards of the King’s powerful counsellor, Cardinal Richelieu.

The Cardinal’s guard take much pleasure in pointing out that a duel breaks public disorder laws. So what do the Cardinal’s Guard do to teach these rascally Musketeers the meaning of the law? They fight them, which of course is itself public disorder. The Guards use the law as an excuse for an illegal ruckus. In the fight itself, D’Artagnan takes the side of the same Musketeers he had challenged to a duel. He is not trained in fencing, but because of his inexperience, he proves to be an unpredictable and lethal opponent. If he had known the rules, the suggestion is he would have been less effective.

This fight sums up many of the themes of The Three Musketeers – describing a world where allies and enemies, rule and misrule, the forces of order and chaos, are interchangeable.

And over all this I would suggest hangs the symbolic power of three. Three is a contradictory number, suggestive of the Holy Trinity, the divine plan, which Aramis mentions during one of his retreats for spiritual reflection. And yet three is also the number of trouble. While the Three Musketeers are a tight group of friends, the story is full of three sided relationships which are destructive. Louis XIII, Queen Anne of Austria, and the Duke of Buckingham. Constance Bonacieux, Monsieur Bonacieux, and D’Artagnan. D’Artagnan, Athos and Milady. Porthos, Madame Qouquenard and Monsieur Quoquenard. And Richelieu’s rejected attempt to enter a triangular relationship with Queen Anne leads to his vicious vendetta against her, which drives much of the plot.

In some ways The Three Musketeers reads as low brow, pulpy, adventure fiction. But for all that, there are fascinating contradictions playing out beneath the melodrama. This book is subtle entertainment, suggesting that there is order in chaos. I’m tempted to give The Three Musketeers three stars, which in this case would be the top rating.