<DIV><B>Unfailingly exciting and a complete joy to read, this new translation brings Dumas's original to buoyant life. </B><BR><BR>Four men—the young Gascon D'Artagnan and the legendary musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—are ready to sacrifice everything, from their purses to their lives, for the common good. Propelled by the wicked machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and the magnetic Milady de Winter, the devoted friends adventure across seas and over rooftops, from masked balls to a medieval prison, to defend the honor of the Queen and the life of the King. Dashing, knockabout, romantic, violent, tongue-in-cheek, chilling, and tragic, <I>The Three Musketeers</I> is a wonderful piece of storytelling. Will Hobson's translation gives the dialogue the same charge that it has in the French, to make it as funny, vivacious, and immediate.</div>