Les Trois Mousquetaires

Les Trois Mousquetaires ("The three musketeers") is a celebrated novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Widely known in English as The Three Musketeers.

The novel

A French historical adventure novel written and first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 established the Second Republic.

Set in the period 1625 and 1628, the novel tells of the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although d'Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he is befriended by three of the most formidable musketeers of the age – Athos, Porthos and Aramis, "the three musketeers" or "the three inseparables" – and becomes involved in affairs of state and at court.

Translations and adaptations

The novel has seen innumerable translations and adaptations for all media over the years.

(For a list of French adaptations alone, see the French Wikipedia entry on Les Trois Mousquetaires; and for English adaptations and translations, the English Wikipedia [1] entry on The Three Musketeers)

Adaptations and translations in South Africa

Adapted as a stage play by Dieter Reible and translated into Afrikaans as Die Drie Musketiers by Tjaart Potgieter.

Performance history in South Africa

1899: The Three Musketeers presented by Leonard Rayne and Alfred Paumier at the Gaiety Theatre, Johannesburg in June.

1899: Presented by W.J. Holloway and his New English Company as part of a season of plays performed at the Opera House, Cape Town in July.

1900: The Three Musketeers produced by Leonard Rayne at the Port Elizabeth Opera House on December 24.

1902: The Three Musketeers produced by Leonard Rayne at the Opera House, Cape Town in March, directed by Frank de Jong.

1905: The Three Musketeers presented by Leonard Rayne and his company in August at His Majesty's Theatre in Johannesburg.

1915: The Three Musketeers presented by Leonard Rayne and his company in March at the Standard Theatre in Johannesburg.

Sources

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Trois_Mousquetaires

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers

Eastern Province Herald, December 21, 1900.

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

Go to ESAT Bibliography