The Red Sphinx picks up right where The Three Musketeers left off and doesn't miss a beat! And I am so glad Dumas felt that more of their story should be told! A Swashbuckling ride of adventure and high romance, this is not one to be missed!

Would have loved to read this one, but alas it never was downloaded. I will review when I obtain a copy

The first thing you need to know before you buy this book is whilst it is billed as a Three Musketeers sequel, it's not really about the musketeers, it's more about Richelieu and you won't get the main characters you are expecting - that said if you take this in to account it isn't a bad read at all and I have given it a solid four stars - the writing style, language used are all classic Dumas which really helps carry this one - 4 stars

Below are three quotes from this Dumas novel that let the reader know what they're in for:

"Readers who already know these historical facts may complain that these are unnecessary details that just get in the way of the picturesque and the novel. Such readers are welcome to pass over these details, but we included them for those unfamiliar with history or for those who, attracted by the ambitious title of this historical romance, hope to learn something from it."

"Our readers may find this chapter a bit long and dry, but our respect for history leads us to reproduce every detail of this great meeting in the Luxembourg that decided on the war in Italy, including all the speeches of the two cardinals. Our claim is that a historical novel should entertain both those readers who know the history it's based upon, and those who are learning about it from what we write."

"The gravity of the historical events we recount sometimes distracts us from the joys or sorrows they bring to the hearts of our characters."

The first two quotes allude to the wealth of historical detail in these book. I think Dumas has a point here, and one of the reasons I enjoy historical novels is indeed to learn something from them. The third quote - where Dumas admit that sometimes he lets those historical details distract him from the emotional drama of the fictional story - is unfortunately true, and it is a weakness in the book, more so than in other Dumas novels I've read. There are, as one should expect, scenes of swashbuckling action, surprising lustiness and scandal, and laugh-out-loud humor; but the plot as a whole is rather meandering and unfocused. It did not move quickly. You can tell that Dumas is extremely enthused by the period in history where he sets his tales, and it's clear as well that he feels passionately about the figure of Cardinal Richelieu, around whom the book is woven. But still, the story isn't really going anywhere, although it contains quite a few engaging scenes along the way. Honestly, I think this is why Dumas left the novel unfinished. The seventy-five existing chapters were originally published in serial format before the tale sputtered out, and were not collected for publication until decades later, in 1946. This is the first English translation to become available.

However, included here as an 'ending', or possibly a coda to "The Red Sphinx" (or, "The Comte de Moret,") is a separate novella, "The Dove," which is also a previously untranslated work. This dramatically sentimental tale of tragically separated lovers who languish alone could not be more different in tone and writing style, although the setting (and characters) may be the same. It's tightly plotted, concise, emotional (possibly to a fault) and poetic. It's a tale to read while languidly picnicking in the gardens of a folly, or reclining on a bench outside a romantic grotto. I loved it.

Overall, I would say, if you are a Dumas fan, of course, the publication of this book is a major event, and you should definitely read it. If you are not yet familiar with Dumas, however, don't start here. Go for one of the more well-known classics. However, even in that case, this volume is STILL worth getting for 'The Dove,' which is a quick read.

I leave you with two more quotes.

One thought-provoking:

"In every society throughout history, there has always been a conservative party that opposes all new ideas as violations of tradition. This party prefers the known routine to an unknown future: that is to say, progress. The adherents of the status quo, favoring stagnation over movement, death versus life, saw in Richelieu a revolutionary whose efforts to reform society would just cause unrest. And Richelieu was not just the enemy of conservatives, but of the entire Catholic world. Without him, Europe would have been at peace."

And one simply clever:

"Wine tended to bring out the religion in him, as it put him in a state of grace."

Many thanks to Pegasus Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

The Red Sphinx follows on from the Three Musketeers, with the focus on Cardinal Richeliue, and one Comte de Moret, illegitimate brother of King Louis XIII of France (1620s onwards).

I took a little while to read this one as I had to cast my mind back to the pivotal characters from the Three Musketeers and took a crash refresher course in French history.

Having read a lot of Dumas' I was eager to read this one. It is one I might consider adding to my own personal library as one can never have too much swash and buckle.

I have always enjoyed reading the stories of Alexandre Dumas as French literature was an integral part of my days at school, especially with the Three Musketeers. So it was a little bit strange for me to read Dumas in English!
I admit that i have never heard of this book of Dumas before, so i was doubly pleased when reading it. And the translation work was really good, at least from my humble point of view.

Now, about the story itself, it was quite interesting, as all Dumas's stories are, but it did not feature the famous three Musketeers at all. It treated the events that happened after their story. Of course, a Sequel to the Three Musketeers cannot possible work without the one and only Cardinal Richelieu, but it introduced another very interesting character, Antoine de Bourbon Comte de Moret and his tragic love story with Isabelle de Lautrec.

I liked how Dumas always included real life events and shaped his stories around them, many times it felt like a history lesson, a very interesting one. The way he painted the court life, the very diverse set of characters, the intrigues, the betrayals, the love affairs, the wars, the treaties, the loss and the victory. Each time i closed the book, i felt like leaving a time capsule, where i was for a moment in the France of the 17th century.

The fascinating thing about this particular book is that Dumas never actually finished it. But as it turned out, he wrote in some previous period a short story featuring the "end" of the story of Le Comte de Moret and Isabelle. The publisher of this edition have done a great work putting the original manuscript with the short story, it would have been rather dissapointing otherwise.
And for me, that short story was the best part of the whole book. Dumas was able to conjure the pure feelings of two broken souls in so few pages, those words were so powerful.

I definitely recommend this book the classics lovers, you would enjoy it a lot.
As for me, i think at some point i'll want to read it again in French. I don't know why, but i always feel that there is something magical to read the words that author put himself.

Gave it three chapters and still couldn't find a relatable story line amongst all the trivia and name dropping

Well, it may be only January but I think I already know one book which will be appearing on my books of the year list this December! Having read and enjoyed all of Alexandre Dumas’ d’Artagnan novels over the last few years (beginning with a re-read of The Three Musketeers and ending with The Man in the Iron Mask), imagine my delight when I discovered that Dumas had written yet another Musketeers sequel – The Red Sphinx, which is being made available in a new English translation this month. Bearing in mind that this is a later Dumas novel, written towards the end of his career on the urging of his publishers, I was pleased to find, almost as soon as I started reading, that it was living up to my expectations!

I don’t think it’s at all necessary to have read The Three Musketeers first; The Red Sphinx is set in the same world – that is, in the 17th century at the court of Louis XIII of France – but it also stands alone and if you’re hoping to be reacquainted with d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, you’ll be disappointed as the four friends don’t appear at all in this book. However, it does contain many of the same elements that made the original novel so much fun to read. There are dashing young heroes and beautiful heroines; duels, battles and sieges; spies and smugglers; secret messages, clever disguises, letters written in code – and political and romantic intrigue in abundance.

Beginning only a few weeks after the events of The Three Musketeers ended, the novel opens in Paris at the Inn of the Painted Beard where a hunchbacked marquis is trying to persuade swordsman Etienne Latil to assassinate a rival. When Latil hears that the man he is required to kill is the Comte de Moret, illegitimate son of the late King Henri IV, he refuses to accept the mission and a fight breaks out during which both Latil and the marquis are injured. As fate would have it, upstairs in the inn at that very moment are the Comte de Moret himself and one of the Queen’s ladies, who have met in disguise to arrange for Moret to attend a meeting with the Queen.

At the meeting, Moret, who has only recently returned to France from Italy, delivers some letters to the Queen, Anne of Austria, the King’s mother Marie de’ Medici, and the King’s brother, Gaston d’Orleans, and learns that they are plotting the downfall of Cardinal Richelieu, the Red Sphinx of the title. Now, in The Three Musketeers, the Cardinal is portrayed as a villain; in The Red Sphinx, he is very much a hero. With an intelligence network stretching across half of Europe, he is shown to be a formidably clever man but also a loyal one who always acts with France’s best interests at heart – and although he’s accused of having too much influence over the king, it’s evident that he is trying to use his influence for the good of the country.

I can’t possibly describe the plot of this novel in any more detail; it’s so complex that I wouldn’t know where to start. I think it’s enough to say that most of it is devoted to the power struggle between Cardinal Richelieu and his allies on one side and the two queens and Gaston d’Orleans on the other, with the ineffectual young king caught in the middle. Dumas spends a lot of time introducing us to each character who plays a part in the story, even the minor ones, and although this makes the book longer than it probably needed to be, I didn’t mind because the amusing anecdotes he provides about them are so entertaining. He also includes whole chapters dedicated to explaining the political situation in France and across Europe or to describing the progress of key battles – and I’ll confess to not finding these very interesting. In general, though, I thought the balance was right and despite the length of the book it held my attention from beginning to end.

One important thing to know about The Red Sphinx is that it was never actually finished! In his introduction to the new edition, Lawrence Ellsworth (who is also responsible for the wonderful translation) suggests that maybe Dumas struggled to write an ending because he had already done this in an earlier work. This means that the novel comes to a rather abrupt end with several plot points left unresolved. Annoying – but not as annoying as it could have been, because Ellsworth comes to the rescue by pairing The Red Sphinx with another little-known Dumas work, The Dove. This is a short story (actually more of a novella) which continues the adventures of two of our main characters, the Comte de Moret and Isabelle de Lautrec, and brings at least some of the threads of the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The Dove was written earlier in Dumas’ career than The Red Sphinx and has a very different feel, being told in the form of letters carried by a dove. It’s an unashamedly sentimental story, but I loved it. I found it beautifully romantic and perfectly paced, with the suspense building and building from one letter to the next.

I will, of course, be reading more by Dumas – I have an upcoming re-read of one of my favourite books, The Count of Monte Cristo, planned – but I was also so impressed by Lawrence Ellsworth’s translation that I’ve had a look to see what else he has done. It seems that he has also edited The Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure, which sounds very appealing. One to add to the wishlist, I think!