“The Dove”, which is a short epistolary story, which Ellsworth chooses to include as a conclusion to The Red Sphinx, is a series of letters between Isabelle de Lautrec and the Comte. The Comte de Moret is also more of a side character, albeit an important one.
I wonder if this reflects a shift in attitude based on age and life experience and is something that I’d like to research more. In The Red Sphinx, Dumas appears to look on the Cardinal with a fonder eye, emphasizing his support of Louis XIII, and his skills as a statesman. In The Three Musketeers, he is very much the villain. I thought this was going to center more on the actions of the Comte de Moret, but this is much more a story of Richelieu, at least, until the abrupt end of the original manuscript. While I enjoy the work of both translators, I feel like Pevear’s work is a bit clunky, and while it may be truer to the French in a word-for-word translation, it doesn’t flow as well as Ellsworth’s, and I’m a little sorry I didn’t opt for the Ellsworth translation of Musketeers.Īs for the story itself, I have to admit I was a little thrown off by the cover blurb and by the treatment of Cardinal Richelieu. Unfortunately, I cannot speak or read French, so I cannot read these in their original language, which is a shame. The difference between the two styles is fascinating to me, and just goes to show how much can be changed in the feel and flow of a novel by translators. Last month, even though I own a Lawrence Ellsworth translation of The Three Musketeers, I opted for the Richard Pevear translation. Because this hadn’t been published when I originally read The Three Musketeers, this is my first time reading this particular sequel. My #YearofDumas continues with this lost sequel to The Three Musketeers: The Red Sphinx.
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