Twenty Years After

A Sequel to The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas

A new translation of Dumas’s rousing sequel to The Three Musketeers, picking up twenty years after the conclusion of that classic novel and continuing the adventures of the valiant d’Artagnan and his three loyal friends.

When Twenty Years After opens it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d’Artagnan will find, these are problems that can’t be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. It’s in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumas’s great heroes.

A true literary achievement, Twenty Years After is long overdue for a modern reassessment—and a new translation. As an added inducement to readers, Lawrence Ellsworth has discovered a “lost” chapter that was overlooked in the novel’s original publication, and is included in none of the available English translations to date—until now.

One of the most famous French writers of the nineteenth century, Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) is best remembered for his novels The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask. These books have sold millions of copies worldwide.

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Endorsements & Reviews

“Translator Lawrence Ellsworth has triumphantly returned to Dumas’s Musketeers cycle with this fresh translation of Twenty Years After. In addition to restoring Dumas’s snappy dialogue and snarky humor that the Victorian-era translation stifled, Ellsworth restores Chapter XXIX, which has been absent from nearly every British and American version since the nineteenth century. Eminently readable.” Historical Novels Review

“Dumas never stints the action, witty dialogue and surprising plot developments.” The Washington Post

"As far as I can tell, Lawrence Ellsworth is responsible for one of the biggest literary projects happening right now in the English language. Ellsworth is working on a massive and daunting scale. He’s translating the entirety of Alexandre Dumas’s stories of The Three Musketeers (1844), all 1.5 million words of it. The third volume, Twenty Years After, appeared late last year. In Ellsworth’s hands, these stories of swashbuckling and all-for-one-and-one-for-all friendship feel new again. The Three Musketeers is an enormously entertaining tale for the ages." The Brooklyn Rail

"Newly translated, a sequel to The Three Musketeers is as fresh as ever. In Lawrence Ellsworth’s excellent, compulsively readable translation, The Red Sphinx is just the book to see you through the January doldrums. And maybe those of February, too." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Michael Dirda Washington Post [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]

"The Red Sphinx sparkles and shines in a new translation. Races along with pointed humor and broad quips. Fun permeates this big book. The rest of this year's fiction will have to look sharp: An old master has just set the bar very, very high." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Christian Science Monitor [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers

"Dumas’s trademark gifts at crafting engaging historical romances are amply in evidence in this lengthy yet fast-paced volume. Ellsworth’s translation captures a complete narrative. A very entertaining epic." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Publishers Weekly (starred)

"The test of a translator is his capacity to capture this characteristic interplay of the heroic and the ribald; the sincere and the ironic; the vanished past and the approaching present. And at this task Ellsworth succeeds, giving us a Three Musketeers with more clarity, energy, and simplicity than any previous English edition." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Open Letters Review [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series

"A royal treat for fans of historical fiction. I am confident that librarians and English literature teachers around the world are leaping for joy at the publication of The Red Sphinx, and I join them in this excitement." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Bookreporter [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]

"Fans of The Three Musketeers can rejoice in the 800-page English translation of this largely forgotten sequel." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] Newsday [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]

"There is swash and buckle aplenty, and even plumage if that’s what does it for you. And it is great fun." [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series] The Spectator [Praise for Lawrence Ellsworth’s translations of Dumas's Musketeers series]