The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, pere

This book is well known because of a 1993 movie, and a remake in 2011.  I have not seen the 1993 movie since its release, and have not seen the 2011 movie at all.  But, I would venture a guess that the plots of the movies do not come close to doing justice to the plot of this book.

This book is an excellent read and has such a complicated plot that I do not think movie makers could possibly fit the entire thing into one film.  The reason for this is that there are no side plots.  What you think are side plots actually turn out to be essential to the main plot happening "according to plan" and working out for the good of the main characters.

To attempt a nutshell plot synopsis, D'Artagnan travels to Paris to become a musketeer.  He meets three, Aramis, Porthos, and Athos, and his desire to join their ranks is not realized right away (it takes more than half the book).  Each of the men has their own little love interest and history, as well as a faithful servant.  The book was originally published in installments, which explains the somewhat episodic feel of the plot's events.  But, each scene is absolutely necessary to the main story arc, and the development of the characters is quite enjoyable.

The main villain could be said to be the Cardinal Richelieu, but in my opinion, his true evil-ness is not fully revealed the way it is done in the movie version.  More villainous is the Lady de Winter.  She appears early on, but we do not know who she is yet.  Later, she becomes a target for D'Artagnan, who wants information from her, and still later, the narrative leaves the Musketeers and follows her to England.  It is there that we discover just how evil she is, and in the final few pages of her England journey, the light slowly dawned on me that she had really overcome the setbacks laid on her by "the good guys," and accomplished her task even while being completely locked up in a prison.  Although she caused the destruction of an innocent man by psychological manipulation, I was willing to concede that it was ok, because her performance was truly brilliant, so she deserved to win that one, even if she was evil.  Which makes me wonder, did she actually perform her psychological manipulation on ME instead?

I find myself wishing someone would make a movie with her character exactly as she was originally authored (compare the 2011 movie, which makes her out to be a deadly assassin), perhaps played by Tilda Swinton.  I would even speculate that although the book is called "The Three Musketeers," the main character is actually Lady de Winter.  Her story is the one that unites all the side plots and the others' stories into each other to make them essential.  From an acting perspective, she and Athos have the most substance with which an actor skilled at subtle facial expressions could work.

I recommend this book to anyone with a lot of time (it is a 520 page book), a love for the classics, an interest in historical novels, high adventure, and court intrigue.  Also, there are a lot of big words.  I'd say high school and up; maybe a mature middle schooler would enjoy it.

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

This book is not quite as interesting to me as Persuasion was, possibly because the main character is 17 instead of 28 like in Persuasion.  She is flighty, like a normal 17 year old, but because I am more mature now, I disapproved of a lot of her choices of friends.

In the beginning of the book, we see her visiting Bath, England with a family friend.  There, she engages in high society life, attending balls, dinner parties, and the theater.  Eventually her time there ends and she is invited to the home of a friend, Elenor Tilney, where she engages in an embarrassing leap of the imagination, as teenage girls will sometimes do, and in an unrelated note, falls in love with Elenor's brother Henry.  There is additional unrelated plot which, while tangent to the story, still adds dimension and interest.  I did not care for this one as much as I did Persuasion, but it was still a good book.

I'd recommend this book only to Jane Austen fans, or perhaps to other 17-year-olds, or those who want to remember what it was like being a 17-year-old girl.

Persuasion

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

This book is awesome.  It is made even awesomer by the fact that it is the first book I've read digitally.  (New phone, new technology, all Jane Austen works are free...)  You can look forward to more reviews of Jane Austen works soon.

The book tells the story of Anne Elliot, a single woman of 28, who had, years before, been persuaded by family and a close friend, to turn down an engagement to a man she loved.  She did, and regretted it.  Years later, he is back in the picture, and they struggle to reconcile all that happened.

The book is well written, and has intricate plot, with the reader always wondering which character will marry which.  There is some jumping around and mind-changing on the part of the characters, but in the end, everyone is neatly paired off, like an Ancient Greek romantic comedy.

Why does this book attract me?  Last year, my close friend's love story appeared to be that of Pride and Prejudice.  She had found her Mr. Darcy, argued with him, and eventually fell in love and married him.  I loved that story, but feel persuasion is a story I can identify with more in my own life.  I understand what it is to wait years for the right person to come along, or to see people in my life behaving in a somewhat flighty manner, flitting from lover to lover while onlookers wonder when the final match will occur.  I only hope my Captain Wentworth can write love letters quite as well as Jane Austen's Captain Wentworth!

I recommend this book to everyone.  Period.  It is an easy read, fairly short, fun.  Ok, it is sort of a chick-flick type of book so maybe not all guys would enjoy it.  But definitely SOME guys would.

The Heritage of Lancaster County series

The Heritage of Lancaster County series, by Beverly Lewis

These three books (The Shunning, The Confession, and The Reckoning) tell the tale of a young Amish woman who struggles with being Amish.  Katie's discovery that she was adopted from an "English" (non-Amish) teenage mother only fuels her desire to leave the Amish world behind.  The close-knit quality of the Amish community is a struggle for her to leave, but by the end of the first book, she has left Pennsylvania a shunned woman and is in search of her birth mother.  The second book deals with Katie's (now called Katherine) dying birth-mother and the complexities of being thrown suddenly into another culture, one that appears less honest and forgiving than the one she came from.  This book also introduces the aspect of star-crossed romance, as a former love long thought to be dead attempts to find "his Katie girl" again.  In the third book, Katherine, now a wealthy heiress, returns to Pennsylvania in search of answers to spiritual questions she had had since before Daniel was thought to have died.  Her birth mother's testimony and death had fueled those questions, and the third book deals a lot with Katie's spiritual journey more than her physical journey to find her mother.

The author of this book series is a Christian and the book series is published by a Christian publishing company, so do not expect the main character's spiritual journey to end in any way other than with Christian results.  That being said, the books weave common questions that many people have into the plot line, and are often answered by wise characters that come in and out of Katie's life.  It is quite refreshing to read and experience Christian philosophy in a novel form rather than the sometimes-dry books about Christian theory and apologetics.

One thing that struck me, and perhaps slightly confused me, is that the author's note states that she grew up in Amish country and consulted many Amish for details about Amish life and religious philosophies, and she is indebted to them for their help on the project.  Yet from reading the book, I got the impression that she believes, or at least the character of Katie believes, that the Amish are not "saved" Christians.  This would imply that while Amish believe non-Amish have no hope of reaching heaven, Christians believe the same about the Amish.  If this is the case, it is curious to me that the author's Amish friends would be willing to help her on a book project that seems to derail their religious beliefs.  Perhaps I am over-thinking or misinterpreting the book, but that was one of the first points that came to mind when a friend brought up the topic of the Amish.

One other thing I had a minor issue with is that the details that go into inheriting a wealthy estate in upstate New York seem to have been unrealistically glossed over with, "the lawyer is handling everything."  But I admit those details were not pertinent to the storyline, and at this point I am just being nit-picky.

Overall, this book is a very good read.  Although some men might enjoy it, in a movie format it would probably be considered a chick-flick.  I'd recommend it to everyone, but most men probably would not take my suggestion.  I'd also recommend this book to anyone interested in Amish culture, particularly the details of Amish shunnings, since this book explores the technical and also emotional aspects of a shunning.

Summerhill Secrets Series

Summerhill Secrets Series, by Beverly Lewis

This is a series of children's books which I had read years ago, probably in the 7th grade.  I re-read them sometime during October but have taken my pretty time procrastinated in writing about them.  The main character is Merry Hanson, who lives in Pennsylvania Amish country.  She is not Amish, but distantly related to them, and has many friends who are Amish.

The books all read like children's mystery novels, but not all the plots of each book are mystery.  The first book, Whispers Down the Lane, involves Merry's friend Lissa, who has run away from home and has asked Merry to hide her.  Merry finds herself torn between her desire to help her friend, and the possible consequences of harboring a runaway.  Book two is Secret in the Willows and this book is indeed a mystery novel.  Someone had been vandalizing an Amish home, and Merry believed the wrong person was being blamed for it.  Catch a Falling Star (book three) deals with the details of a middle school love triangle, or hexagon, or whatever convoluted shape teenage crushes can create.  Although that is not really a stage of my life I am interested in reliving, I did find the author's depiction of the complexities of middle school relationships to be quite accurate.  Book 4 is Night of the Fireflies and deals with Merry's backstory of losing her twin to cancer, and the events in the present which dredge up those past memories.  It is a significant book for helping readers in its target age group to identify feelings they might be having and discuss them openly with their parents, although it is still fiction and belongs in the children's fiction section of a bookstore, as opposed to the bereavement/grief or parenting sections.  Book five is A Cry in the Dark and continues with that theme when Merry discovers an abandoned baby in her gazebo.

In every book, there is a clear explanation, in terms middle-schoolers can understand, of Amish beliefs and practices and how they differ from "English" people (all non-Amish).  The books are engaging even for an adult to read, although many complex ideas an adult would think of are ignored (the lack of involvement of child protective services when a baby is discovered, simply because Merry's father is a doctor is one that comes to mind).  However, it is refreshing to go back to that child-like mindset and just forget all the complicated things for a while.

These books are very entertaining, and I would recommend them to teenage girls, teenage boys who aren't afraid to be caught reading a book with a female character, and anyone interested in Lancaster Amish lifestyles written from a child's simplistic viewpoint.