The Man Should Never Have Worn an Iron Mask

I’ll start off by saying this: I am reviewing a book that I never finished. I debated this for the longest time, but decided it wasn’t worth the frustration of finishing just to be able to write a review. So I guess you can see what I think of The Man in the Iron Mask, huh? At least this way I don’t have to worry about revealing too much plot…

Speaking of which…

Plot
The Three Musketeers have changed very much. D’Artagnan is still Captain of the Musketeers, Aramis is a priest, and the others never really figured into the story much. It is a clash between these old friends and powerful giants of France that drives the story. D’Artagnan is still the loyal King’s man (Louis XV), while Aramis is hoping that a little known secret…a deadly one…will propel him to the Holy See.

You see, Louis XIV had two sons, Louis XV and Phillipe. In order that the first son (older by only minutes) would not have his reign contested, Louis the Elder sent Phillipe to a sort of foster family, where he was strictly watched an forbidden, above all else, to have a mirror. You see, they were not only twins, but identical twins. The queen, however, could not stand the thought of not knowing where one of her sons was or having any part of his life, so she maintained a very private and secret connection to Phillipe’s “parents.” One day young Phillipe became curious over a letter his “father” got in the post. While reading it, he dropped it into the well. From there things snowballed—Phillipe knew the secret of his birth…or he must? In reality, no, he didn’t, and was imprisoned in the Bastille for a dozen years before a secret visitor came. None other than our Aramis.

Aramis revealed the secret of Phillipe’s birth and offered to elevate him to the throne if Aramis could receive his nomination for Cardinal—and perhaps support when the Pope died…. Phillipe granted this. Next Aramis got an order of release from the Minister of Prisons for some lesser prisoner. By cleverly switching the original letter and the forged one in front of the head of the Bastille (who Aramis had gotten drunk), he secured the immediate release of Phillipe. Then in the night the King was abducted through a secret trap-door and Phillipe was inserted in his place.

Aramis revealed this deadly secret to Louis XV’s Minister of Finance in hopes of gaining support. Instead, the Minister threatened to tell the authorities and have Aramis and Phillipe killed and Louis reinstated. Aramis fled without even warning Phillipe. In the circus that followed, Louis was restored to power and Phillipe put away in an iron mask. Aramis was in exile with Porthos. D’Artagnan had known Aramis was up to something, but nothing this major…

Critique
And here, friends, is where I stopped. I was so angry that I almost tore the book in half. No joke. If you had all this planned out, you were going to be Pope, your friend king, and if your secret was spilled you’d be forced into exile (or killed) and lose all your dreams, would you have fled? Or just killed the Minister (who was under arrest—and could have been escaping if necessary to justify)? Aramis just runs off? That’s it? I can’t believe Dumas left such a gaping hole in what up till that time was a magnificent work.

I was ashamed of how poorly he developed Phillipe, and how he pitted two old friends against one another—but it made the plot work, for awhile. At the point I stopped, however, everything just fell apart. I couldn’t keep reading a novel that had a hole in it the size of a cannon-ball. I’m sorry, Dumas, I had to stop reading this one. It just broke right there, but congratulations on a coherent, tight plot up until then. As with Musketeers, it was a little confusing in the beginning (just because most people so little understand the time and rules of etiquette), but the stiffness was soon gone, until the aforementioned point. I’ve got to rate this one star even though it is good for about two hundred pages.