Review of The Man in the Iron Mask

Title : The Man In The Iron Mask

Author : Alexandre Dumas

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The Man in The Iron Mask is the part of classical literature written by Alexander Dumas. It is the sequel of “The Three Musketeers”- Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan. The title only gives the hint that the story holds a character which is wearing a mask. The only reason behind wearing the mask and the face behind the mask will be known when the story goes on unleashing every chapter one by one.

The story begins with illuminating the character of Aramis who is a priest and was a former musketeer. Aramis and Porthos visits to meet Philippe the twin brother of King Louis. Philippe was in prison at that time. Aramis wants Philippe to agree on the thought- “Switching of the King Louis and Philippe”.

Then in a party Aramis abducts the king and switches him with Philippe. The real king wants Fouquet to be arrested. But on the order of Aramis, Philippe who was in the place of real king discards the thought of arresting Fouquet in-front of everyone. Then Aramis uncover the secret of switching to Fouquet. But after knowing all this Fouquet frees the real king and makes everything like it was earlier. After that Aramis and Porthos run away from there on island named Belle-Isle.

The story takes a twist and Porthos is died in a battle. Then Aramis was alone and he runs to Spain. There is another former musketeer named Athos who was living with his son named Raoul. Raoul fall in love with Louise la Vallerie. But he can’t get his love so he went to Africa in a battle. He wants to die as he believes he will die definitely one day because of his incomplete amour. Then Raoul is died in the battle and this news makes his father Athos numb ultimately he also dies. The story ends up holding on so many episodes.

The author is successful in creating a very good plot. Most of the parts story are always attention grabbing. The writing fashion of the author was really impressive and the way he had written some of the events in the story are compelling. The dialogues which are used in the whole story are realistic. The narration of the story is moderate. I found the writing style of the story easy.

The story is complex to understand. The beginning would be difficult to understand if the reader has not read “The Three Musketeers”. The man who wears the mask and why he wears the mask is clear at the end of the story. He was the twin brother of the King Philippe.

The title focuses on the character of Philippe but in the story only a small part is depicted regarding him. I like only a few characters in the book. I found less humor in this book. The chapters are rolling from one phase to another which are not at all unrelated so tuning up the things require some efforts for a novice reader.

A story having ingredients like love, friendship and betrayal. Recommended to all those who wants to experience a ride of adventure consisting of these ingredients.

Rating : 3/5

Reviewer : Megha Biloniya

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