The Three Gifts of Monsieur d'Artagnan the Elder -- Monsieur de Treville's Ante-Room -- The Audience -- Athos' Shoulder, Porthos' Shoulder-Belt, and Aramis' Handkerchief -- The King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guards -- His Majesty King Louis XIII -- The Musketeers at Home -- A Court Intrigue -- D'Artagnan takes Command -- A Seventeenth-Century Mouse-Trap -- The Plot Thickens -- George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham -- Monsieur Bonacieux -- The Man of Meung -- Soldiers and Magistrates -- In which Seguier, the Keeper of the Seals, looks again for the Chapel Bell which in his youth he rang so furiously -- The Bonacieux at Home -- The Lover and the Husband -- The Plan of Campaign -- The Journey -- My Lady de Winter -- The Merlaison Ballet -- The Tryst -- The Summer-House -- Porthos' Mistress -- Aramis' Thesis -- Athos' Wife -- The Return -- In Search of Equipment -- Milady -- English and French -- Lunch at the Lawyer's -- Mistress and Maid -- How Aramis and Porthos Found Their Equipment -- All Cats are Grey at Night -- Plans for Revenge -- Milady's Secret -- How Athos Found His Equipment Without Bestirring Himself -- A Vision -- The Cardinal -- The Siege of La Rochelle -- The Anjou Wine -- The Red Dovecote Inn -- The Advantage of Stove Pipes -- A Conjugal Scene -- The Bastion of St Gervais -- A Council of War -- A Family Affair -- Disaster -- Conversation Between Brother and Sister -- Officer! -- First Day of Captivity -- Second Day of Captivity -- Third Day of Captivity -- Fourth Day of Captivity -- Fifth Day of Captivity -- Histrionics in the Grand Manner -- Escape -- What Happened at Portsmouth on 25 August 1628 -- In France -- The Carmelite Convent at Bethune -- The Female and the Male -- A Drop of Water -- The Man in the Red Cloak -- The Trial -- The Execution -- A Messenger from the Cardinal.

Dumas's tale of swashbuckling and heroism follows the fortunes of d'Artagnan, a headstrong country boy who travels to Paris to join the Musketeers - the bodyguard of King Louis XIII. Here he falls in with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and the four friends soon find themselves caught up in court politics and intrigue. Together they must outwit Cardinal Richelieu and his plot to gain influence over the King, and thwart the beautiful spy Milady's scheme to disgrace the Queen. In The Three Musketeers, Dumas breathed fresh life into the genre of historical romance, creating a vividly realized cast of characters and a stirring dramatic narrative. The introduction examines Dumas's historical sources, the balance between fact and fiction, and the figures from history that formed the basis for the central characters of The Three Musketeers.