D'Artagnan is sent to the Bastille to retrieve a prisoner, who turns out to be his former adversary, the Comte de Rochefort.Īfter renewing his acquaintance with d'Artagnan and making a promise to aid his advancement, Rochefort is brought to his audience with Mazarin, where he learns that the cause for his imprisonment was his refusal to serve Mazarin at an earlier stage. He is summoned by Mazarin, who requires an escort the French people detest Mazarin, and are on the brink of rebellion ( La Fronde). D'Artagnan, who seemed to have a promising career ahead of him at the end of The Three Musketeers, has for twenty years remained a lieutenant, and seems unlikely to progress despite his ambition and the debt the queen owes him.

The action begins during the regency of Queen Anne of Austria (term 1643–1651), with Cardinal Mazarin as First Minister.

His musketeers are valiant and just in their efforts to protect young Louis XIV and the doomed Charles I from their attackers. Through the words of the main characters, particularly Athos, Dumas comes out on the side of the monarchy in general, or at least the text often praises the idea of benevolent royalty. The novel follows events in France during the Fronde, during the childhood reign of Louis XIV, and in England near the end of the English Civil War, leading up to the victory of Oliver Cromwell and the execution of King Charles I. A book of The d'Artagnan Romances, it is a sequel to The Three Musketeers (1844) and precedes the 1847–1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne (which includes the sub-plot Man in the Iron Mask). Twenty Years After ( French: Vingt ans après) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized from January to August 1845.

Twenty years after by alexandre dumas