Summary
Summary of Twenty Years After
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Paris forces loyalty into question
Paris is restless under Cardinal Mazarin, who holds power while Louis XIV is still a boy and Anne of Austria rules as regent. Taxes weigh on ordinary people, courts resist the crown, and nobles join the growing Fronde for reasons of their own. Behind public arguments lie private ambitions.
For the four old musketeers, this is no simple contest between a clear enemy and a worthy cause. They must weigh what they owe the queen, the people and one another.
Key idea 2
An overdue reward draws d'Artagnan back
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Key idea 3
The friends now want different things
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Key idea 4
Political sides divide the old company
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Key idea 5
Mordaunt brings the past into danger
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Key idea 6
England brings their divided duties together
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Key idea 7
Age changes the meaning of honour
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Key idea 8
Contrast keeps the adventure moving
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Key idea 9
Private loyalty collides with public duty
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who enjoyed The Three Musketeers and love witty adventures, swordplay and history told as a story. Friendship under strain, political intrigue and honour tested by ambition bring the four companions together again.
What this book is
Twenty Years After is a historical adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, written with his collaborator Auguste Maquet and first published as a newspaper serial in 1845. It continues the tale of The Three Musketeers, jumping ahead two decades to the troubled France of the late 1640s. The four friends who once stood together against a cardinal are now middle-aged men, scattered by time, and a new cardinal is about to pull them back into the thick of events.
The book was written for a public that wanted more of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and Dumas gave them more. But he did not simply repeat himself. The heroes are older, richer in some ways and poorer in others, and they no longer all want the same thing. The setting is real history. France is ruled for a child king by his mother and by the Italian minister Cardinal Mazarin, while the rebellion called the Fronde grows in the streets of Paris. Across the Channel, King Charles I of England fights for his crown against Oliver Cromwell.
What do you get from it? Fast scenes of swordplay, chases, secret errands and sharp bargaining, along with a warm, funny, sometimes sad look at friendship under strain. You also meet a dangerous young man with a grudge against all four heroes. Let us begin where the story begins, in a Paris that is restless, hungry and angry, with a musketeer who has been waiting twenty years for his reward.
In this summary
- 1Paris in 1648 is a city on edgeFree
- 2D'Artagnan has waited too long for reward
- 3Mazarin sends d'Artagnan to find his friends
- 4Each friend has become a different man
- 5The Fronde divides the four friends
- 6A young man with a grudge hunts them
- 7England burns while kings and ministers bargain
- 8Friendship, honour and growing old are the themes
- 9How Dumas and Maquet build the adventure
Key point 1 of 9
Paris in 1648 is a city on edge
The story opens in France in 1648, twenty years after the first adventure. King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu are dead. The new king, Louis XIV, is only a boy, so his mother, Anne of Austria, rules as regent. The real power sits with her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian who came to France as a diplomat and rose very high.
Mazarin is not loved. He is clever, patient and fond of money, and the French people see him as a foreigner who is draining the country to pay for war. New taxes fall hard on ordinary Parisians. The city's courts, called the Parlement, push back against the crown, and that resistance grows into the movement known as the Fronde. The name comes from a sling that street boys used for throwing stones.
Dumas treats this period with a novelist's eye for the comic as well as the serious. Songs and rhymes mocking Mazarin pass from mouth to mouth. Nobles who have their own quarrels with the court join in, and each has a different reason. Some want power, some want revenge, and a few truly want reform. The reader learns quickly that nobody in this Paris says openly what he wants.
This is the world into which the old musketeers must step. It is not the clear contest of the first book, where the villain was plain and the cause was the queen's honour. Now the queen herself is on one side of the quarrel, and the heroes have to decide what they owe her, what they owe the people, and what they owe each other.
The opening chapters set the tone. Dumas moves between palace rooms and muddy streets, between a minister counting coins and a crowd counting its grievances. He is teaching you where the dangers lie before any of his four heroes appears, so that when they do come, you feel how much is at stake.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Mazarin send d'Artagnan to find his old friends?
Right. “He decides he wants them back, and he sends d'Artagnan to find the others and bring them to his side.”Not quite. “He decides he wants them back, and he sends d'Artagnan to find the others and bring them to his side.”
What puts the musketeers' friendship under political strain?
Right. “But each serves a master or a cause, and those causes can ask them to stand in each other's way.”Not quite. “But each serves a master or a cause, and those causes can ask them to stand in each other's way.”
Why does Mordaunt seek revenge against the musketeers?
Right. “He wants revenge on every person who had a part in her fate, and he is willing to wait, to watch and to strike when the moment is right.”Not quite. “He wants revenge on every person who had a part in her fate, and he is willing to wait, to watch and to strike when the moment is right.”
Who’s who
- D'Artagnan
- A resourceful musketeer lieutenant, he serves Mazarin and seeks renewed support from his three former companions.
- Athos
- The honourable Comte de la Fère lives quietly with his ward Raoul, apart from his former companions.
- Porthos
- A wealthy and powerful former musketeer, he joins D'Artagnan in hopes of gaining a noble title.
- Aramis
- Now the Abbé d'Herblay, this polished churchman retains his swordsmanship and political connections beyond his friends.
- Cardinal Mazarin
- France's shrewd chief minister recruits D'Artagnan and his companions to strengthen the court against the Fronde.
- Mordaunt
- Milady de Winter's embittered son seeks vengeance against the four friends for their actions against his mother.
- Raoul de Bragelonne
- Athos's brave young ward grows up under his protection and learns from his demanding sense of duty.
- Planchet
- D'Artagnan's former servant now works as a Paris grocer and remains a loyal supporter of his former master.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 247,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 16 h 30 min
- Listening time27 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback and hardcover at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about Twenty Years After
What is Twenty Years After about?
It follows d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis two decades after The Three Musketeers. During the Fronde in France and the English civil war, the friends find themselves on different sides and face a young enemy seeking revenge.
Do I need to read The Three Musketeers first?
It helps a great deal, because the characters and the grudge behind Mordaunt come from the first book. The sequel does fill in some background, but you will enjoy it much more if you know the earlier story.
Is Twenty Years After based on a true story?
Partly. The Fronde, Cardinal Mazarin, Anne of Austria, Charles I and Cromwell are real, and the book was published in 1845. Mordaunt, however, is invented by Dumas, the four heroes are fictionalized versions of real men, and he bends many details.
Who is Mordaunt in Twenty Years After?
Mordaunt is the son of Milady de Winter, the villain of The Three Musketeers. He grows up to seek revenge on the four friends who were involved in his mother's fate, and he becomes their most dangerous opponent.
What was the Fronde in the novel?
The Fronde was a series of uprisings in France from 1648 against the crown and Cardinal Mazarin during the childhood of Louis XIV. Dumas uses it as the political backdrop that splits the musketeers across opposing loyalties.
