A pairing of an unfinished, serialized novel by Dumas with a novella by the same author that sort of serves as the conclusion, this book is, by necessity, somewhat incomplete. But if you loved "The Three Musketeers" and other Dumas works, you really need to read this one.

Note: It is a sequel to "Musketeers," but does not feature d'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis and Porthos. It is the cardinal's tale, through and through, and has more intrigue and statesmanship than swashbuckling.

Full review at my blog: https://stevegoblefiction.wordpress.com/2017/09/06/the-red-sphinx-more-of-dumas-best-stuff/

I really wish Dumas had finished this novel. The novella the 21st century editor tacked on to "finish" the story was excessively maudlin.

Also known as the The Comte de Moret.

This is a wonderful historical fiction story of Kings and Queens, French nobility, espionage, conspiracy, political maneuverings, love, and war. I took away half a star for 2 reasons. 1) There is not a musketeer in sight in this story, much less D'artagnan, Athos, Porthos, or Aramis. 2) This story is not completed. It has an ending, which I will touch on later in the review, but it is not complete.

The Three Musketeers takes place from 1625-1628. The Red Sphinx starts 20 days later and covers from 1628-1632 and I believe with the intention to cover 1633.

Many of the same characters are present in The Red Sphinx, most notably King Louis XIII, Queen Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Richelieu. The story follows Cardinal Richelieu, who was the antagonist in The Three Musketeers, who is now the protagonist, wrestling power away from those who hate the King and empowering himself, and also follows the Comte de Moret, who is King Louis XIII half brother. The actions of the Comte de Moret is not well know during this time, so this is the majority of the fiction in this mainly accurate and enthralling historical fiction tale.

But Dumas left this work unfinished. However, 15 years before starting The Red Sphinx, Dumas published The Dove, which is a novella that takes place in 1638 featuring the Comte de Moret and added at the end of The Red Sphinx. This novella is written as letters between the two characters and describes events that happened after the events of The Red Sphinx, creating a nice ending to an unfinished story. It is possible that Dumas never finished the work because of difficulty in tying the events of The Red Sphinx to already published story The Dove.

I loved that a list of characters with detailed descriptions are included at the end of this book. The descriptions comment on how accurate Dumas portrayed the characters and if there are any historical inaccuracies in their tale.

The book includes a Note from the Translator and a History of Publication that I also found interesting.

My favorite part of the story, which I love about all of Dumas stories that I have read, there are no good guys and bad guys. The three musketeers in the first story are the protagonists, but they are deeply flawed. The same with the protagonists of The Red Sphinx. Dumas clearly admires Cardinal Richelieu but his flaws are also on display. He is the antagonist of one story and protagonist in another. In his stories, no matter what side the character is fighting for, Dumas identifies good guys vs bad guys as men with honor and those without.

I love these real, historical characters and stories. I was so happy when I learned of The Red Sphinx because the story continued but I am sad once again that the story has ended.

Not Three musketeers or Count of Monte Cristo, but still an adventure worthy of Dumas. You can currently see that they tried to put together two stories because one was incomplete, but they did their best telling a pretty coherent story. Still, not the greatest of his works.

I’m rating the book higher than is my wish because my bad experience with it has much to do with it being a Zeno’s Nightmare Doorstop for an audiobook narrator. Dumas seemed averse to effing pronouns so I got to pronounce every snot-laden Francophone name four times per sentence for EIGHT. HUNDRED. PAGES. I get paid, but I’m glad he’s dead.