The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

What a flawed and curious book this is. The plot is overly complex, the characters inconsistent and weirdly passive, and our hero disappears for a great chunk towards the end of the tale. In Peavar's translation the well-known story is told with a rambuctious panache that gambols along nicely enough, although to much less effect than the marvellous Count of Monte Cristo.