I came to this book suspecting I'd read it before, though it turns out I'd probably confused it with another work by Dumas. But at least I knew the story, right? Wrong. So wrong. The story I know is here turned on its head and the plot seems ridiculous when compared to the thrilling tale we've seen in the movies. And that plot, already stuffed with impenetrable etiquette and intrigue, is made incomprehensible due to swathes of missing backstory. It turns out this work is just the 3rd volume of the 3rd part in a massive trilogy - not, in fact, the more stand-alone work I believed it to be. And it's bleak!

Spoiler

The ending is so grim I pity any poor soul who reached this point after wading through the previous four volumes.

I'm conscious I may have encountered a bad translation, and my edition gives no indication of this being the final instalment in a larger work, but I find myself disputing this book's status as a classic. Disappointing.