Book excerpt: The D'Artagnan Romances are a set of three novels by Alexandre Dumas telling the story of the musketeer d'Artagnan from his humble beginnings in Gascony to his death as a marshal of France in the Siege of Maastricht in 1673. Dumas based the life and character of d'Artagnan on the 17th-century captain of musketeers Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan, and Dumas's portrayal was indebted to the semi-fictionalized memoirs of d'Artagnan written 27 years after the hero's death by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (published in 1700). The d'Artagnan novels are: The Three Musketeers, set in 1625; first published in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844. Dumas claimed it was based on manuscripts he had discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Twenty Years After, set in 1648; serialized from January to August, 1845. The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, set between 1660 and 1673; serialized from October 1847 to January 1850. This vast novel has been split into three, four, or five volumes at various points. In the three-volume edition, the novels are titled The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière and The Man in the Iron Mask. In the four-volume edition, the novels are titled The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Ten Years Later, Louise de la Vallière and The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas, père, was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure. Translated into nearly 100 languages, these have made him one of the most widely read French authors in history.