The B&N Classics edition of
The Three Musketeers includes these questions for consideration:
1. What is it about The Three Musketeers that has made it perennially popular? Given that the novel remains popular despite the vast social and political changes that have occurred since it first appeared, should we say that it addresses basic truths about human nature rather than historical and social issues?
2. The most villainous of villains in The Three Musketeers is a beautiful woman known as Milady. Her nefarious plots are thwarted by the male bonding of the (ultimately) four Musketeers. Is Dumas consciously or subconsciously making a point in this opposition—male against female—and its outcome? If so, what is he trying to say? If not, what is the purpose of pitting a woman against a man in this novel?
3. The Three Musketeers is full of scenes of eating and drinking. Do you feel that in these scenes Dumas is simply indulging his passion for food and camaraderie, or do the scenes function thematically, setting tone, defining characters, creating atmosphere?
4. Would you define Dumas as a writer of escape literature (swashbuckling adventure novels)—and if so, would you be putting him down? Is it possible that he gets at important human truths indirectly by adopting this format? If so, what truths does he reveal? Do they still apply today?