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I always carried the idea that it was a novel about disinterested, unshakeable friendship - I had read it twice previously. It was a different experience to read it a bit more critically this time around.
There is an astonishing amount of cynicism and farce in this book.
For example, when D'Artagnan is following his landlord's wife, and discovers her companion is Buckingham, he instantly offers to switch allegiances
"...tell me how I can risk my life to serve your Grace?"
"You are a brave young man," said Buckingham, holding out his hand to D'Artagnan, who pressed it respectfully. "You offer me your services; with the same frankness I accept them. Follow us at a distance of twenty paces, as far as the Louvre, and if anyone watches us, slay him!"
D'Artagnan placed his naked sword under his arm, allowed the duke and Mme. Bonacieux to take twenty steps ahead, and then followed them, ready to execute the instructions of the noble and elegant minister of Charles I.
Fortunately, he had no opportunity to give the duke this proof of his devotion..."
Then there is the aftermath of his trip to London:
"In his projects of intrigue for the future, and determined as he was to make his three friends the instruments of his fortune, D'Artagnan was not sorry at getting into his grasp beforehand the invisible strings by which he reckoned upon moving them."
I was thinking afterwards how much similarity there was between this novel and Animal House.
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