The Man In The Iron Mask

In their final adventure, the four Musketeers plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king.

The Man in the Iron Mask - Alexandre Dumas - When Aramis, one of the three musketeers, discovers that the king of France has a twin brother, he plans a coup détat in an attempt to secretly replace King Louis with his brother Philippe. Entrusting his secret plan to Porthos, Raoul, and DArtagnan, the friends pit themselves against the power of the French monarchy.The Man in the Iron Mask is the last volume of the DArtagnan Romances, and has been published on its own and also as the final volume in the The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, a large novel that encompasses the four final DArtagnan volumes. The story detailed in this volume inspired the 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeremy Irons.The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is the third and last of the d'Artagnan Romances following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. It appeared first in serial form between 1847 and 1850.The Man in the Iron Mask is the fourth and final volume.

The Man in the Iron Mask continues the tale of our four heroes from The Three Musketeers, Dumas's wildly popular introduction to the mischievous Musketeers – D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos, and Athos. In this dark sequel, we track their lives many years after the prodigious moment when D'Artagnan receives a commission to be a lieutenant in the Musketeers. We find in The Man in the Iron Mask that things have changed quite a bit from the seeming happy days of swashbuckling adventures. The story opens at the famous French prison known as the Bastille. A priest named Aramis – a former Musketeer – is sitting in a cell with a prisoner. It seems that Aramis is at the prison to hear the man's confession. The prisoner, however, doesn't have anything to confess, because his only crime is being the King of France's twin brother. Aramis happens to be one of the few people in France who knows this secret. Aramis wastes no time in putting together a plan to free this prisoner and swap him for the legitimate king. Once the former prisoner becomes king, Aramis hopes to be rewarded by being appointed adviser to the King, prime minister, or even pope. Meanwhile, let's get up to speed on the situation with the real King. We have a colorful cast of characters at court. There's King Louis's mother, Anne of Austria, his younger brother (known as Monsieur, with a capital 'M'), his wife Maria Theresa, and his mistress, a woman named La Valliere. Then there's the Superintendent of Finances, a man by the name of Fouquet, who's throwing a party at Vaux in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the King. Among those who would like to see Fouquet swimming with the fishes is a man named Colbert, the Minister of Finances. To round off courtly life, we have D'Artagnan, captain of the King's Musketeers.

The Man in the Iron Mask has also appeared in many works of fiction, most prominently in the late 1840s by Alexandre Dumas."Reunited thirty years after their earlier adventures, D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers join forces once again, this time in a daring plot to replace the King of France with a mysterious look-alike!

Set in medieval France, this story continues the tale of the three musketeers. Many years after their exploits, the musketeers are wellestablished in society. We see Aramis, who is a bishop now, meeting a prisoner. However, there is no confession to be heard. Aramis is at the root of a conspiracy that could change the course of French history. The fact that the prisoner is the twin brother of the King of France has sealed his fate and destined him to spend the rest of his life in prison. But Aramis has a different plan in mind. Being one of the few to know the prisoner’s identity, Aramis conspires to replace the King of France with his twin brother, with the idea that the prisoner will be a better ruler for France. How will this plan turn out? Will Aramis succeed? When the other musketeers find out about the plan what stand will they take? To find out, read this classic tale of love, politics and loyalty.

While France is starving, King Louis XIV maintains a reign of terror. Only "the three musketeers" will be able to face this situation. Your mission is to free a mysterious prisoner who is locked up in the Bastille and who is the only one who can save France.