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D'Artagnan is a brilliant hero and it was easy to see why several women found him so attractive; I loved the romance between him and Constance Bonacieux. The friendship he forms with the title characters, which of course is the main thrust of the novel, is superbly portrayed. I especially enjoyed their first meetings and his bravery as he prepared to fight duels against them after accidentally insulting all three. Once these misunderstandings are cleared up, we're thrown headlong into the main plot and Richelieu and Milady are a compelling pair of villains - although one of my few criticisms is that the build-up to the ending sees us depart from the heroic quartet to focus on Milady for rather too long for my tastes. While it's an accomplished section which shows the depths of her wickedness, I was desperate to get back to Dd'artagnan Artagnan and his friends, and it was only in this section that the pace of my reading slowed down slightly, after I'd raced through the first three-quarters or so.