May Group Read: La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas

Hi everyone! Please join us for a group read of La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas.

If you'd like to read along, please comment here with any suggestions for how you'd like the group read to work. Should we set a reading schedule? Read at our own pace and comment as we go with spoiler headings? Set a book completion and have one large discussion date toward the end of the month?

All ideas are welcome. It will probably be a small group, so hopefully we can come to a consensus.

I have my copy ready on my Kindle and I am looking forward to this. I think reading at our own pace would work best for me, I am thinking that it will take at least 2 months to read the book, depending on what other challenges I am involved with. I am good with using the spoiler heading for comments.

I personally favour a reading schedule since I find the most fun from sharing and reading comments along the way as the story develops at a similar pace, but I understand that this is not a flexible plan for most people, so I'm also down for going on at our own paces.

Reading at our own pace will work best for me as I am so behind before I get started. Keep the pressure low.

I am definitely Team Read At Own Pace. I downloaded the French version and will start it as soon as I finish my current French book (I can really only have one book in that language on the go at a time).

I generally prefer "read at your own pace" also. I think if we using Chapter headings in bold at the top of the post to avoid spoilers it will work. I personally prefer discussion over excessive "spoiler caution". I will use the spoiler feature for any exciting plot points and will use chapter headings on a post so people know if they should avoid reading, but I hope people will comment and discuss as they go at their own pace. My edition is 468 pages, so if I want to finish in April, I would read about 120 pages a week. Likely, I will get into it and read faster than that pace, but that's a general guideline if people want a plan.

I started this book one time with a free kindle version and could not figure out who everyone was or what was going on historically in the beginning. I think it was a really poor translation. So I did purchase the Oxford World's Classics edition edited by David Coward. I'm hoping the editing plus the notes will help. I don't know much french history - does anyone here have a good background in it?

>6 japaul22: I'm not strong on my French history, mainly knowing about it where it intersects with English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish history (which I've read a lot more of). I have a smattering of French Revolution as well, and a nodding acquaintance with the period from The Three Musketeers....although that might not be totally historically accurate :)

I'm ready to go and whatever the group decides sits well with me!

Me too!

Sounds good! I've already got my copy downloaded from Project Gutenberg, but unfortunately I don't know who the translator is... Which translations are you guys reading?

>10 Majel-Susan: Really difficult to find out who translated my book. It's a ebook from Amazon and there is nothing contained within the blurb or in the preface about the translator. However, after searching online for about 15 minutes this is what I found: revised edition of the classic translation of 1846 by David Coward, French Lit. Professor at Leeds University.

I wish you all a happy reading of this book! :) I've read it approximately 20 years ago and hugely liked it!
If you are interested there is a movie by Patrice Chéreau that I saw before reading the book and found enjoyable.

>12 chlorine: It may also help to get the many characters sorted.

It's May 1! Does everyone have a feel for when they will start reading? Let's feel free to comment as we go, using chapter headings in bold at the beginning of a post to avoid spoilers.

I am finishing up a book first, but will probably starting reading this over the weekend or early next week. My reading time has definitely taken a hit with my kids home from school due to COVID-19. Even though work is a little lighter since I can't do all of my job from home, managing their distance learning takes a ton of time and energy!

Probably not until next week at the earliest, because I already have a French book on the go. But I am off for a week starting on Wednesday so I am hoping to have lots of uninterrupted reading time.

I'm going to bow out of this, I have read about Queen Margot twice already, just by different authors (Thomas Mann) and a book about the Valois family in which she was included. Enjoy!

My copy is in the mail, and I should get it in a couple of days. Can't wait! I'm really looking forward to this read.

I've started the first chapter, but I do have a lot of reads currently ongoing and I am anticipating a busy next week. I will probably only start picking up a better pace at the end of next week.

I will probably pick up the book next week. I am not planning on finishing it during May, only reading the first half.

I'm about to start and considering whether or not to read the introduction. Usually I avoid introductions because of spoilers, but I think it might be useful to have background on the history in the book before I start. Also, I assume most people reading it in the 1800s would have known the outline of the story so "spoilers" as we think of them probably weren't a thing, right?

Thoughts?

I always read introductions and will on this one too, also the Oxford edition. I don't mind spoilers, though. I almost prefer them!

Hoping to start tomorrow.

I've started this and I did read the introduction. My book also has very helpful explanatory notes. I feel like I need to make a list of who is on which side - Catholics or Huguenots. I also was confused at first because the King is playing both sides, so that is important to understand.

I feel like this book has a immediacy that I really enjoy because it's predominantly dialogue. I can tell already that it's going to be a lot of fun.

I'm joining in, but will likely read other things at the same time.

The introduction (to the Oxford edition) was invaluable! There are a ton of characters and conflicts introduced right on the first page and yes, the notes (and list of characters) really matter too. Also appreciating the map of renaissance Paris, which seems so tiny and yet was, if I'm not mistaken, one of the largest cities in Europe.

I'm excited about this book. I know Henry IV from his later life as the husband of Marie de' Medici (star of the Medici cycle) but of course his previous life is not alluded to in ANY way there. So now I will know all! And Dumas is such a good storyteller.

>24 annamorphic: wait, which character ends up being Henry IV? Too many Henrys!

I tried to start with the audio version, but I think this is one that I will need to read. I will dive in this weekend.

>26 Yells: I definitely think the explanatory notes are important and add a lot to the story. I would miss that in an audio version. Though the story itself has a play-like quality that would work well on audio once the characters are straightened out in your mind.

This is my main book so I'm getting through it pretty quickly. I'm up to chapter 16.

>25 japaul22: Henry of Navarre = Henry IV. But that’s long after the end of this book so I’m not giving anything away. Yes, there are an awful lot of Henry’s!

I'm still stuck on something from near the beginning of this book. Does anybody understand why Charles IX basically orders the murder of Coligny, minutes after calling him "my father" and hugging him? It's so bizarre. It can't be a translation error, right? It should have been Catherine ordering this, but clearly it was not. And afterwards, he seems to have no sense of why the assassination attempt happened and is open to manipulation by his mother and her coterie. So what's up??

I was so perplexed that I Googled this last night and found somebody on Reddit asking the same question, and receiving no satisfactory answers. I'm tempted to try JSTOR although treating this as a research question may ruin my enjoyment of the book. Does anybody here have a simple answer?

>29 annamorphic: I really don't know either. I had to go back and read Chapter 3, The Poet-King again because I was confused about the King's relationships with both Coligny and Maurevel. I just decided to think of the King as treacherous and paying both sides. He made up with the Protestant Coligny when Coligny was giving him advice he wanted to hear about attacking Spain (I think that was in a footnote) but then the King decided supporting the extreme Catholics was a better political move and so had Coligny assassinated?

Maurevel, too, he really jerks around in the same chapter. First making him think he's mad that he killed some high-ranking Huguenots, but then assigning him to kill Huguenots in the massacre the next day? Plus the historical character list in the back of my book says that in truth this all happened very differently and the King wasn't involved at all (Catherine and Henry de Guise instead).

All this leads me to believe that Dumas was playing with history to try to make the King more interesting and duplicitous than he really was.

That's the best I can come up with!

>30 japaul22: Good, I’ll go with that! Makes at least some sense...

>29 annamorphic: I think historians will argue about the ins and outs of this for ever. Simone Bertière in Les années sanglantes says that Charles IX was torn between Coligny, whom he admired as a father figure, and his mother whom he feared and loved. Catherine was adamantly opposed to Coligny's attempt to provoke a war with Spain which she thought France would lose. And Charles IX lost his head and his temper when pressed about the matter and gave the fatal order.

I finally finished The Water Margin which i've been reading since February and now I am ready to start Queen Margot. I am looking forward to this one, but I am planning on reading it over two months.

I've finished and have a couple of things on my mind to discuss when more people finish, but everyone take your time! I'll keep the thread starred for myself so I see any updates and hopefully we'll all do the same.

>32 MissWatson: Thanks, that's really interesting! My college professor of French history would be appalled by how infintesimally little I remember about all of this.

I'm half way though and agree with what >34 japaul22: said on another thread -- the way Dumas plays fast and loose with facts is fascinating! Like you could learn a lot about Tudor history from Wolf Hall and probably you'd do pretty well on the college exam if that's how you'd done your studying... but that would NOT work with La Reine Margot. It's interesting that Dumas even bothered making sure that every character, every street, every building actually existed, since they were all just fodder for his imagination. I wonder exactly what his research assistants did for him.

>35 annamorphic: I always think of him as an early Hollywood studio mogul: first insisting that everything must be a perfect copy of historic buildings and clothes, and then juicing up the plot to make it more exciting for the audience.

I'm on vacation next week and will have time to finally read the book.

>35 annamorphic: Exactly! I thought so much while reading this about how I really value that authors like Hilary Mantel and Sharon Kay Penman that stick closely to historical details but take liberties in developing characters that they obviously couldn't know. Dumas instead takes inspiration from the times and loose events and creates a great story instead. There is much less character development in La Reine Margot (in my opinion), but a tighter and more adventure-driven plot. Certainly room for both!

I did find as the book went on that though the explanatory notes were interesting, they sometimes confused me because they were largely about what really happened rather than what Dumas wrote.

I finished late last night. I stayed up to listen!

Reading above comments and I agree with >37 japaul22: that it was an adventure-driven plot. I certainly think that was Dumas style. I enjoyed it very much for that. I listened mostly. My Kindle copy did not have footnotes. I would love to get my hands on a copy that does or a Cliff Notes/Spark Notes to get more information on what actually happened versus the book. Now for a bit of a spoiler.

In reading the blurbs for the book, I was expecting more from the romance of La Mole and Queen Margot. I felt that Henry Navarre had a deeper love for his mistress than the other two. Maybe it was because it had been a relationship longer. What surprised me the most was the deep friendship that developed between Coconnas and La Mole. I enjoyed their camaraderie and was very touched by their loyalty to each other.

Looking forward to everyone's thoughts.

>38 luvamystery65: I agree. If Queen Margot was not the character of the title I wouldn't have noticed her very much. I'm not sure the book was really about her more than anyone else. I also love the relationship between Coconnas and La Mole. And I found Charles IX pretty interesting. And Catherine's interfering and deviousness. Especially the scene where she kills the servant (what was his name?) by sending him down the oubliette!

There were so many interesting characters that Marguerite didn't really stand out to me.

I have completed the first half of the book and after a rocky start as I struggled with the first chapter with it's many Henry's and confusing plots, I have totally embraced this story and I am looking forward to getting back to it. Full of duplicitous characters, and political plots this is a fun read that needn't be taken too seriously. Although based on actual history, the author tends to play fast and loose with the facts, for him the story comes first. I was reminded of The Three Musketeers at certain points particularly the relationship that develops between de la Mole and de Coconnas, and any time swords were drawn. Although classified as a romance novel, I also think it is more of a adventure story.

>38 luvamystery65: and >39 japaul22: also agree. Margot is a bit player because Dumas doesn't find her interesting. He wanted "romance" to sell the book, and La Mole was the only plausible candidate there, but what really interested him was Catherine de Medici as an evil scheming plotter and poisoner. She's clearly his favorite character! He's even kind of interested in Charles IX as a pathetic yet extremely nasty fellow. And of course he has to let you love Henry of Navarre because he's the Winner (in the long run). So he makes Marguerite into her husband's true and loyal ally which means that her relationship with La Mole becomes much less interesting. It could have been, but it isn't.

Also, the whole scene where the alchemist sets up the two couples was just bizarre! But it does seem to sort of justify the idea of their Love, which not much else does.

I have completed Queen Margot and although I found the second half of the book dragged a bit, overall this was a very entertaining read. I.m not sure that I would place it on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die List, but I am happy that this gave me a reason to pick it up. My feelings about the book pretty much echo what others here have written. I think Dumas excels with action scenes and swordplay and his weak area is with character development.

>42 DeltaQueen50: Agreed about the action being better than the character development in this one. The only other book I've read by Dumas is The Count of Monte Cristo which I thought balanced action and character development much more successfully.

>43 japaul22: For me, his masterpiece is definitely The Count of Monte Cristo but he does write entertaining books that hold up quite well. The Three Musketeers is a classic that is still being filmed on a regular basis, and I believe Queen Margot was also recently adapted for film or tv. I didn't mind that the history was stretched to fit the story, I think this was a much more common practise in the past. Today, people expect their historical fiction to be totally accurate and with the internet to double check the facts, any inconsistences are soon exposed.

I failed to get started on this one. I wanted to, but always have so much to read and I am slow with reading actual print books. I think The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite, having recently read The Three Musketeers which was not as good.

I too can't find the energy to pick this up at the moment. Sorry!

Same :( I downloaded it and everything, but then work became really busy and I had very little energy to read.