I. El caballo amarillo
. , , . , , .
« », , « , . . , . , .»
Dumas’s swashbuckler, retold for B1
The Three Musketeers Los tres mosqueteros
Alexandre Dumas
This is a retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s novel in plainer Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation for readers who can follow the subjunctive and the conditional and want the whole adventure of d’Artagnan and his three friends. In the catalog it is B1: about 13,500 words, 11 words per sentence on average. 14 chapters run from the yellow horse at Meung and three duels in a single day to the queen’s diamond studs, the siege of La Rochelle and Milady’s plots.
- B1
- 13 522 words
- 2-4 hours
Will this text hold?
A2
Earlier
At A2 the tenses will stop you before the words do: commands in the subjunctive (no aguantes), conditions like si él hubiera muerto, habría heredado, and reported speech in the conditional, at 11 words per sentence on average.
A2B1
This text
You can manage it at B1: sentences average 11 words, the subjunctive and the conditional turn up where a living speaker would use them, and words like herretes or ratonera are explained by the text itself.
Check this passageB2
With room to spare
At B2 the retelling goes quickly, with little need for translation: 2-4 hours take you from Meung to La Rochelle, and then on to the complete Spanish texts, which start at B2 in the catalog.
Start readingThe average sentence has 11 words, and a word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 22 words; many of them are names and titles, such as Buckingham, Bonacieux, Richelieu or mosqueteros. That places the retelling between the catalog’s Spanish A2 adaptations, such as Don Quixote (10 words per sentence, one long word in 36) or Alice in Wonderland (9 words, one in 32), and the complete texts at B2, where Unamuno’s Mist has 13 words per sentence and one long word in fourteen. This is the first step of the catalog where a MovaReader retelling uses all the tenses at a pace close to a real novel: the pluperfect (se lo había regalado), the conditional (irían, se quedarían), the present and past subjunctive (no aguantes, antes de que saliera, si él hubiera muerto) and a good deal of reported speech. Rarer words are explained by the story itself: the herretes are jewels the king gave the queen, and a ratonera is a house where everyone who comes in is arrested. The difficulty is even: the 14 chapters have 10-14 words per sentence. The catalog’s other Spanish retelling of Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, sits at the same level with 12 words per sentence. Hence B1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 13 522
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 2-4
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
In April 1625 eighteen-year-old d’Artagnan rides out of Gascony on a ridiculous yellow horse, with fifteen crowns, his father’s advice and a letter for Monsieur de Tréville, captain of the King’s Musketeers. At Meung a stranger with a scar laughs at the horse and steals the letter. In Paris, in a single morning, d’Artagnan offends three musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and ends up fighting at their side against Cardinal Richelieu’s guards. He falls in love with Constance Bonacieux, the queen’s seamstress, and rides to London to bring back the diamond studs that Anne of Austria gave the Duke of Buckingham, before the cardinal can expose her at a ball. Then the beautiful Milady de Winter, the cardinal’s agent, becomes his most dangerous enemy, and Athos recognises in her a secret from his own past. How the siege of La Rochelle and the struggle with Milady end is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Los tres mosqueteros
XI. El desayuno del bastión
, , . , , , . , .
«¿ ?», .
« .»
«¿ ?»
« . , .»
Choose an underlined word.
Advice in the subjunctive
The background sits in the pluperfect: se lo había regalado, le había dado, “had given”. Antes de que saliera: after antes de que Spanish always uses the subjunctive, here the imperfect, “before he left”. The father’s rules are negative commands, and with tú these take the present subjunctive: no aguantes, no tengas miedo, “don’t put up with”, “don’t be afraid”. The positive command glues the pronoun on: bátete, from batirse. Hace falta doble valor: “it takes twice the courage”.
A bet in reported speech
Athos’s bet is reported, not quoted: apostó que irían y se quedarían, the conditional as “future in the past”, “would go and would stay”. In the direct question that follows, the dragoon uses the plain future: ¿se quedarán? La noche anterior... habían matado: the pluperfect for what had happened before. A tiro de los enemigos: “within the enemy’s range”. Pase lo que pase is a fixed subjunctive phrase: “whatever happens”.
Chapters
- IEl caballo amarillo
- IIEn casa del señor de Tréville
- IIITres duelos en un día
- IVLa mujer del mercero
- VLos herretes de la reina
- VIEl camino de Londres
- VIIEl baile del Ayuntamiento
- VIIIEl secreto de Athos
- IXMilady
- XEl sitio de La Rochelle
- XIEl desayuno del bastión
- XIILa prisionera de Portsmouth
- XIIIEl convento de Béthune
- XIVEl hombre de la capa roja
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates whole sentences, and here that helps most where a condition reaches back into the past, as in Kitty’s warning: si él hubiera muerto, mi señora habría heredado toda su fortuna.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold in Spanish Alexandre Dumas’s French novel Les Trois Mousquetaires, written with the collaboration of Auguste Maquet and first published as a newspaper serial in 1844. It is not a translation of the full novel: the language and length have changed, with 14 chapters and about 13,500 words of modern Spanish against the 67 chapters and epilogue of the original, which is some sixteen times longer. The main line remains: Meung and the stolen letter, the three duels and the fight with the Cardinal’s guards, Constance and the queen’s diamond studs, the ride to London, the ball, Athos’s secret, Milady and her maid Kitty, the siege of La Rochelle, the inn of the Red Dovecot, the bastion of Saint-Gervais, Portsmouth, the convent at Béthune and the man in the red cloak. The hunt for equipment before the campaign and many smaller duels and intrigues are condensed or left out. The complete novel is not in the catalog in any language; the catalog also has an English B1 retelling of the same book.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, not a recording. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears next to it; here that will often be the words of swordplay and the court, such as estocada, envainen, tahalí or herretes.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. Here they average 11 words, and the ones worth translating are where the grammar turns: conditions, like si servía bien, algún día podría llevar la casaca de los mosqueteros, or reported speech, like le dijo que se olvidara del alquiler de los tres últimos meses. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes 2-4 hours at the pace of someone who still translates new words. The chapters run from about 860 to 1,130 words, so each takes 9-19 minutes, and two or three fit comfortably into an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
There is no easier stretch: the 14 chapters average 10-14 words per sentence. Chapter II, with the quarrels on Tréville’s staircase, is the lightest at 10, and chapter I, the ride from Gascony to Meung, the densest at 14. Long words are commonest in chapter XIII, at Béthune, about one in 17, because of names like Constance and Armentières.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say XI, “El desayuno del bastión”, where the four friends bet that they can eat breakfast for an hour within range of the enemy.