RonSmith
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
The version of the Vicomte de Bragelonne which I read was over 100 years old. It was presented to my grandfather for good attendance at school in March 1899. He was a pupil at Diamond Hall Boys' School, Sunderland.<br>I was determined to read the book after acquiring it from my mother. Being a slow but methodical reader it took me several weeks to complete. I now feel sure that I am the first person to read this copy of the book for about 100 years. <br>I find it difficult to recommend it as a 'good read' despite the fact that it is now a family heirloom. The book is essentially three stories with some common characters and as this is not made clear from the outset I found it difficult to link the first story to the second. The language used in the book was very strange..archaic perhaps, even allowing for the fact that the book was written about 150 years ago and is a translation from the French. I found a great many words in the book which I had never seen before. It would have been interesting to look up the words in a dictionary as I read the book but the subsequent distraction would have further increased the reading time.