The four heros...

Does anyone else also think that the characters actually grow in Twenty years Later?

Athos: I think he is even more respectable in a way than he was before... His speach to d'Artagnan is so powerful... He's fantastic in his support for Charles I and so worth his title of Count de La Fere...

Aramis: He's again so behind-your-back but still so devoted as well to a cause... That first scene he enters the book in is so great with the ladders... And when he comes to save them all in the palace of Mazarin with his army. Brings just a smile to my face, that.

Porthos: He is sooooooooo adorable! I mean, he is so devoted to the cause, he is so stupid still but has just learned to not to ask any questions anymore because he doesn't understand anyway... When d'Artagnan makes a plan to escape when they are locked up in Mazarin's palace, that's just so great, when he asks 'and if I strangle him?' Just makes me laugh out loud! And still he can bring tears to your eyes when he refuses to leave the boat without his servants because they are so dear to him. He throws them in the water and 'pulls them up by their hair before they could even think about drowning and in a moment they were sitting in the boat'. That made my eyes water. 'A cream of a guy' they would say in Dutch.

Last but not least d'Artagnan who has come a long way since he started and got to know his friends. He's become so incredibly to the point. Not so impulsive and unhandy anymore but rather 'I want it and how do I get it'-type of man. He's so manly suddenly, not so rash anymore, smart yes and still maybe slightly fast with his tongue but he has learned to keep his nature under control...

They all grow so tremendously in their character, I really was amazed when I saw that. Dumas had easily been able to just write another adventure story like the first one, but he took another oportunity that was much better...