...or not.

[igenlode]

I was smitten by a sudden active desire to attempt the Soviet Twenty Years After sequel during a spare half-hour, and found to my great relief that I can actually understand it -- I can't make out all the dialogue, and certainly not the song lyrics, but I can understand what is going on in every scene

Unfortunately this isn't the case in the second half of the episode, where I can barely make out anything of d'Artagnan's encounters with Aramis and then Porthos (and if I hadn't managed to catch and recognise the word "Fronde" I should have been even more at sea; I had forgotten that part of the novel altogether). I really do not remember how the book begins, but only that it ends(?) with the execution of Charles I -- and while I know that I have read it and assume that I possess or have inherited that copy, I can't seem to lay my hands on it anywhere. Although during my search I did manage to re-locate the missing copy of "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", which to my annoyance had become detached from "Louise de la Vallière" and "The Man in the Iron Mask" at some point...

I suppose I shall have to find an electronic copy of "Twenty Years After" somewhere on the Internet in order to have any chance of understanding the discussions taking place, which I assume to be political. Save for Porthos's plaint that he is the unhappiest man on earth, though I wasn't clear why; because his neighbours look down on him? At any rate d'Artagnan won him over by promising him a title, when they both get extremely drunk (and then solemnly deplore the fact that Athos is apparently said to be drinking heavily :-p)

It really doesn't help that much of the scene with Aramis takes place out of doors by moonlight, so that I am struggling simply to identify who is who, and whether a mysterious rider is d'Artagnan setting off again or someone trailing him or someone coming to visit Aramis in secret...