More inconsistencies in Dumas
4 July 2025 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeApparently Dumas can't decide on the appearance of the Vicomte de Bragelonne :-p
His characters, where it is mentioned, are all mainly dark-haired, with the notable and probably conscious exception of Milady and her son who are both described as distinctively fair, although what is beautiful in the mother becomes washed-out and pallid in the son. D'Artagnan, of course, is a Gascon and Mediterranean in appearance; Aramis is referred to several times in the first book as dark-eyed (pensez à moi, qui baise tendrement vos yeux noirs, writes Madame de Chevreuse), and d'Artagnan, when pointing out that Aramis is now over forty since he himself is that age, comments that nonetheless vous avez toujours vos beaux cheveux noirs. And Athos, who is older than either of them, is described as having longs cheveux noirs, parsemés à peine de quelques cheveux gris. So far as I can tell, the matter never comes up at all in the case of Porthos, since the various descriptions of him refer only to his magnificence and/or his size -- a degree of restraint which the writers of fanfic would do well to emulate :-p
But we are told that d'Artagnan, on observing a rider making a stealthy exit from Athos' home at dawn, reconnut le justaucorps grenat et les cheveux bruns de Raoul, which struck me at the time as being unexpected in a world where practically no-one has plain brown hair... which is why I then noticed with some surprise that when Athos takes him to visit Madame de Chevreuse in Paris, the allusion there is to ses cheveux noirs[...] élégamment partagés comme on les portait à cette époque! However it seemed not implausible that 'cheveux bruns' could simply have been intended to refer to 'dark hair' in general, so I assumed I'd simply misinterpreted the original phrase.
Matters become completely confused, on the other hand, when we reach the epilogue and d'Artagnan refers fondly to the boy as cette chère tête blonde! So I think that all that can be concluded is that Dumas had no very fixed idea in mind and ascribed a random appearance to Raoul at various different points during the construction of his lengthy serial...
(Given that his father is consistently described as dark-haired and his mother fair an intermediate brown would presumably have made sense :-)
His characters, where it is mentioned, are all mainly dark-haired, with the notable and probably conscious exception of Milady and her son who are both described as distinctively fair, although what is beautiful in the mother becomes washed-out and pallid in the son. D'Artagnan, of course, is a Gascon and Mediterranean in appearance; Aramis is referred to several times in the first book as dark-eyed (pensez à moi, qui baise tendrement vos yeux noirs, writes Madame de Chevreuse), and d'Artagnan, when pointing out that Aramis is now over forty since he himself is that age, comments that nonetheless vous avez toujours vos beaux cheveux noirs. And Athos, who is older than either of them, is described as having longs cheveux noirs, parsemés à peine de quelques cheveux gris. So far as I can tell, the matter never comes up at all in the case of Porthos, since the various descriptions of him refer only to his magnificence and/or his size -- a degree of restraint which the writers of fanfic would do well to emulate :-p
But we are told that d'Artagnan, on observing a rider making a stealthy exit from Athos' home at dawn, reconnut le justaucorps grenat et les cheveux bruns de Raoul, which struck me at the time as being unexpected in a world where practically no-one has plain brown hair... which is why I then noticed with some surprise that when Athos takes him to visit Madame de Chevreuse in Paris, the allusion there is to ses cheveux noirs[...] élégamment partagés comme on les portait à cette époque! However it seemed not implausible that 'cheveux bruns' could simply have been intended to refer to 'dark hair' in general, so I assumed I'd simply misinterpreted the original phrase.
Matters become completely confused, on the other hand, when we reach the epilogue and d'Artagnan refers fondly to the boy as cette chère tête blonde! So I think that all that can be concluded is that Dumas had no very fixed idea in mind and ascribed a random appearance to Raoul at various different points during the construction of his lengthy serial...
(Given that his father is consistently described as dark-haired and his mother fair an intermediate brown would presumably have made sense :-)