StoryPDF
StoryPDFThe Man in the Iron MaskAlexandre Dumas

The Man in the Iron Mask

Alexandre Dumas

Complete text
NovelEnglish

At the court of Louis XIV, familiar musketeers confront competing loyalties as a secret prisoner becomes central to a dangerous political design. Friendship, service and personal ambition pull in different directions when power depends on which identity the court will recognize.

63 sections173,435 wordsAbout 13 h 8 min
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About The Man in the Iron Mask

The intrigue places private recognition beside the public authority of a royal name. Conversations often do double work as professions of loyalty and attempts to secure an advantage. Old comrades do not necessarily interpret duty alike, making their shared history a source of tension as well as trust within the court's maneuvering.

Reading focus

Compare the musketeers' different ideas of loyalty when personal friendship conflicts with royal service and political calculation.

This reading edition contains 173,435 words in 63 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.

Author: Alexandre Dumas. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.

Opening excerpt

In the months of March-July in 1844, in the magazine Le Siecle, the first portion of a story appeared, penned by the celebrated playwright Alexandre Dumas. It was based, he claimed, on some manuscripts he had found a year earlier in the Bibliotheque Nationale while researching a history he planned to write on Louis XIV. They chronicled the adventures of a young man named D’Artagnan who, upon entering Paris, became almost immediately embroiled in court intrigues, international politics, and ill-fated affairs between royal lovers. Over the next six years, readers would enjoy the adventures of this youth and his three famous friends, Porthos, Athos, and Aramis, as their exploits unraveled…

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Contents

All sections
  1. Introduction:11 min
  2. Chapter I. The Prisoner.43 min
  3. Chapter II. How Mouston Had Become Fatter without Giving Porthos Notice Thereof, and of the Troubles Which Consequently Befell that Worthy Gentleman.13 min
  4. Chapter III. Who Messire Jean Percerin Was.11 min
  5. Chapter IV. The Patterns.15 min
  6. Chapter V. Where, Probably, Moliere Obtained His First Idea of the Bourgeois Gentilhomme.9 min
  7. Chapter VI. The Bee-Hive, the Bees, and the Honey.14 min
  8. Chapter VII. Another Supper at the Bastile.11 min
  9. Chapter VIII. The General of the Order.14 min
  10. Chapter IX. The Tempter.14 min
  11. Chapter X. Crown and Tiara.13 min
  12. Chapter XI. The Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte.9 min
  13. Chapter XII. The Wine of Melun.9 min
  14. Chapter XIII. Nectar and Ambrosia.8 min
  15. Chapter XIV. A Gascon, and a Gascon and a Half.19 min
  16. Chapter XV. Colbert.11 min
  17. Chapter XVI. Jealousy.11 min
  18. Chapter XVII. High Treason.16 min
  19. Chapter XVIII. A Night at the Bastile.12 min
  20. Chapter XIX. The Shadow of M. Fouquet.26 min
  21. Chapter XX. The Morning.13 min
  22. Chapter XXI. The King’s Friend.25 min
  23. Chapter XXII. Showing How the Countersign Was Respected at the Bastile.13 min
  24. Chapter XXIII. The King’s Gratitude.13 min
  25. Chapter XXIV. The False King.16 min
  26. Chapter XXV. In Which Porthos Thinks He Is Pursuing a Duchy.9 min
  27. Chapter XXVI. The Last Adieux.8 min
  28. Chapter XXVII. Monsieur de Beaufort.13 min
  29. Chapter XXVIII. Preparations for Departure.13 min
  30. Chapter XXIX. Planchet’s Inventory.9 min
  31. Chapter XXX. The Inventory of M. de Beaufort.11 min
  32. Chapter XXXI. The Silver Dish.13 min
  33. Chapter XXXII. Captive and Jailers.15 min
  34. Chapter XXXIII. Promises.20 min
  35. Chapter XXXIV. Among Women.14 min
  36. Chapter XXXV. The Last Supper.11 min
  37. Chapter XXXVI. In M. Colbert’s Carriage.12 min
  38. Chapter XXXVII. The Two Lighters.12 min
  39. Chapter XXXVIII. Friendly Advice.9 min
  40. Chapter XXXIX. How the King, Louis XIV., Played His Little Part.13 min
  41. Chapter XL: The White Horse and the Black.13 min
  42. Chapter XLI. In Which the Squirrel Falls,—the Adder Flies.15 min
  43. Chapter XLII. Belle-Ile-en-Mer.14 min
  44. Chapter XLIII. Explanations by Aramis.17 min
  45. Chapter XLIV. Result of the Ideas of the King, and the Ideas of D’Artagnan.4 min
  46. Chapter XLV. The Ancestors of Porthos.7 min
  47. Chapter XLVI. The Son of Biscarrat.9 min
  48. Chapter XLVII. The Grotto of Locmaria.10 min
  49. Chapter XLVIII. The Grotto.13 min
  50. Chapter XLIX. An Homeric Song.9 min
  51. Chapter L: The Death of a Titan.11 min
  52. Chapter LI. Porthos’s Epitaph.11 min
  53. Chapter LII. M. de Gesvres’s Round.9 min
  54. Chapter LIII. King Louis XIV.14 min
  55. Chapter LIV. M. Fouquet’s Friends.11 min
  56. Chapter LV. Porthos’s Will.9 min
  57. Chapter LVI. The Old Age of Athos.9 min
  58. Chapter LVII. Athos’s Vision.11 min
  59. Chapter LVIII. The Angel of Death.9 min
  60. Chapter LIX. The Bulletin.11 min
  61. Chapter LX. The Last Canto of the Poem.11 min
  62. Epilogue.39 min
  63. Epilogue. — Footnotes2 min

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This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 63 sections and 173,435 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.

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