Paarfi, bless him, is inspired by a specific translation of the d'Artagnan romances from the 1880s, the translator's name alas nowhere to be found, which my understanding is that Brust came across entirely by chance (I've seen the originals, they're in pameladean's living room), and Tor has published that translation of The Three Musketeers.
It's worth noting that like Dumas in the Drame de France (his overall title for the cycle of historical novels going from La Reine Margot and sequels through the Musketeers books, the Revolutionary-era Joseph Balsamo series and related works, the unfinished Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine and culminating in Monte Cristo, of which I am pleased to say I have almost all, which makes about two metres of shelf space) presenting what he views as the natural progression of history from Medici feudalism through Louis XIV's absolutism, the pre-Revolutionary aristocracy, and culminating in Monte Cristo as the embodiment of the modern man, Paarfi has very visible political biases, and even a cursory comparison of Paarfi's historical details with the conversations Vlad has with people who were there for the events in question shows that Paarfi makes history up out of whole cloth the way it should have been. This is particcularly visible in Five Hundred Years After.
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Date: 2009-01-20 04:34 pm (UTC)It's worth noting that like Dumas in the Drame de France (his overall title for the cycle of historical novels going from La Reine Margot and sequels through the Musketeers books, the Revolutionary-era Joseph Balsamo series and related works, the unfinished Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine and culminating in Monte Cristo, of which I am pleased to say I have almost all, which makes about two metres of shelf space) presenting what he views as the natural progression of history from Medici feudalism through Louis XIV's absolutism, the pre-Revolutionary aristocracy, and culminating in Monte Cristo as the embodiment of the modern man, Paarfi has very visible political biases, and even a cursory comparison of Paarfi's historical details with the conversations Vlad has with people who were there for the events in question shows that Paarfi makes history up out of whole cloth the way it should have been. This is particcularly visible in Five Hundred Years After.