Alexandre Dumas' "best work," says a distinguished critic, Mr. G. Saintsbury, "such as the whole of the long series ranging from Les Trois Mousquetaires through Vingt Ans Apres to Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, the still longer series of which La Reine Margot is a member, and parts of others, has remarkable and almost unique merits."
"There is not a spot on this earth, reached by the French language," remarks the conservative Nisard, "where admiration has not been excited by his gifts as a story-teller, his inexhaustible abundance of diverting inventions, his thoroughly French and brilliant dialogue, his easy, natural style, his swing, and his defects, which one has not had time to notice, so completely does he carry you away at his own sweet will."
These estimates sufficiently indicate the unabated popularity which Dumas' works enjoy. But at the same time all critics concede that even in his best works there are blemishes and faults, - the most conspicuous being too frequent filling-out and passages of more than doubtful morality.
