Everyone, of course, has read “The Three Musketeers.” And everyone, of course, remembers the main villain of France at that time—the treacherous schemer, power-hungry egoist, calculating and cynical careerist: Cardinal Richelieu. Exactly this portrait of a remarkable—and even outstanding—political figure of 17th-century France drew the author. And so, two decades after “The Three Musketeers” was written, Dumas decided to restore historical justice and tell the true story of “The Red Cardinal”—Armand-Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu.