First of all, the most common way to get the whole series is with 5 separate and distinct books. They are (in order): The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De LA Valliere, and The Man in the Iron Mask. I dont think I need to tell people about the story, but I will. The action and dialogue in the Dumas stories rivals anything written since. Especially the dialogue. If Dumas were alive today hed be writing for TV and movies, his dialogue is as fast and witty as anything around. There are many different printed versions of these stories around. If you pick and choose at random from different publishers, you may miss parts of the stories, have overlaps, or run into major editing. Just look at the versions of the Man in the Iron Mask and see the different page count. At my local library I found two books that said Complete and Unabridged, only one had 10 less chapters than the other. So, sticking to one publisher increases your chances of getting the whole story. This edition is are excellent. They do have all five books. They dont cut anything out. They use one of the standard translations (Im not sure if there has been a new translation in the last 100 years). And they are newly printed. Some publishers versions look like photocopies of old printings and are pathetic. This book, like all of Dumas other works, is excellent and should be read by all. Its not as action packed, I admit, as the other Musketeer books, however, I find it equally captivating. I think the interaction of the four friends (dArtagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis), and how they deal and act with one another at this point in their lives is very interesting. Its definitely a must have.