London, February 10 (ANI): Alexandre Dumas popular novel The Three Musketeers was largely inked by an assistant, a leading academic has argued.

Claude Schopp, France’s leading Dumas expert claim in his Dictionary of Alexandre Dumas that Auguste Jules Maquet was the real “fourth musketeer”.

Schopp debates that the plot for the immensely admired trilogy featuring Porthos, Athos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan was the brainchild of Maquet, reports the Telegraph.

A new film L’Autre Dumas (The Other Dumas) also suggests the importance of relationship between Dumas and Maquet.

But claims that the duo co-authored dozens of novels including the musketeer trilogy, The Count of Monte Cristo, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later remain questionable by some critics.

Alain Decaux, a well-known historian and writer said: “Just like the Renaissance painters, someone had to prepare your frescoes - and it is right that Auguste Maquet be named - but in the end, the quill is yours.” (ANI)