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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Suka bangett, sangat direkomendasikan buat yang suka cerita balas dendam. Mulai baca dari tahun 2022 baru selesai sekarang, bukan karena ceritanya tapi karena situasi yang buat aku nggak bisa baca buku dulu. Tapi lega banget selesai baca, buku ini buat aku seperti nonton film daripada baca.
A melancholy but wonderful tale of revenge with a vibrant cast. Though the story is quite long for an ultimately rather quick conclusion, I enjoyed the lessons of moving on with one's life and found the lack of closure with Mercedes and the Count poignantly melancholy.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
How can I begin to review this masterpiece? Well, for starters, this was a buddy read that ended up taking a year… and I actually finished… can’t say the same for my buddy. (That’s ok though, we’ll get there someday.) The length is intimidating, but once you get started, it’s incredibly hard to put down. I only did so because life happened, work or study interfered, and I got easily distracted by other books I just ‘had’ to read. But I don’t regret this book taking me a year at all. It was like savoring the finest of meals over a nice, long period of time—enough to really immerse yourself in the world and the characters. I’ve never cared much for France, but this book almost made me want to do a deep dive into 1800s France.
And that is not to ignore the characters, who are one of the best parts of the book—or at least some of them. The Count is endearing, and his transformation from Edmond Dantès to the Count of Monte Cristo is remarkable and extraordinary. As his morals and attitudes ebb and flow, I could only strengthen my support for his resolve. It is hard to find a truly blameless character in the book; certainly, none of the major ones seem to come to mind. (Maybe Mme. Louise d'Armilly?) Nevertheless, many grasp your heartstrings and others provide much schadenfreude. I was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which Dumas keeps account of the numerous amount of side or occasional characters; they all have a part to play, no matter how small.
There are abridged versions of this book, but the unabridged, complete text (and especially the Robin Buss translation if you are an English reader) is worth reading. I assume the abridged versions remove side stories or characters, and while not ‘necessary’ in a strict sense for the plot, these events and characters still color the narrative and complete the sense of immersion that Dumas gives us. To remove them would be like removing the finishing touches from a decadent cake; it will still taste good, but less refined and complete. The transition of the story from beginning to end is well-done, and I applaud Dumas for keeping things mostly straight by the end of it. There were some moments where I had to go back and refresh myself on previous events, but that is probably because it took me a while to finish.
Still, I wouldn’t mind re-reading this, contrary to my usual stance, because this seems like the type of book that keeps giving on every re-read. (I usually don’t like re-reading things.) I’m also quite excited to read Dumas’s other works, particularly The Three Musketeers, but of course, his style is quite endearing to me now, so anything goes. (In comparison to Hugo, at least, Dumas does not drown the reader in chapters upon chapters of extreme description.) I am also very curious as to how the movie adaptations take something so incredible and relay it to the screen—there are a couple I am looking at, but the French one that is 4 hours long seems like the only possible one that may even attempt at covering most of the material in the book. Anyway, I can’t find it in me to say anything more intelligent about this remarkable and fantastic book, so go read it already if you haven’t!
And that is not to ignore the characters, who are one of the best parts of the book—or at least some of them. The Count is endearing, and his transformation from Edmond Dantès to the Count of Monte Cristo is remarkable and extraordinary. As his morals and attitudes ebb and flow, I could only strengthen my support for his resolve. It is hard to find a truly blameless character in the book; certainly, none of the major ones seem to come to mind. (Maybe Mme. Louise d'Armilly?) Nevertheless, many grasp your heartstrings and others provide much schadenfreude. I was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which Dumas keeps account of the numerous amount of side or occasional characters; they all have a part to play, no matter how small.
There are abridged versions of this book, but the unabridged, complete text (and especially the Robin Buss translation if you are an English reader) is worth reading. I assume the abridged versions remove side stories or characters, and while not ‘necessary’ in a strict sense for the plot, these events and characters still color the narrative and complete the sense of immersion that Dumas gives us. To remove them would be like removing the finishing touches from a decadent cake; it will still taste good, but less refined and complete. The transition of the story from beginning to end is well-done, and I applaud Dumas for keeping things mostly straight by the end of it. There were some moments where I had to go back and refresh myself on previous events, but that is probably because it took me a while to finish.
Still, I wouldn’t mind re-reading this, contrary to my usual stance, because this seems like the type of book that keeps giving on every re-read. (I usually don’t like re-reading things.) I’m also quite excited to read Dumas’s other works, particularly The Three Musketeers, but of course, his style is quite endearing to me now, so anything goes. (In comparison to Hugo, at least, Dumas does not drown the reader in chapters upon chapters of extreme description.) I am also very curious as to how the movie adaptations take something so incredible and relay it to the screen—there are a couple I am looking at, but the French one that is 4 hours long seems like the only possible one that may even attempt at covering most of the material in the book. Anyway, I can’t find it in me to say anything more intelligent about this remarkable and fantastic book, so go read it already if you haven’t!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an epic adventure and story! I'm really glad to have read this because there's so much teaching in this book as well, knowledge for human beings to take with them into their own lives. I've heard many men who were in prison talk about this book, as well. They definitely gleaned wisdom from it. I do believe than Edmond Dantes was vindicated through his own efforts and he took great pains to create the scenarios that developed. The author is so clever to have thought all of this through, of course. Bravo!
“Dantes had exhausted every human resource. Inevitably, as we said earlier, he turned to God. Every pious notion ever sown in the world and gleaned by some wretch, bowed beneath the yoke of destiny, now came to refresh his soul. He recalled the prayers that his mother had taught him and discovered a significance in them that he had not previously understood: to a happy man, a prayer is a monotonous composition, void of meaning, until the day when suffering deciphers the sublime language through which the poor victim addresses God.” pg. 132
“His faith had been transient and he lost it, as others do when they achieve success. The difference was that he had not gained by it.” pg. 133
“Dantes made a small gesture of surprise and said: ‘Do you mean that, when you might be free, you would be deterred by such considerations?’
‘What of you?’ asked Faria. ‘Why have you never bludgeoned your jailer one evening with the leg of your table, then put on his clothes and tried to escape?’
‘I never thought of doing it.’
‘Because you have an instinctive horror at the idea of such a crime, to the point where it has never even entered your head,’ the old man continued. ‘For, in simple and permitted matters, our natural appetites warn us not to exceed the boundaries of what is permissible for us. The tiger, which spills blood in the natural course of things, because this is its state of being, its destiny, needs only for its sense of smell to inform it that a prey is within reach; immediately it leaps towards this prey, falls on it and tears it apart. That is its instinct, which it obeys. But mankind, on the contrary, is repelled by blood. It is not the laws of society that condemn murder, but the laws of nature.’
Dantes was struck dumb: this was indeed the explanation of what had gone on, without him knowing it, in his mind—or, rather, in his soul: some thoughts come from the head, others from the heart.” pg. 154
“‘What are you thinking about?’ the abbe asked with a smile, imaging that Dantes’ silence must indicate a very high degree of admiration.
‘Firstly, I am thinking of one thing, which is the vast knowledge that you must have expended to attain the point that you have reached. What might you not have done, had you been free?’
‘Perhaps nothing: the overflowing of my brain might have evaporated in mere futilities. Misfortune is needed to plumb certain mysterious depths in the understanding of men; pressure is needed to explode the charge. My captivity concentrated all my faculties on a single point. They had previously been dispersed, now they clashed in a narrow space; and, as you know, the clash of clouds produces electricity, electricity produces lightning and lightning gives light.’
‘No, I know nothing,’ said Dantes, ashamed of his ignorance. ‘Some of the words that you use are void of all meaning for me; how lucky you are to know so much!’” pg. 160
“‘. . . Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have undemanding. The first requires memory, the second philosophy.’
‘But can’t one learn philosophy?’
‘Philosophy cannot be taught. Philosophy is the union of all acquired knowledge and the genius that applies it: philosophy is the shining cloud upon which Christ set His foot to go up into heaven.’
‘Come then,’ said Dantes. ‘What will you teach me first? I am eager to begin, I am athirst for knowledge.’
‘Everything, then!’ said the abbe.” pg. 169
“He showed him how to take bearings in coastal waters, explained the compass to him and taught him to read in that great open book above our heads which is called the sky and in which God writes on the blue firmament in diamond letters.” pg. 218
“At last, by one of those unexpected chances which sometimes happen to people on whom misfortune has exhausted its ingenuity, Dantes was going to reach his goal by a simple, natural means and set foot on his island without arousing any suspicion. Only one night separated him from this long-awaited departure.” pg. 220
“‘In two hours,’ he said, ‘these men will leave, richer by fifty piastres, and proceed to risk their lives to gain fifty more. Finally, when they have six hundred , they will go and squander this fortune in some town or other, as proud as sultans and as arrogant as nabobs. Today, hope means that I despise their wealth, which seems to me like the most abject poverty; tomorrow, perhaps disappointment may mean that I shall be forced to consider that abject poverty as the height of happiness. . . . Oh! no,’ he cried, ‘it cannot be. The wise, the infallible Faria cannot have been mistaken on this one point. In any event, better to die than to go on living this sordid and base existence.’” pg. 223
“‘Look, look,’ the count continued, grasping each of the two young men by the hand. ‘Look, because I swear to you, this is worthy of your curiosity. Here is a man who was resigned to his fate, who was walking to the scaffold and about to die like a coward, that’s true, but at least he was about to die without resisting and without recriminations. Do you know what gave him that much strength? Do you know what consoled him? Do you know what resigned him to his fate? It was the fact that another man would share his anguish, that another man was to die like him, that another man was to die before him! Put two sheep in the slaughter-house or two oxen in the abattoir and let one of them realize that his companion will not die, and the sheep will bleat with joy, the ox low with pleasure. But man, man whom God made in His image, man to whom God gave this first, this sole, this supreme law, that he should love his neighbor, man to whom God gave a voice to express his thoughts - what is man’s first cry when he learns that his neighbor is saved? A curse. All honor to man, the masterpiece of nature, the lord of creation!’
He burst out laughing, but such a terrible laugh that one realized he must have suffered horribly to be able to laugh in such a way.” pg. 394
“So, preferring death a thousand times to arrest, I accomplished astonishing feats which, more than once, proved to me that our excessive concern with the welfare of our bodies is almost the only obstacle to the success of any of our plans, when these demand rapid decisions and vigorous and determined execution. In reality, once you have made the sacrifice of your life, you are no longer the equal of other men; or, rather, they are no longer your equal, because whoever has taken such a resolution instantly feels his strength increase ten times and his outlook vastly extended.’” pg. 510-502
“Truly generous men are always ready to feel compassion when their enemy’s misfortune exceeds the bounds of their hatred.” pg. 953
Book: borrowed from NB Branch.
“Dantes had exhausted every human resource. Inevitably, as we said earlier, he turned to God. Every pious notion ever sown in the world and gleaned by some wretch, bowed beneath the yoke of destiny, now came to refresh his soul. He recalled the prayers that his mother had taught him and discovered a significance in them that he had not previously understood: to a happy man, a prayer is a monotonous composition, void of meaning, until the day when suffering deciphers the sublime language through which the poor victim addresses God.” pg. 132
“His faith had been transient and he lost it, as others do when they achieve success. The difference was that he had not gained by it.” pg. 133
“Dantes made a small gesture of surprise and said: ‘Do you mean that, when you might be free, you would be deterred by such considerations?’
‘What of you?’ asked Faria. ‘Why have you never bludgeoned your jailer one evening with the leg of your table, then put on his clothes and tried to escape?’
‘I never thought of doing it.’
‘Because you have an instinctive horror at the idea of such a crime, to the point where it has never even entered your head,’ the old man continued. ‘For, in simple and permitted matters, our natural appetites warn us not to exceed the boundaries of what is permissible for us. The tiger, which spills blood in the natural course of things, because this is its state of being, its destiny, needs only for its sense of smell to inform it that a prey is within reach; immediately it leaps towards this prey, falls on it and tears it apart. That is its instinct, which it obeys. But mankind, on the contrary, is repelled by blood. It is not the laws of society that condemn murder, but the laws of nature.’
Dantes was struck dumb: this was indeed the explanation of what had gone on, without him knowing it, in his mind—or, rather, in his soul: some thoughts come from the head, others from the heart.” pg. 154
“‘What are you thinking about?’ the abbe asked with a smile, imaging that Dantes’ silence must indicate a very high degree of admiration.
‘Firstly, I am thinking of one thing, which is the vast knowledge that you must have expended to attain the point that you have reached. What might you not have done, had you been free?’
‘Perhaps nothing: the overflowing of my brain might have evaporated in mere futilities. Misfortune is needed to plumb certain mysterious depths in the understanding of men; pressure is needed to explode the charge. My captivity concentrated all my faculties on a single point. They had previously been dispersed, now they clashed in a narrow space; and, as you know, the clash of clouds produces electricity, electricity produces lightning and lightning gives light.’
‘No, I know nothing,’ said Dantes, ashamed of his ignorance. ‘Some of the words that you use are void of all meaning for me; how lucky you are to know so much!’” pg. 160
“‘. . . Learning does not make one learned: there are those who have knowledge and those who have undemanding. The first requires memory, the second philosophy.’
‘But can’t one learn philosophy?’
‘Philosophy cannot be taught. Philosophy is the union of all acquired knowledge and the genius that applies it: philosophy is the shining cloud upon which Christ set His foot to go up into heaven.’
‘Come then,’ said Dantes. ‘What will you teach me first? I am eager to begin, I am athirst for knowledge.’
‘Everything, then!’ said the abbe.” pg. 169
“He showed him how to take bearings in coastal waters, explained the compass to him and taught him to read in that great open book above our heads which is called the sky and in which God writes on the blue firmament in diamond letters.” pg. 218
“At last, by one of those unexpected chances which sometimes happen to people on whom misfortune has exhausted its ingenuity, Dantes was going to reach his goal by a simple, natural means and set foot on his island without arousing any suspicion. Only one night separated him from this long-awaited departure.” pg. 220
“‘In two hours,’ he said, ‘these men will leave, richer by fifty piastres, and proceed to risk their lives to gain fifty more. Finally, when they have six hundred , they will go and squander this fortune in some town or other, as proud as sultans and as arrogant as nabobs. Today, hope means that I despise their wealth, which seems to me like the most abject poverty; tomorrow, perhaps disappointment may mean that I shall be forced to consider that abject poverty as the height of happiness. . . . Oh! no,’ he cried, ‘it cannot be. The wise, the infallible Faria cannot have been mistaken on this one point. In any event, better to die than to go on living this sordid and base existence.’” pg. 223
“‘Look, look,’ the count continued, grasping each of the two young men by the hand. ‘Look, because I swear to you, this is worthy of your curiosity. Here is a man who was resigned to his fate, who was walking to the scaffold and about to die like a coward, that’s true, but at least he was about to die without resisting and without recriminations. Do you know what gave him that much strength? Do you know what consoled him? Do you know what resigned him to his fate? It was the fact that another man would share his anguish, that another man was to die like him, that another man was to die before him! Put two sheep in the slaughter-house or two oxen in the abattoir and let one of them realize that his companion will not die, and the sheep will bleat with joy, the ox low with pleasure. But man, man whom God made in His image, man to whom God gave this first, this sole, this supreme law, that he should love his neighbor, man to whom God gave a voice to express his thoughts - what is man’s first cry when he learns that his neighbor is saved? A curse. All honor to man, the masterpiece of nature, the lord of creation!’
He burst out laughing, but such a terrible laugh that one realized he must have suffered horribly to be able to laugh in such a way.” pg. 394
“So, preferring death a thousand times to arrest, I accomplished astonishing feats which, more than once, proved to me that our excessive concern with the welfare of our bodies is almost the only obstacle to the success of any of our plans, when these demand rapid decisions and vigorous and determined execution. In reality, once you have made the sacrifice of your life, you are no longer the equal of other men; or, rather, they are no longer your equal, because whoever has taken such a resolution instantly feels his strength increase ten times and his outlook vastly extended.’” pg. 510-502
“Truly generous men are always ready to feel compassion when their enemy’s misfortune exceeds the bounds of their hatred.” pg. 953
Book: borrowed from NB Branch.