Reviews

I'd compare this to that one amazing tv-show that a friend recommends and you binge and you love it but the second the final episode is over you're left without much of a lasting impression. this is not to say I didn't enjoy the ride, on the contrary! but I don't see myself revisting this like some other fans I've seen.

gracenextdoor's review against another edition

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3.0

At the age of 19, Edmond Dantes is imprisoned for crimes unknown to him, crimes he did not commit. He spends the next 14 years alone in the darkness, suffering and suicidal. Then, fate brings an opportunity for him to escape, and he vows to use his freedom to avenge those responsible for ruining his life.

Full disclosure: I watched the 2002 film when it came out, obviously long before reading the book. I loved the film, but was told many times over that the book is much better. If you are in the same boat as me, I want to impress that the book and the film are very different. Much of Alexandre Dumas's complicated plot and subplots are changed to make for a more concise running time, but I believe that a lot of the simplifying and changes make the story better (such as the relationship between Mondego and Dantes, and the role of Abbe Faria).

This the second book I've read by Dumas (after [b: The Three Musketeers|7190|The Three Musketeers (The D'Artagnan Romances, #1)|Alexandre Dumas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320436982s/7190.jpg|1263212]). Like the other, this book was slow to start, but when it picks up, it's good. However, there was a point in the middle that dragged on, and at times I felt like it was work to get through it. Monte Cristo disappears from the story for a length of time while Dumas sets up vengeance for one of Monte Cristo's perpetrators...only to have nothing of real significance happen. I felt somewhat disappointed by the ending, but again, perhaps it's because I was expecting something closer to the story I know so well from the film.

verkeerd's review against another edition

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Maybe I will return to it, but I didn't really care about anything that happened or anyone it was happening to. Maybe it was because of the long break between reading.

I also feel like a lot of times the authod was signaling their culturedness, which I can respect, everyone loves a good reference. However, its not really the pop culture I'm versed in so that made me kinda tune out as well.

However, I really liked the beginning and loved the escape sequence.

zuomiriam's review against another edition

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5.0

Thoroughly impressed with this book; despite its length, it fully captured my attention throughout (at no point did I want to stop reading it). Dumas weaves together an intricate story line centered around the wrongful imprisonment of Edmond Dantes. We enter the narrative immediately before Dantes is arrested and thrown into a dungeon and meet all of the characters involved in his imprisonment; following Dantes' 14-year imprisonment and subsequent daring escape, Dumas slowly builds up to a sweet, prolonged, and impeccably planned vengeance. It's enormously satisfying to see Dantes, now calling himself the Count of Monte Cristo, gradually insert himself into the lives of people who had ruined his and then exert his endless fortune to wreak havoc in their lives (often in parallel ways to how they had wronged him). I'm impressed by how Dumas managed all the intertwined storylines while writing; a number of minor characters flitter in and out of the main narrative at very opportune moments, and the timing of events is cleverly slotted together. The novel is just insanely clever, and it's kind of hard to wrap your mind around the idea that one person (largely self-educated) put it together. Towards the end, Monte Cristo recovers more of his humanity, which he thought he'd lost forever, and I found the novel's resolution quite touching. This novel is a giant in literary classics (not just out of sheer length), and I'd definitely recommend reading it in full rather than an abridged version -- the small details are largely what makes it so enjoyable.

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