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![The Count of Monte Cristo [Abridged] by Alexandre Dumas](https://cdn.thestorygraph.com/1qy27ultqt1q86gtbubgprtxmd89)
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
I think I'm going to have to read the 1200 page version one day. I didn't like the ending that much. It seemed like one of those everybody dies in the end books. Kind of disappointed that didn't happen. And why is Danglers still alive and content in the end? Wasn't he the one who originally wanted to get rid of him? Ah well. I'll analyze it when school starts.
I thought this was going to be stuffy and difficult to read. It was great! It dragged in some parts, but it mostly read smoothly. I loved that Edmond got his revenge. Was an exciting read for me.
Ooooh I love this book!!! Adventure, revenge, romance, this book has everything. I couldn't get enough of it.
What can I say? Sometimes you just have to take a bite out of big book and savor it. This book is full of it all: a sophisticated and twisted plot of betrayal, revenge, and the question of who is fit to bestow God's justice/mercy?
I read the abridged version in 2008.
I read the unabridged version in 2017, with a lot of help from the audiobook on Audible.
I read the abridged version in 2008.
I read the unabridged version in 2017, with a lot of help from the audiobook on Audible.
Edmond Dantes is living a dream. At the mere age of twenty, he’s about to be promoted to the captain of the ship The Pharaon and within a few days, his beautiful fiancé, Mercedes, will become his wife. But despite being a loyal and worthy man, Dantes has some enemies. And they’ll stop at nothing to eliminate him. Even if it means creating an elaborate lie to label Dantes as a bonapartist. The day of Dantes wedding, he’s arrested for being a suspected bonapartist and is locked away in the dungeon of the Chateau d’If. Dantes is determined to get revenge on his three enemies, no matter how much it takes or how many it will hurt. Dumas has written a timeless adventure filled with twists and turns that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat.
3.5 stars
Spoiler
So, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. My biggest critique would be that the adventure aspect was not as consistent as I would have liked it to be. Something exciting would happen, and then the chapter would end and the next chapter would move on to a different character’s story. Obviously this was a necessary tactic seeing as though we had a lot of characters to keep up with, but I personally found this disappointing and at times, even annoying. While I’m on the topic of characters, I should mention my opinion on the ending. I felt as though I didn’t get a lot of closure from the ending. Aside from any characters that died during the story, we only got solid closure from Valentine, Maxemillien, Haydee, and Edmond, which I was disappointed in. The closure we were offered for Albert, Danglars, Mercedes, etc, wasn’t really what I was hoping for. This complaint could, of course, stem from not the book itself but rather the edition I read. The edition I read was abridged and just under 550 pages, while tho original was over 1000 pages. So perhaps I could have found more closure in the original, or even in a longer edition. Finally, while I’m on the topic of the ending, I want to mention the fact that a lot of the character actually didn’t impact the ending. We encountered 70 some notable characters throughout the story, which was quite a lot to keep track of. But there were some that we really could have done without, in the long run. Characters drive the story, and not every character will have equal impact in the story, but I felt like some of them didn’t really contribute anything to the story, and it almost felt pointless to follow their story.3.5 stars
Full Review on my website PostWordem
When a friend of mine recently said, “Hey, I think I’m going to read the Count of Monte Cristo.” my initial response was, “Oh, I have a copy of that” …and then I scoffed. But after some consideration, I realized that I had never actually picked it up and read it. The tales woven by Alexandre Dumas have become part of our culture in a way – we all know of The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask…that elusive count. But do you really know the stories? Other than a brief run in with Leonardo DiCaprio back in the day (when I was paying less attention to plot and more attention to other things), I got honest with myself and realized that I had no idea what these stories were really made of. So, I decided to try to tackle the Count head on.
And what a book it was. The first thing that struck me was the writing style – flamboyant and (seemingly, at first) overly descriptive. Do we really need this much detail or that much dialogue? But what Dumas was cleverly doing was setting the stage for the grand reveal(s) at the end – and by that point I was emotionally invested in the characters – thanks to all of the upfront groundwork. It read, in a way, like a soap opera, without all of the overt sexuality that usually comes with that territory. There are mysterious deaths, satire, romances, (almost) duels…and at 500+ pages in my edition, it surprisingly didn’t drag along. And without doing any research about the history of the novel (that’s coming shortly…), it feels as if the book were suited for serialization…each chapter leading into the next with finesse or cliffhangers that keep the pace moving or the reader wanting more.
The plot in in itself is a bit formulaic. You have your hero, who starts out innocent, in love, fairly happy. But alas, people jealous of his good fortune conspire against him, not just foiling his plans but essentially ruining his life. After 14 (yes, 14) years in a prison where some somewhat unbelievable things take place (who really tunnels under the floor of a jail?), he achieves his freedom and happens upon fortune. And the rest of the story follows his attempt to attain revenge against the families that destroyed his happiness. It’s actually quite intricate plot development, with the building of characters and causing them to overlap and run into one another. In some ways, it seems, that they further the plot along and assist the Count in exacting his revenge just by being themselves. Or perhaps he can anticipate their actions.
One of my favorite passages actually took place earlier in the novel, where Villefort visits King Louis XVIII in the Tuileries:
"There was a brief pause, during which Louis XVIII. wrote, in a hand as small as possible, another note on the margin of his Horace, and then looking at the duke with the air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his own, while he is only commenting upon the idea of another."
While placed historically to give the novel a familiar backdrop for readers at the time, the monarchy and the usurper (Napoleon) play interestingly limited roles in the novel. Once Edmond Dantes is convicted for plotting against the crown, the government fades in the novel and the different prominent families in the novel take over.
What struck me was how clearly Dumas painted the characters. They all come off the page in their own unique way. You can envision M Nortier blinking and motioning at his granddaughter Valentine, desperate to communicate. You can sense Mme Morcerf’s curiosity at the strange and new Count and the recognition in her eyes as she sees him for the first time. You can even tell that Mme Villefort is up to no good before everyone else does – and her kind of evil is of the most pure kind.
I also happened to like the ending of the novel. I don’t think the book is about whether or not you are on The Count’s side or whether you think he’s right or wrong in all of the chaos that he orchestrates. Four hundred pages in, it’s easy to forget that he was the original victim in the novel. Dumas finds a way to give him a level of happiness and redemption in spite of it all, though I’m not sure that the way he wrote it was 100% believable or natural.
If you are considering reading this book, I HIGHLY recommend that you make sure your edition of the novel is unabridged. I assumed that my Signet Classic copy was, but I was fooled and only realized halfway through my reading. I didn’t double back or try to reread it, figuring I had already made a considerable commitment to the book. But it does make me wonder what I really missed out on.
And why is The Count of Monte Cristo still relatable today? The themes of politics and wealth manipulating people to commonly devious ends. The themes of forbidden love, difficult parents, desire for adventure, and – but of course – the need for revenge when we are wronged so unjustly.
When a friend of mine recently said, “Hey, I think I’m going to read the Count of Monte Cristo.” my initial response was, “Oh, I have a copy of that” …and then I scoffed. But after some consideration, I realized that I had never actually picked it up and read it. The tales woven by Alexandre Dumas have become part of our culture in a way – we all know of The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask…that elusive count. But do you really know the stories? Other than a brief run in with Leonardo DiCaprio back in the day (when I was paying less attention to plot and more attention to other things), I got honest with myself and realized that I had no idea what these stories were really made of. So, I decided to try to tackle the Count head on.
And what a book it was. The first thing that struck me was the writing style – flamboyant and (seemingly, at first) overly descriptive. Do we really need this much detail or that much dialogue? But what Dumas was cleverly doing was setting the stage for the grand reveal(s) at the end – and by that point I was emotionally invested in the characters – thanks to all of the upfront groundwork. It read, in a way, like a soap opera, without all of the overt sexuality that usually comes with that territory. There are mysterious deaths, satire, romances, (almost) duels…and at 500+ pages in my edition, it surprisingly didn’t drag along. And without doing any research about the history of the novel (that’s coming shortly…), it feels as if the book were suited for serialization…each chapter leading into the next with finesse or cliffhangers that keep the pace moving or the reader wanting more.
The plot in in itself is a bit formulaic. You have your hero, who starts out innocent, in love, fairly happy. But alas, people jealous of his good fortune conspire against him, not just foiling his plans but essentially ruining his life. After 14 (yes, 14) years in a prison where some somewhat unbelievable things take place (who really tunnels under the floor of a jail?), he achieves his freedom and happens upon fortune. And the rest of the story follows his attempt to attain revenge against the families that destroyed his happiness. It’s actually quite intricate plot development, with the building of characters and causing them to overlap and run into one another. In some ways, it seems, that they further the plot along and assist the Count in exacting his revenge just by being themselves. Or perhaps he can anticipate their actions.
One of my favorite passages actually took place earlier in the novel, where Villefort visits King Louis XVIII in the Tuileries:
"There was a brief pause, during which Louis XVIII. wrote, in a hand as small as possible, another note on the margin of his Horace, and then looking at the duke with the air of a man who thinks he has an idea of his own, while he is only commenting upon the idea of another."
While placed historically to give the novel a familiar backdrop for readers at the time, the monarchy and the usurper (Napoleon) play interestingly limited roles in the novel. Once Edmond Dantes is convicted for plotting against the crown, the government fades in the novel and the different prominent families in the novel take over.
What struck me was how clearly Dumas painted the characters. They all come off the page in their own unique way. You can envision M Nortier blinking and motioning at his granddaughter Valentine, desperate to communicate. You can sense Mme Morcerf’s curiosity at the strange and new Count and the recognition in her eyes as she sees him for the first time. You can even tell that Mme Villefort is up to no good before everyone else does – and her kind of evil is of the most pure kind.
I also happened to like the ending of the novel. I don’t think the book is about whether or not you are on The Count’s side or whether you think he’s right or wrong in all of the chaos that he orchestrates. Four hundred pages in, it’s easy to forget that he was the original victim in the novel. Dumas finds a way to give him a level of happiness and redemption in spite of it all, though I’m not sure that the way he wrote it was 100% believable or natural.
If you are considering reading this book, I HIGHLY recommend that you make sure your edition of the novel is unabridged. I assumed that my Signet Classic copy was, but I was fooled and only realized halfway through my reading. I didn’t double back or try to reread it, figuring I had already made a considerable commitment to the book. But it does make me wonder what I really missed out on.
And why is The Count of Monte Cristo still relatable today? The themes of politics and wealth manipulating people to commonly devious ends. The themes of forbidden love, difficult parents, desire for adventure, and – but of course – the need for revenge when we are wronged so unjustly.
This is a good introduction to the story and was pretty good at covering a 1000+ page book in a much shorter version.
I must be honest that I frequently mix-up the book The Count of Monte Cristo and the French national sandwich a Croque Monsieur in my mind. Therefore, I was a bit befuddled going into this. Perhaps I read this in high school, perhaps not. A bit overstuffed IMO but altogether satisfying.
Almost five because it was amazing but I felt like I need just that extra bit of drama at the end.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated