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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-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:
Yes
This is my favorite book of all time but there are sections of this book that are a little bit of a slog. That said, the build up masterfully leads to some delicious payoffs.
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
It took me a while to overcome the structure. The way characters would reappear after 300 pages of diversion, sometimes under different names, and you would need to recall who they were 20 years ago. There are characters and plotlines that mirror others in the text, in a way that feels as though they could have been streamlined. I also don't like the formatting of the dialogue in this edition, where different characters' speaking will run on the same line. If I was rereading, I'd want to try a different edition.
But about 700 pages in - once I was reading steadily, and had got to grips with who the characters were and how they related - I realised I was really enjoying it. It's entertaining! I worried that once the plan was set in motion, it would become one note, but Dumas prods and questions the Count's actions rather than just letting them unfold. It asks big questions rather than revelling in revenge. The seeds of so many culturally-significant stories are contained in here, but Dumas's craft and skepticism means the Count has more depth than I expected. It's an epic done right, making good use of its sheer length.
I do think the ending with Haidee is a bit crap though
But about 700 pages in - once I was reading steadily, and had got to grips with who the characters were and how they related - I realised I was really enjoying it. It's entertaining! I worried that once the plan was set in motion, it would become one note, but Dumas prods and questions the Count's actions rather than just letting them unfold. It asks big questions rather than revelling in revenge. The seeds of so many culturally-significant stories are contained in here, but Dumas's craft and skepticism means the Count has more depth than I expected. It's an epic done right, making good use of its sheer length.
adventurous
hopeful
tense
slow-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
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-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
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
This book is an endurance test as much as it is a novel. Because as at least one other reviewer has pointed out before me, while the first and last 300 pages are deeply engaging, the middle 800 are stretched out beyond all belief to create a tome so tediously, interminably and mind numbingly long that by the time Dumas actually gets to the donkey plopping point, I felt as if I'd been the one to spend 14 years in a dungeon; barely able to remember anything about the first part of the story at all, and especially not the middle part.
Of course, reading this, the lovers of this book will scream that every word of this masterpiece is poetically and sumptuously written. And indeed, the fact that the amazing writing flowed so enchantingly is the only reason that I finished it. However, entire chapters can be summarised in a single sentence and could have easily been cut down to one. There are so many interweaving plots and characters that I honestly couldn't keep track of who's who, why they're important or why we should care until the author does indeed finally get to the squirrel tromboning point. The fact that, with one exception, characters never say in a dozen words what can be stretched out to a hundred soon became another insulting obstacle as I yelled "GET ON WITH IT!" While the Count himself doesn't qualify as a 'Gary Stu' because the novel doesn't exist merely to show him off with the plot and every other character revolving around him and existing solely to make him look good, so much of the middle section of the book is devoted to demonstrating how the Count is Batman; that he's not only the richest, but also the greatest man who ever lived, that everyone adores him unconditionally and he's honestly so cool you guys, I genuinely felt insulted and disgusted to be reading Dumas' masturbatory fantasies. Especially considering that excuse me, wasn't he supposed to be laser focused on claiming his revenge? And speaking of which, to add insult to injury, the vengeance which was supposed to be the entire point of this novel was as much Karmic as it was the result of the Count's actions and not at all as terrible as the endless build-up and centuries of fanboy gushing about the book made me believe it would be.
Indeed, having jokingly asked myself several times as I waded through the endless literary ocean that was the middle section of this novel whether the Count's grand and diabolical scheme was to let his betrayers die of old age, even as a man who was dreading the terrible vengeance, the actual climax was so ANTI-climactic that I honestly feel cheated. And above all, I'm left wondering what on Earth the endless descriptions of his vast wealth and status as a Nietzschean Übermensch had to do with anything when he could have just as easily have done most of what needed to be done within a year of escaping the prison. Or alternatively, as I just suggested, he could have simply allowed the men's own corrupt and inherently criminal natures to be their own downfall, which was essentially what happened anyway.
Alas, the fear of this review being slammed with the hammer of 'SPOILERS' makes me hesitant to write about my many other issues with this book. However, I still feel compelled to express my disgust at the fact that as part of Dumas' effort to portray his self-insert authorial power fantasy (?) as the greatest man who ever lived, he depicts the Count as owning a slave from the Ottoman Empire who, needless to say, is one of the most beautiful woman in the world (as the book takes pains to describe in almost pornographic detail.) An 'Eastern Slave' who is utterly devoted to and besotted with him in spite of being young enough to be his daughter, and is always quick to point out both to him and us that if he were to die, then she would kill herself.
Naturally of course, since the Count is such a paragon of Dumas' ideal values, he tells the girl that since they are in France where slavery is illegal, she is now free. He insists that he only sees himself as her second father, (at least until the end,) pointing out that she obviously only 'Believes' that she loves him because, aside from her father, he's the only man she's ever spoken to. And that although she's lived an entirely segregated life up until this point with the Count keeping her in what can only be described as a one-woman Harem, (the 19th century European fascination with, jealousy of and longing for, yet at the same time, moralising condemnation of harems really shines through in the fact that he only keeps 'One' female slave. #Monogamy,) she is now free to talk to, meet with and even fall in love with other men. But of course, this is all merely an excuse for Dumas to describe the girl gushing that she will never want or love anyone else because the Count is beyond all mortal men.
Seriously, the Count is a totally unironic forebear of the satirical portrait in which a President of the United States is duel wielding machine guns as a woman clings seductively to his thigh. Everything that I adore and recommend about this story is balanced out by something that I wish Dumas had cut out and burned. And while I once again hear the fans of this book crying that I have to read it three, five, or even ten times and in the original French to be able to fully appreciate all of the subtle depth and complexity and to understand how 'Well Actually, everything is all interconnected, makes perfect sense and is absolutely vital to the story,' I'm not sure if I have the fortitude to physically survive reading it a second time.
In the end in fact, I feel safe in asserting that this is a novel for gate-keeping snobs; the kind of people who can boast that not only have they read it, but have read it so often that they can indeed keep track of every character and plot thread and explain it all to smooth-brained plebs like myself. And if you are such a person, then I'm genuinely happy for you and can't recommend this book highly enough.
Of course, reading this, the lovers of this book will scream that every word of this masterpiece is poetically and sumptuously written. And indeed, the fact that the amazing writing flowed so enchantingly is the only reason that I finished it. However, entire chapters can be summarised in a single sentence and could have easily been cut down to one. There are so many interweaving plots and characters that I honestly couldn't keep track of who's who, why they're important or why we should care until the author does indeed finally get to the squirrel tromboning point. The fact that, with one exception, characters never say in a dozen words what can be stretched out to a hundred soon became another insulting obstacle as I yelled "GET ON WITH IT!" While the Count himself doesn't qualify as a 'Gary Stu' because the novel doesn't exist merely to show him off with the plot and every other character revolving around him and existing solely to make him look good, so much of the middle section of the book is devoted to demonstrating how the Count is Batman; that he's not only the richest, but also the greatest man who ever lived, that everyone adores him unconditionally and he's honestly so cool you guys, I genuinely felt insulted and disgusted to be reading Dumas' masturbatory fantasies. Especially considering that excuse me, wasn't he supposed to be laser focused on claiming his revenge? And speaking of which, to add insult to injury, the vengeance which was supposed to be the entire point of this novel was as much Karmic as it was the result of the Count's actions and not at all as terrible as the endless build-up and centuries of fanboy gushing about the book made me believe it would be.
Indeed, having jokingly asked myself several times as I waded through the endless literary ocean that was the middle section of this novel whether the Count's grand and diabolical scheme was to let his betrayers die of old age, even as a man who was dreading the terrible vengeance, the actual climax was so ANTI-climactic that I honestly feel cheated. And above all, I'm left wondering what on Earth the endless descriptions of his vast wealth and status as a Nietzschean Übermensch had to do with anything when he could have just as easily have done most of what needed to be done within a year of escaping the prison. Or alternatively, as I just suggested, he could have simply allowed the men's own corrupt and inherently criminal natures to be their own downfall, which was essentially what happened anyway.
Alas, the fear of this review being slammed with the hammer of 'SPOILERS' makes me hesitant to write about my many other issues with this book. However, I still feel compelled to express my disgust at the fact that as part of Dumas' effort to portray his self-insert authorial power fantasy (?) as the greatest man who ever lived, he depicts the Count as owning a slave from the Ottoman Empire who, needless to say, is one of the most beautiful woman in the world (as the book takes pains to describe in almost pornographic detail.) An 'Eastern Slave' who is utterly devoted to and besotted with him in spite of being young enough to be his daughter, and is always quick to point out both to him and us that if he were to die, then she would kill herself.
Naturally of course, since the Count is such a paragon of Dumas' ideal values, he tells the girl that since they are in France where slavery is illegal, she is now free. He insists that he only sees himself as her second father, (at least until the end,) pointing out that she obviously only 'Believes' that she loves him because, aside from her father, he's the only man she's ever spoken to. And that although she's lived an entirely segregated life up until this point with the Count keeping her in what can only be described as a one-woman Harem, (the 19th century European fascination with, jealousy of and longing for, yet at the same time, moralising condemnation of harems really shines through in the fact that he only keeps 'One' female slave. #Monogamy,) she is now free to talk to, meet with and even fall in love with other men. But of course, this is all merely an excuse for Dumas to describe the girl gushing that she will never want or love anyone else because the Count is beyond all mortal men.
Seriously, the Count is a totally unironic forebear of the satirical portrait in which a President of the United States is duel wielding machine guns as a woman clings seductively to his thigh. Everything that I adore and recommend about this story is balanced out by something that I wish Dumas had cut out and burned. And while I once again hear the fans of this book crying that I have to read it three, five, or even ten times and in the original French to be able to fully appreciate all of the subtle depth and complexity and to understand how 'Well Actually, everything is all interconnected, makes perfect sense and is absolutely vital to the story,' I'm not sure if I have the fortitude to physically survive reading it a second time.
In the end in fact, I feel safe in asserting that this is a novel for gate-keeping snobs; the kind of people who can boast that not only have they read it, but have read it so often that they can indeed keep track of every character and plot thread and explain it all to smooth-brained plebs like myself. And if you are such a person, then I'm genuinely happy for you and can't recommend this book highly enough.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The beginning is awesome, then the pacing drops like a rock. The pacing is really slow up until the end where things pick up for the resolutions.
The language is also very challenging. I probably missed a bunch of the finer details. Will probably need to read it again now with a general understanding of the plot to get more of those details. I'm not opposed to doing that down the line!
All that said, it's great, moral, revenge story.
The language is also very challenging. I probably missed a bunch of the finer details. Will probably need to read it again now with a general understanding of the plot to get more of those details. I'm not opposed to doing that down the line!
All that said, it's great, moral, revenge story.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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:
Complicated
A must read for everyone
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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