Reviews - Greven av monte cristo

8.58k reviews for:

Greven av monte cristo

Alexandre Dumas

4.32 AVERAGE

mkol402's review against another edition

3.75

challenging informative slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

maiinwonderland's review against another edition

3.0

I want to give this book more stars because it's a classic and it's well respected, but I just can't! It was just too long, unnecessarily long! It is a great work and a piece of art but back in the day it needed a better editor! Because of this, I plan to read the abridged version in the near future. I expect to give it 5 stars.

The best way for me to review this book is to compare it to LOST (yep the TV show). I had similar feelings towards both.

The beginning of the book from when we see the wonderful Edmond Dantes and how happy he is until Edmond gains a wealth of knowledge from a fellow inmate and escapes prison is a lot like season one and two of LOST. I was so riveted and excited to find out what happens next that I couldn't put it down. I just kept wondering, "What's going to happen?" "Who is going to die?" "Will there be a happy ending?" Then the next part of the book, what I like to think of as the "set-up" section, was a lot like season three and four. I kept wondering why certain things were being brought up and if they were actually pertinent to the story. It just dragged by and I kept thinking, "Is this ever going to be interesting again?" Several times I put the book down for months and read other, more interesting, things before I felt the nag of an unfinished book pulling at me. Finally the book got to season five of LOST, or it should probably be explained as the climax and the conclusion. I loved the ending, it was so interesting to see how every crime against Edmond was revenged. I was just as excited to see every question I had answered in both the TV series and the book. Plus both the book and the TV show kind of had a Disney-eque ending too. (You know, everyone who is supposed to live happily every after did)

I don't know why but when I finished the book I thought, "Huh, that reminds me of LOST" I'm glad I finished both. And you all think I'm probably crazy for comparing the two.

I can only recommend this to people who have a lot of patience or avid readers of classics. Like I said, I'll read the abridged version soon so I'll let you know how it goes.

My final thought about this is that it's more of a tale of redemption through revenge than just a revenge tale and without the redemption I would have felt my year reading this book was wasted.