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codybishop89 's review for:
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”
Wow! By the end of this story, you have came a long way from a ship arriving to harbor under the command of a young and naïve sailor. But don’t be intimidated by the nearly 1200 pages in length. It really didn’t feel like that long of a read thanks to being so well-layered. There is no scene or dialogue that doesn’t ultimately contribute to the wild justice of the finale.
A great deal of subplots are involved in the character transformation of Edmond Dantès, who spends the first half of his imprisonment unsuspecting and entirely unable to comprehend how anyone would ever conspire against him; the second half spent coming to terms and blurring the lines of his own humanity as he tries to make himself young with the happiness of revenge. Still, there are a lot of mental gymnastics involved in keeping up with this storyline (compare it to a suspenseful Netflix show that your friend recommends but tells you, “Don’t be on your phone while watching it. You’ll be lost if you miss anything.”)
It’s rare for revenge to be patient but, after spending fourteen years wrongfully imprisoned in the dungeons of Chateau d’If, this revenge is personal and needs time to ripen. Dantès’ conspirators were simply playing checkers when they had him locked away and he gets his vengeance playing chess, constantly enacting another one of the moving pieces in a plan to publicly shame his enemies and ruin their lives.
I really can’t express how incredible this book was. I realized pretty early on that it was going to be in my top 5 favorites of all time. It was surprising to see so many reviews complaining about a bad or unhappy ending. I think it was about the best outcome allowable considering the overall plot and theme. Personally, it was an easy 5-star rating.
*Also, I was fortunate to have not seen the movie before reading this. I watched a few short clips on YouTube after finishing and could hardly believe the differences. It wasn’t even remotely the same storyline. Please, don’t make your decision to read/not read this book based on the movie.
Wow! By the end of this story, you have came a long way from a ship arriving to harbor under the command of a young and naïve sailor. But don’t be intimidated by the nearly 1200 pages in length. It really didn’t feel like that long of a read thanks to being so well-layered. There is no scene or dialogue that doesn’t ultimately contribute to the wild justice of the finale.
A great deal of subplots are involved in the character transformation of Edmond Dantès, who spends the first half of his imprisonment unsuspecting and entirely unable to comprehend how anyone would ever conspire against him; the second half spent coming to terms and blurring the lines of his own humanity as he tries to make himself young with the happiness of revenge. Still, there are a lot of mental gymnastics involved in keeping up with this storyline (compare it to a suspenseful Netflix show that your friend recommends but tells you, “Don’t be on your phone while watching it. You’ll be lost if you miss anything.”)
It’s rare for revenge to be patient but, after spending fourteen years wrongfully imprisoned in the dungeons of Chateau d’If, this revenge is personal and needs time to ripen. Dantès’ conspirators were simply playing checkers when they had him locked away and he gets his vengeance playing chess, constantly enacting another one of the moving pieces in a plan to publicly shame his enemies and ruin their lives.
I really can’t express how incredible this book was. I realized pretty early on that it was going to be in my top 5 favorites of all time. It was surprising to see so many reviews complaining about a bad or unhappy ending. I think it was about the best outcome allowable considering the overall plot and theme. Personally, it was an easy 5-star rating.
*Also, I was fortunate to have not seen the movie before reading this. I watched a few short clips on YouTube after finishing and could hardly believe the differences. It wasn’t even remotely the same storyline. Please, don’t make your decision to read/not read this book based on the movie.