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bevans8 's review for:
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas
At just over 1,200 pages, this is probably the longest book I've ever read. I feel like I have been reading this book forever. When I finally finished it this afternoon, it felt almost anticlimactic, because how do you close out a tale so long and epic?
This was a good book to read during quarantine, and I would take it with me if I ever went to one of those fabled desert islands. The plot is so much more intricate than what I've seen in movie adaptations. It's more than a tale of revenge (though it is also very much a tale of revenge). When the revenge finally does happen, it's not at all how I thought it would unfold. Suddenly, all of the breadcrumbs left in the preceding 1,000 pages finally paid off. It is a very romantic novel, with grand, sweeping emotions, and subplots that involve murder, adultery, infanticide, secret treasure, high-society drama, drug-induced hallucinations, and even LGBTQ characters! I think it's noteworthy that Alexandre Dumas himself was a man of color; he adopted the last name "Dumas" from his grandmother, a Haitian former slave. This seems to be forgotten by most people, and certainly by Hollywood.
I feel bad not giving the novel a perfect 5-star review, but the fact is it was written for serialization, so it's a bit bloated. As much as I love the complex plot, there were some parts that certainly could have been trimmed. At some points, I found myself getting lost in the details and who was whom. It seems all of the women in this novel are either evil witchy stepmothers or sexy virginal damsels in distress. There's also some casual antisemitism and fetishization of the "Orient." But what can you expect from a novel written in the 1840s?
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I'm also glad I'm finally finished with it and can read some other things. This should count for at least 3 books on my yearly challenge.
This was a good book to read during quarantine, and I would take it with me if I ever went to one of those fabled desert islands. The plot is so much more intricate than what I've seen in movie adaptations. It's more than a tale of revenge (though it is also very much a tale of revenge). When the revenge finally does happen, it's not at all how I thought it would unfold. Suddenly, all of the breadcrumbs left in the preceding 1,000 pages finally paid off. It is a very romantic novel, with grand, sweeping emotions, and subplots that involve murder, adultery, infanticide, secret treasure, high-society drama, drug-induced hallucinations, and even LGBTQ characters! I think it's noteworthy that Alexandre Dumas himself was a man of color; he adopted the last name "Dumas" from his grandmother, a Haitian former slave. This seems to be forgotten by most people, and certainly by Hollywood.
I feel bad not giving the novel a perfect 5-star review, but the fact is it was written for serialization, so it's a bit bloated. As much as I love the complex plot, there were some parts that certainly could have been trimmed. At some points, I found myself getting lost in the details and who was whom. It seems all of the women in this novel are either evil witchy stepmothers or sexy virginal damsels in distress. There's also some casual antisemitism and fetishization of the "Orient." But what can you expect from a novel written in the 1840s?
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel. I'm also glad I'm finally finished with it and can read some other things. This should count for at least 3 books on my yearly challenge.