After years spent on my to read shelf, The Count of Monte Cristo has finally been read! I was 16 when someone recommended that I read it, but though I soon bought a copy, I put it off until now. Maybe it was because I’m not the biggest fan of adventure/revenge tales, at least not when it comes to reading material. I’m still not. I can’t say that I really enjoyed the novel. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t as intriguing as I was led to believe. This is one of those rare cases when I find myself admitting that I enjoy the film more than the book… I actually really like the 2002 version with Jim Caviezel as the Count. Now that I’ve read the source, I find that what I like about the film is that it condenses all the main plot elements, draws them together, and eliminates the subplots littered throughout the novel. And there are a lot of subplots.
To summarize…
Edmond Dantes is a humble sailor. His father loves him, and he is betrothed to the beautiful Mercedes. When the captain of his ship becomes ill and dies, Edmond is charged with securing a letter from the Isle of Elba, where the fallen Emperor resides. Edmond is a faithful servant and completes his mission, but greed and avarice dog his steps and he becomes the victim of a cruel plot to separate him from all he cherishes. Edmond is sent to perish in the dungeon of the Chateau D’If, where he begins to lose hope until he meets a cunning Abbe who becomes his unlikely benefactor.
Reborn as the Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond lays a plot to destroy those who would destroy him…
Monte Cristo is brimful of Hidden Treasure! Poison! Cunning Plans! More Poison! And Foiled Plots!
It is not the most carefully crafted mystery, but it is entertaining. It’s very dramatic, classic fluff. And this review is mostly fluff because I find I don’t have much to say about it, but I’m quite proud that I finally got it off the shelf. It was alright; not the most absorbing read, but I enjoyed some of the threads–Haydee’s story, for instance.
Tags: alexandre dumas, books, classics, french literature, the count of monte cristo
Very rarely do I agree with abridged versions of books, but I read the full 1500 pages a year ago and was not impressed at all. I would have been much better off reading the abridged version. I’m not a big fan of vigilante justice and beyond that, there were about 700 pages in the middle of this book that felt completely pointless. Plus, the slightly pedophilic ending was a bit creepy…
I agree; I was glad it was the abridged version… I didn’t realize until I was a few chapters in and didn’t feel like bothering with the full text after such a slow start. My copy was about 600 pages long and it still felt long-winded and rambling.