7.11.2012

The Count of Monte Cristo

Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Pub: 1844
Pages: 531
Genre: Classics
Etc:  Ack.  I accidentally read the abridged version.  Who knew.

Epic life journey
To right the wrong and avenge
 A life and love lost.

Ohemgee!  I freakin' LOVED this book. Loved it so hard and Edmond Dantes will always hold a part of my heart.  In fact, I was miserable to find out that I read the abridged version and have made it a goal to reread The Count, uncut, within the next five years. [It would be sooner but there are so many unloved books on my TBR pile].

So, The Count of Monte Cristo in a nutshell. 

Edmond Dantes is a young fisherman and he's just an all around good guy.  He cares about his boss's business, his mates, and has found the love of his life who he plans to marry.  Life only gets better when his boss offers him a promotion.  But there are miserable people in Dantes' life and they desire to take away the happiness he has secured.  In an already treacherous time period of Napoleon's reign of France, Dante is set up for treason and shipped off to a miserable prison off an island.

While he is imprisoned, he meets "The Mad Priest" and they become close friends.  Faria divulges the whereabouts of his treasure which Dantes ends up using upon escaping to avenge his lost life.

The remaining four-hundred odd pages of this abridged version is Dantes dedication in this journey.  Through diligence, fairness, and determination, Dantes finds all four of the individuals who wronged him and meticulously causes their demise. 

BRILLIANT.  I love that Dantes is a faulted character with a benevolent heart.  He is able to maintain his goal to avenge the death of his Life while still opening his heart to new individuals.  To me that's a pretty healthy way of life.

Plus, there's so much excitement in this dang book.  I seriously could not put it down.   One of the areas that warms my tummy the most is the manner in which honor plays in Dantes life.  Each way he deals with the criminals who framed him is determined by their role in the framing.

This novel is about rebirth.  Dantes dies in that prison and is born again as the Count but with Dantes past, if that makes sense.  It's about forgiveness as lives carried on while Dantes rotted in prison.  It's about love and sacrifice.  Seriously.  Is there a theme that is not hit upon in this epic novel?

The Count of Monte Cristo will be a well-loved classic and treasured story.  Dumas has once again impressed me with his story telling.

6 comments:

  1. This is one of those books I always consider picking up but then bypass it for another. I clearly need to read it.

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  2. This is one of my favorite books! I read the full one and it was so worth it, even at 1500 pages.

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  3. I agree this book is amazing!! And I had to get up and check my copy to see if it is secretly abridged and it is!! I wonder what I missed in the unabridged version??

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  4. This is such an amazing book and I want to reread it now. It's wonderful and a little heartbreaking and I just love it.

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  5. I love the Count of Monte Cristo. It has such intricate storytelling. You might try the sequel, The Sultan of Monte Cristo. You can get it from Amazon.

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  6. One of my absolute favorites! The Modern Library edition is unabridged, and ML has the added benefit of putting that "no word has been cut..." disclaimer near the front (on the ISBN page maybe) so you can *check*. Clever boots, those Modern Library folks.

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