The Count of Monte Cristo

Rating:
Summary: An obsession with revenge
Review: This is a classic tale, and it would be hard to add much to other reviews. It is the story of Edmund Dantes, falsely accused and sent to prison. While in prison, he learns about a valuable treasure. Contriving to escape, he recovers the treasure and sets himself up with a new identity as a wealthy nobleman. While many people would have enjoyed their wealth, Edmund is obsessed with revenge against the people responsible for sending him to prison. He is willing to destroy not only those people, but also their families. Money can buy a lot, and he expends large amounts of his new found wealth on elaborate schemes to ruin the people. Down deep, he is actually not a nice person, and you do not want to get on his wrong side. He holds grudges and pays people back in spades.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: Occasionally departs from believability, but overall, an engaging, adventure packed story of a man (Edmond Dantes), his unjust imprisonment, and spectacular revenge.

Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: The Count of Monte Cristo is an amazing story filled with action, betrayal, romance, and vengeance. Edmond Dantes is a young sailor who has everything he needs in life. He has a wife and a large amount of money to start a family. He is betrayed by his friends and sent to the dreaded Chateau d'If, and is imprisoned for life. Edmond thinks his life is over, so he swears vengeance to all who betrayed him. Edmond makes a miraculous escape and puts his plans into motion. He is determined to gain vengeance and nothing thrown in his way will stop him. He adopts the name Count of Monte Cristo and becomes friends with the ones who betrayed him. He gains his vengeance slowly by revealing little secrets about each of them, while revealing nothing at all about him. This is a story of a man who was wrongfully accused, and was able to escape and return the favor to his friends. The Count of Monte Cristo is an amazing book by Alexandre Dumas, and it is also one of his best.

Rating:
Summary: Edition
Review: I just finished this book this morning, and, as any good book should, it moved me to tears (and not for the first time). Of course, this made me look a little strange when I showed up at work. When taking on a book of this size that is this good (and therein lies the catch), it becomes a part of your life. Some of the characters will remind you of people you know and bring them more to life, but already Dumas' characters are so lifelike and incredibly, amazingly real, and that with each chapter you have spent that much more time with them, learning something new about them (up to the very last chapter!), the story literally becomes a memory that you will be fond of looking back on.

It is interesting to note that this translation is from an anonymous person. I had several issues with the translation unfortunately. I feel it was completed by at least two people, and I believe one can tell (in the first half of the book) because the chapters are clumped together in specific styles. It probably won't affect many readers, but I noticed it and thought I should point it out. This edition, unfortunately, has typos! Beware, that though they are sparse, they are blatant. This saddens me when I see a beautiful edition slighted by the hands of lazy-eyed editors. (I expect no less for modern authors!)

I have waited five years or thereabouts to read this. I would have loved to have read this when I was younger, but a lot of it would have gone in one eye, out the other (so to speak).

Enjoy, and let the story take you away from this life for awhile.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorites!
Review: I read this book about 20 years ago and it left a big impression on me. Edmund Dantes, framed for a crime he didn't commit goes to an island prison to rot. There he meets an elderly man who quickly becomes his teacher. The man seems to know everything and his lessons transform Dantes into a sophisticated and wiley-intelligent individual.

The two plan Dantes escape (I don't want to give away how but it has to do with the old man's death) and when Dantes, ultimately does escape he reinvents himself as a mysterious Count and starts taking revenge on those who framed him.

This book made me appreciate the value of learning and how you can make yourself a better person, no matter your station in life, if you take advantage of books and other sources of information available.

Rating:
Summary: The best plot in literary history.
Review: Enough good things can't be said of this book. It is rightly considered Dumas' masterpiece. The story in a sentence is how a man named Dantes is falsely accused and imprisoned thanks to the machinations of his treacherous enemies, escapes jail, comes across a fortune and spends many a year spinning a sweet, sweet revenge on all.

Of course the brilliance of the novel can't be described. It truly is great in its descriptions of the machinations and the motivations of the characters, as well as its insight into the human condition, second to few. Just because a book was published serially as popular fiction doesn't make it less worthwhile than the most pompous novel. The book explores the moral justification of Dantes in his revenge.

This is a work where the hundreds of details come together (nothing being told for no reason) to pack a powerful punch. As such, no abridged version will ever do. It's long but it's a good read and worthwhile. A must.

Rating:
Summary: eternal mystery
Review: This book is amazing. Dumas's style has been criticised for its luxuriousness, but it has the great virtue that it always has the vision of something half-comprehensible behind the humdrum life. Some of his sentances are crafted with such mastery of language it is almost inconcievable. The beauty of this book is that, though we understand Edmonde Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo is eternally a mystery. With every other character we get incites into thier mind, thier reactions, passions etc. For the Count, we get only the perceptions of others and thus never know the main character of one of the greatest books of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Clever plot, enjoyable complexity.
Review: Loved it, and when it was over, I wished it wasn't. While some call it "verbose", I would disagree, saying that they probably did not catch the full plot, and were not reading the book, but skimming though 1400+ pages with negative feelings already in mind.

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Summary: pioneering psychological thriller
Review: This massive book has all the hallmarks of what you would expect in a classic: intriguing characters with great psychological depth as they evolve over a long period of time, an extraordinarily intricate plot of adventure and tranformation, and moral lessons along with rich ironies. So long as you embrace the complexity and can live in another world, the full version is utterly rivetting to read.

Everyone knows the plot in outline. A gifted and yet simple sailor, Dantes, is the victim of a conspiracy involving thwarted love, greed, and unbridled ambition. By eliminating him, three men get what they want and move brilliantly into the rapidly changing and corrupt French society. They forget Dantes, who is isolated in despair in a notorious political dungeon, the Chateau d'If. While in prison, he meets an Italian savant who tunnels into his room and who teaches him the entire pantheon of classical knowledge, which he memorised as a tutor to princes; he also harbors a secret about an immense treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. Dantes escapes, finds the treasaure, and sets about creating an elaborate series of traps to wreak vengence on the three men who condemned him. This occurs in about the 1st 250 pages of the book. At this point, after doing some good for a family that had tried to help him, Dantes' interior dialogue - so vivid as he figures out who betrayed him and learns to hate them while learning the love the Italian savant as a 2nd father - becomes silent to the reader. What Dantes then does is insinuate himelf into French high society, creating relationships with the 3 men and their families with a cunning that can only be called genius. This takes place over about 700 pages and is an indictment of the society that Dumas despised. Though the Count is falling in love, his hatred is so implacable and cold as to render him an automaton of vengence. Then, in the last 3rd of the book as the train of destruction he created is set in motion, Dantes is again reborn as a man who can feel and reflect on what he has done. It is a moving apotheosis of redemption and regret.

What is so amazing about the story is that, as outlandish as some of the plot twists and coincidences are, the reader is (or at least I was) swept into a fast-moving narrative that is irresistably readable. In doing so, Dumas helped to spawn an entirely new genre of novel: the psychological thriller, or adventure that provokes reflection and awe. Its depth is beyond a simple swashbuckler. Its world is complete in sumptuous and realistic detail while remaining too fantastic to believe. Its characters are so complex and yet such romantic ideals as they evolve. Moreover, there are also a number of symbols throughout the book, evoking Christian and pagan themes, so that the book can be interpreted on a number of levels.

This is one of the best novels I ever read and certainly Dumas' best. Though it took me an entire summer to get through it, I will never forget it. For those of you who read French, Dumas' language is stunningly clear and graceful, while using a vocabulary that is easily accessible. Highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Comte De Monte Cristo
Review: Greatest book ever written. Don't wimp out. get the unabridged edition and enjoy!