Product Description

A popular bestseller since its publication in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great page-turning thrillers of all time. Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, Dumas’s grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal. As Robert Louis Stevenson declared, “I do not believe there is another volume extant where you can breathe the same unmingled atmosphere of romance.”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38280 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-11
• Released on: 2002-06-11
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1488 pages

Review
?A piece of perfect storytelling.? ?Robert Louis Stevenson -- Review

Review
“A piece of perfect storytelling.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Customer Reviews

A tale for the centuries
This is one of the greatest tales of revenge of all time. We owe to Dumas's skillful hand a narrative rivaling WAR AND PEACE, a vast collection of characters and tales within tales, all finally ancohered together upon the dreadful downfall of Edmond Dantes and his in some ways equally dreadful rebirth as that mysterious agent of justice, the Count of Monte Cristo. It is a fascinating story, providing thrills -- but not at the expense of shallowness -- and provoking thought -- but without affectation.

My only piece of advice to the reader is to take a few notes on the characters, since they disappear and reappear, and sometimes are referred to by different names and titles. However, for what it is worth, I was able to follow the story closely enough to thoroughly enjoy it even without notes, and despite occasionally being forced to set the book down for a few weeks between chapters.

Because of the size of the book, the Modern Library Classics edition is especially useful, having comparatively large and legible print, decent spacing between lines, and, most importantly, a flexible spine which allows it to be set open on a table without creasing or cracking.

A Dish Best Served Cold
The introduction to this excellent Modern Library edition says, "The long journey of Edmond Dantes is one that we should all take at some point in our lives." I couldn't agree more. This novel easily ranks among the greatest epics--The Odyssey, Don Quixote, Les Miserables, War & Peace and The Brothers Karamazov come to mind as works of comparable scope and moral grandeur.

My only advice is: set aside some time. With 1500 pages, a complex web of characters (including many with shifting identities) and more than a few dispensible subplots, this unabridged edition is a challenge--albeit a rewarding one.

The novel tackles all the great themes: war, revolution, love, power, money, justice, evil, God. But in a word, it's subject is REVENGE. A good-natured young man of exceptional promise, Edmond Dantes is betrayed by his erstwhile friends, unjustly imprisoned by an ambitious magistrate, and left for dead by the woman he loves. The first three hundred pages of the story are fast-paced and almost cinematic, from the wrenching scenes of betrayal and imprisonment, down to Dantes' miraculous escape and rebirth as a remarkable new man, the Count of Monte Cristo.

The Count is part 007, part Stoic philosopher. He'll drop you in a duel, match wits with you in the salon, concoct potions from recipes in a dozen languages, be in three places at once, with three different identities, and exercise a kind of foresight and control over human events that we normally associate with gods and conspiracy theories. Oh yeah--and he's loaded, too.

Dantes burns with a desire for revenge, but it's an entirely different sort than the Clint Eastwood/Charles Bronson variety. Instead of blasting his way into Paris with a semi-automatic (or less anachronistically, with a really big sword), Dantes methodically plots the downfall of his enemies using even more lethal weapons: the evil that lurks in their own hearts.

All this takes a long time. There is a big drop off in intensity in the middle chunk of the novel, as Dumas transitions from the swashbuckling Napoleonic days to a more traditional European novel of manners set in the 1830s. A whole new set of characters are introduced. Later, we discover their relationship to Dantes' earlier antagonists--but for a time we are totally at sea. Meanwhile, Dumas launches various digressions that will occasionally cause the reader to wonder whether he was getting paid by the word (probably).

But don't despair. The last half of the novel gathers steam like a freight train, as Count of Monte Cristo moves in for the kill. The suspense builds--not because we wonder whether Dantes will get his revenge, but whether he can avoid turning into a monster in the process.

Ultimately, Dumas offers as sane and humane a message as you can hope for from 1500 pages of injustice and vengeance. In a novel where fortunes shift, names and titles are granted and extinguished, and identities are transformed on turns of luck, the old Stoic wisdom shines through. It's not what happens to you, good or bad, but how you respond to it, that determines true virtue in this world. One suspects this would be true even without an avenging Providence, even if Edmond Dantes' triumph were less complete.

Fantastic work of literature - A must read
Although I have not read any other translations of The Count of Monte Cristo, I can attest that the Modern Library Classics version is one that was scripted so beautifully that I had to reread many passages twice: once for the content and a second time for how the words just flow into your mind. When I checked this book out from the library, I was completely engrossed. Upon returning it, I ventured to bookstores to find the same exact version. Many different books had another translation (I read the same passage which was vividly engraved in my memory from the first read through!) and found that other translations do not pack the same emotional energy this version has.

Enough said about the translation. This book is a sheer masterpiece. I may go on to read other of Dumas's works, such as the Three Musketeers 5 book series, but upon reading varied reviews, about half of the 3000 pages in that series is a huge miss. I'm still unsure if I want to begin the series. On the other hand, the Count of Monte Cristo has no boring passages whatsoever. Every page, every paragraph, every sentence was poetry to feed the mind. Everything flowed smoothly.

The romance, drama, REVENGE, religion, suspense... everything you wanted is in this book. Some pages left me heartbroken, others made me rejoice. It is truly something that can be read again and again and you will find something new each time. This is by far the longest book I have read, and I truly enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes you empathize with Edmond, at other times you question his actions. But overall, this book just packs so much into one. Just leave some time to read it all the way in one go. To leave it to finish it later will only make you confused when you pick it up again because there is just so many key characters in the novel.