Product Description

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure of one man's quest for freedom and vengeance on those who betrayed him.

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

• A chronology of the author's life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #307200 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 688 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743487559
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

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Customer Reviews

Great book, but buy a different version
This is a great book and I highly recommend it, but don't buy this enriched classic version of the book. It was good, but I felt like something was missing, and not until I finished the book did I discover that this version leaves out significant portions of the actual story. Nowhere in this book does it tell you that it is an abridged version, but it actually is. Buy a different version of this book.

Bowdlerized
The single star refers to this version, not the book itself. Do not read this version if you want the complete version of the Count of Monte Cristo. Other reviewers have noted that this is an abridged version, but it is much worse than that, this is a Bowdlerized version. Still worse is the fact that the publisher does not disclose this fact, which I consider to be quite deceptive. Significant subplots have been eliminated so as not to have to contend with what the Bowdlerizer considered unpleasant story elements such as: murder (two of them are eliminated in this version), an affair between two main characters leading to the illegitimate birth of a third character, the attempted infanticide of that third character and a lesbian relationship. Important characters become merely ciphers, and main characters just fade away because the chapters describing their fate have been eliminated. While important chapters are eliminated, the flowery 19th century prose (or at least the English translation of this language) is retained. Thus, this version is over 600 pages long. In contrast, the Lowell Bair translation and abridgement (published by Bantam) is about 200 pages shorter. However, the Bair version is more complete in terms of story elements and is a version that I recommend.

This book contains some enrichment in term of additions of some historical background, information about the life and work of Dumas, chapter notes and interpretive notes. In my opinion, however, these enrichments in no way compensate for the trashing of Dumas' story. Also, beware if you read this version for school, you will suffer the double handicap of not getting the complete story while still having to wade through over 600 pages of 19th century prose. Read the whole thing, or at least an abridgement that uses a more modern prose style, while still retaining the whole story. Beware, however, the complete book is about twice as long as this version and many times the size of the Bair abridgement.

ABRIDGED version of the classic story, good resources in back
I am reviewing the Pocket Books Enriched Classics version of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. At about chapter 30, I was hooked on the story and reading reviews and doing research on it. At that point I discovered the Pocket Books version is an ABRIDGED version with about 70 chapters. The real version has around 117 chapters. This frustrated me immensely because nowhere on the Pocket Books version does it say it is abridged. That is my biggest complaint.

I then found a complete version of the book and read it. If I was going to read the book, I wanted to read the whole thing. However, if you want a more tightly written book, I guess I could recommend the abridged version. It won't take near as long to read and will probably tell the same story. Just a quick comment about the 2002 movie starring Jim Cavizel and Guy Pierce. The 1st half of the move covers Dantes' imprisonment and escape, while in the book, it is maybe 25% of the story. While the movie is good, it in no way does justice to Dantes' life as the Count of Monte Cristo. I don't see how it would be possible to make a movie that follows the book closely, the book is just too long.

Dantes is madly in love with Mercedes. On the eve of their wedding, Dantes is betrayed by 3 supposed friends. Dantes spends 14 years in prison and there he meets a priest he teaches him many things an tells him where to find a massive treasure. Dantes escapes, finds the treasure and sets out to get revenge on those who betrayed him. The revenge plots are long, detailed and sometimes farfetched. It seems Dantes can do anything he wants and is always able to buy what he needs or be in the right place at the right time. Still it is fun to get to know the characters and to see how Dantes exquisitely exacts his revenge. Many characters view suicide as a honorable way to deal with grief, which is ridiculous today but was accepted back then. In spite of leaving out 1/3rd of the novel, the pocket books version does include an large reference section that includes plot summary, character lists and other commentaries.

If only Alexander Dumas were alive today. The Count of Monte Cristo is an amazing novel with an intricate plot, numerous characters and plenty of twists and turns. Unfortunately, it is written the style of the times, and is as not as exciting as it could have been. The dialogue all has a poetic feel to it. I wish this story could be told by an author today. This book oozes sexuality (affairs, lusts, lesbians) just beneath the surface. There is so much sexual tension that could be exploited without crossing the line to obscene. Also, so much of the behavior of the characters is wrapped up in French social customs that are hard to understand at first but the reader will quickly pick up on them.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in books of this era or of a good adventure. Just decide if you want the abridged version or full version before you buy this book.