The Count of Monte Cristo
Ratings717
Average rating4.3
“How did I escape? With difficulty. How did I plan this moment? With pleasure.”
The pièce de résistance that i've been looking for
An epic (literally and figuratively) vendetta against the men that have destroyed his life. A literary masterpiece.
While the backstory of new characters gets lengthy at times, and the functions of the Paris high society can be confusing (so much so that Dumas towards the end repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to make sure the reader does not get lost entirely), if you make it all the way through, you won't regret it.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Where do I start with this book? It's not by any means a perfect book - there are some flaws that simply can't be ignored, especially not when you're reading this from the 21st century. Even if we take out period-specific biases that litter throughout this book, it still has some flaws like overly convenient or just wildly unrealistic plot developments.
And despite all that, I still give it 5 stars for the sheer enjoyment value of it.
I'll admit that the first 20 chapters or so were pretty slow-going and I almost wanted to DNF. I took about 1-2 weeks to get till Ch 17, then I took a break from the book. When I picked it up again, I zoomed through Ch 18 to 117 (the end) in... 5 days. The book was un-put-downable at a very early point, every chapter was just so much juice and drama that I kept wanting to go on and on and on. I stayed up till 3-5am just reading this book because I wanted to know what was going to happen.
The Count of Monte Cristo has a very simple plot at its core, which is probably a huge part of why it remains so popular until today. A young man, Edmond Dantes, seems to have it all - at 19 years of age, he's an accomplished sailor well respected by his crewmates, he's on the brink of being promoted being naturally favoured by the ship owner, and he's about to get married to a beautiful young woman who has been faithfully waiting for him throughout his voyages. Of course, shit happens. Through a series of very unfortunate events and false accusations, Edmond ends up wrongfully imprisoned for FOURTEEN years, after which he crafts an elaborate and comprehensive revenge for the people who had robbed him of his youth, his prospects, and his marriage.
All of this happens in the first 20-ish chapters, and I was thinking: how on Earth is this book going to drag on for another 100 chapters? But it does. Oh, it really does.
There's daring swordfights and pistol duelling, treasure hunting, multiple betrayals, multiple secret identities, manipulation, so much bribery and corruption, broken marriages and broken-off engagements, secret star-crossed lovers, kidnapping by bandits, and so much more. Dumas also clearly has a penchant for only doing things at the last possible and most dramatic moment, so once you can suspend that disbelief and go along with that ride, it'll suck you in for good. This book is a veritable soap opera in text form.
That is, perhaps, one of its flaws although it's one that I am quite indifferent about. The book isn't even trying to be realistic, Dumas flagrantly enjoys the dramatic and he's going into it unapologetically. Sure, there're a lot of overly convenient and crazy plot twists but the book is clear that this is just alllll part of the drama, it's deliberately shocking you, and I'm here for it. So if you're going into this expecting social commentary or like any kind of realism, you will certainly be disappointed. Instead, look at this book in the same light as you might look upon something like Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson or Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne - it's a rollicking adventure book that requires some suspension of disbelief.
OK, let's address the elephant in the room - slavery - which will unfortunately have to go under spoiler tags as it only really becomes a thing after the first third of the book.
The Count takes on two slaves and both of them are extremely problematic imo. The first is Ali, who is described as Nubian/black, mute, and basically submissive. The problematic-ness of this is fairly clear, although perhaps not at all surprising for the time the book was written, around 1840. Ali is apparently a very competant and diligent servant, but his muteness means that he literally has no voice of his own, and he is shown unabashedly grovelling at the Count's feet. In Ch 46, when one 0f the Count's actual paid servants (I can't remember the name) says that he should emulate Ali more since the Count clearly favours him, the Count says no, because if the servant made a mistake, he would only fire him, but if Ali made a mistake, he would kill him and that Ali's life belonged to his simply because he saved his life. I get that this is probably regular fare for 19th century standards, but man is it discomfiting to read in this time and age.The second slave we get to know is Haidee, who is even more problematic to read about. Haidee is a Turkish/Greek young woman of only about 18 years old, who had once been a princess but when her father was killed, she was sold into slavery, whereupon the Count eventually bought her. From the very beginning, the Count refers to her as his "female slave", although it's clear that she is treated on a different level than Ali. While Ali does actual work for the Count, Haidee is referred to as "the young mistress" by the other servants. She keeps to her chambers and does nothing. At first, I was worried that there was some kind of sex slave situation going on which would be extremely gross, but luckily that didn't come true. When we first see Haidee interacting with the Count, she is joyfully relishing in their relationship as master and slave, always speaking submissively, worshipfully, and reverantly to the Count. We learn later on that the Count apparently looks upon her as a father would upon a daughter, which is honestly a bit weird as well, but OK. From the very beginning, there is a power dynamic between them that is significantly more unequal than even the standard imbalance that would already exist between men and women at the time. I was really disappointed when the Count ended up with Haidee at the end - even discounting their large age gap (the Count is in his early 40s while Haidee is still not even 20), I just can't get behind that ship at all with the grovelling way Haidee talks to the Count and how she relishes in submitting to him as her master in all senses of the word.
Some other notes about characters, which will also have to go under spoilers:
- Eugenie Danglars: Probably my favourite character of the book. It's left fairly open to interpretation whether she is homosexual or asexual, but she rebels against patriarchy and the institution of matrimony and doesn't get punished, which is amazing. Too bad she only appears for like 2% of the book or less, but I'm really happy that her character existed. I love that conversation she had with her father Baron Danglars where she coolly asserted her independence and self-will despite his threats. She was frequently described as being "manly", even by other female characters like Valentine de Villefort, just because she actually relished in having a strong personality of her own, but I'll overlook that because she is great and such a breath of fresh air.- Morrel and Valentine: I was OK about their romance, it was very Romeo & Juliet-esque and I feel like Morrel was such a drama queen almost all the time about this relationship, but it wasn't obnoxiously annoying.- Grandpa Noirtier: Amazing. Loved how he didn't let his physical disabilities and paralysis hold him down and stop him from executing some beautiful vengeances of his own.
Finally, my thoughts about the ending: The ending chapters were, for me, a little weaker than the vast middle of the book. I didn't like how a lot of characters ended up, to be honest. I was super psyched when Cadarousse got his come-uppance and loved the dramatic way the Count went about it. I loved that the Count didn't just go around killing his enemies willy-nilly, but set things up properly so that they still had the option to take second chances and redeem themselves, but if they didn't then they would end up exactly where they belonged. The endings for Count de Morcerf and Villefort were pretty brutal, especially with Villefort, but I thought Danglars got off WAAAY too lightly, considering that he was literally the person who hatched up and instigated the whole scheme against Edmond in the first place. He not only escaped with his life and his sanity, but even 50,000 francs that Edmond gave him.A huge part of the ending that I wasn't too happy about was Mercedes. While she got off pretty lightly compared to some of the other characters, I couldn't help feeling that the book was still criticizing and punishing her in very mild and subtle way, but the punishment was still there. And all this, just because she was "faithless" and married Fernand when everyone around her (including Edmond's own father) convinced her that Edmond was dead after he got hauled off to prison? That is some shitty misogyny right there. I suppose it plays into the whole code of conduct system in that society, where people get laughed at for being cowards just because they apologise and call off a duel at the last minute because they realised they had been at fault after all. Also similarly, how committing suicide is more "honourable" than actually facing up to things like bankruptcy or just the consequences of your own actions. So I suppose it would've been seen as more "honourable" for Mercedes to have remained forever unprotected and alone, or even commit suicide herself, rather than marry someone else. Still though... I disagree with all of the above, and think that Mercedes deserved way better. I'm glad that the Count and Mercedes didn't part on bad terms, but I really wish that they had reconciled more intimately (even if not romantically). It's clear that both of them spent almost their entire lives living for each other even though neither of them knew what had happened to the other, and I don't think that kind of bond is broken off so easily. And in the Count's case, certainly not with a teenage girl who just wants to be his slave in every respect. Ugh.A minor point that was annoying about the ending was how the Count kept dragging revelations to "test" people, particularly with Morrel and Haidee. He made Morrel go through an entire month, and then go through some song and dance about suicide and whatnot, even giving him a vial that he pretends to be poison, before he reveals that Valentine is in fact still alive just before Morrel loses consciousness. Now, that is bringing the dramatic way too far imo, and all just so that the Count can "test" Morrel's strength of feeling for Valentine. Why is it up to him to test that?! Then he also goes through another song and dance with Haidee, giving her back her freedom just so that she can be all like, "I'll kill myself if I can't be with you." Errrr. How much stroking does his ego need? Apparently Haidee's feelings for him catches him by surprised cos he hadn't realised fully up to that point that she loved him romantically, but.. just how?!
Tl;dr of this book: Despite a lot of flaws and problematic bits in this book, it's still such a fun and dramatic soap opera of a novel that'll suck you in for hours. In terms of enjoyment level, this book is almost unsurpassed in recent memory. Close one eye to these problems and suspend some disbelief before you tune in!
This is such a beautifully written book. I really enjoyed it. The plot is long and complex and engrossing. The characters are hard to keep track of so writing them down or looking them up on Wikipedia may be helpful. My biggest regret about it is that it's such a LONG book.
Easily the longest book I've read to date.
I know a lot of people really really liked this book, and I definitely see what appeal this book has to everyone. Personally, I really enjoyed the beginning, and up through the part of the book we spend with Alfred, Franz, and The Count in Italy. After that, though, I felt like the book really dragged a bit in the middle. There was so much in the way of convoluted plotting that I kept getting mired in the detail and losing sight of what the goals actually were.
That said, I enjoyed my time with the book. I'm not a revenge person (I honestly don't see what it gets you, because it doesn't ever fix the original problem), but there's a lot for even someone like me to find and enjoy here.
4,75 stars
???The Count of Monte Cristo??? is a truly epic and lengthy tale of imprisonment, personal growth, liberation and most importantly ??? revenge. A young man, named Edmond Dantes with a perspective career and happy marriage ahead of him is incarcerated in the Ch??teau d'If for 14(!) years, where he vows not to rest until he has his revenge on the plotters who arranged his wrongful incarceration.
Alexandre Dumas explores motifs of justice and revenge, gratitude and love. It could be said that Edmond is guided by the hand of god, for he, although plotting and vengeful, is a truly good person who is justified in his vengeance.
Besides these motifs, this story examines what is filial and romantic love, how strong it can be and how it can last for decades.
I would recommend it if you are a naturally vengeful person, if you love drawn out dramatic stories of love, intrigue, plots and the very cornerstone of this book ??? revenge.
What a read. I approached this book with fear, given the length. As an audiobook it is a massive 52 hours record (but I listened to it at 1.8X speed, still massively long). But I was soon captured by the settings and the story and the epic feeling of it all. This is a brilliant book that has to be savored. It was initially published as a serial and so it has to be enjoyed as long sequence of intense episodes. I'm so happy that I decided to read this!
As a family, we all decided to read a different work of classic literature in the summer of 2018. This was my choice, a book that's been waiting on my bookshelf for 21 years. This was as good as any excuse to finally tackle this large book of small print that goes on for 1077 pages. It's a fairly easy read for a book so old (written from 1844 to 1845). It's the story of young Edmond Dantès, a sailor betrayed by jealous friends who unjustly ends up a prisoner in the notorious Chateau d'If, where he lingers for years before escaping, finding a fortune and plotting his revenge. Most people know these bare bones of the story, but this fuller translation contains all the details. It's not so much an action story as it a story of the plotting of revenge and all the family dynamics between the main players. It's a large cast of characters and the story is set mostly in Paris from 1815 to 1838. I enjoyed it but had it been written today, I'm sure an editor would say, hey, this can be trimmed down. Pretty sure Dumas was paid by the word when this came out. This story held my interest throughout and I'm glad I read it. But I will say that The Three Musketeers is still my favorite book by Alexandre Dumas (and one I plan on reading again someday). Oh, one more thing: the introduction to this book (which I wisely read after finishing the book) contains a brief history of the true story that Dumas discovered that inspired this story. Fascinating little tidbit there.
As an aside, our family book club has a name based on the street we live on, Avon. It's called the Avon Society of Super Extraordinary Studies, or ASSES, for short. Thank my son for that one.
A fantastic story of retribution and revenge. I took the plunge reading the unabridged version and although it took a while to get into, I couldn't stop reading once the Count had been fully unleashed. I kept expecting negative things to happen to the protagonist but instead, pure revenge. It was great to read through and this one-sided dynamic didn't get boring at all.
I reread The Count of Monte Cristo every couple of years. It is my favorite book. Whatever you want–a love story, pirates, bandits, social satire, a twisty plot—is all here. Every time I read it, it seems like something new comes to the surface.
In the shadow of the Trump election, I couldn't help but think about the way that Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantes) is basically a superhero of the Enlightenment. He accomplishes things that small minded, superstitious people cannot conceive of because he has unlimited amounts of the two resources of Enlightenment (and therefore the emerging global regime of capitalism): scientific knowledge and money.
Right now, we may be looking at the end of the Enlightenment project, or conversely the rebirth of it. Enlightenment virtues of progress over tradition, knowledge over dogma, curiosity over taboo, cosmopolitanism over parochialism, are all headed toward a moment where they must be defended or abandoned.
Even Monte Cristo has his limits. His progressivism did not overcome patriarchal tradition, and as elsewhere in Western culture, scientific knowledge is used by the Count to reinforce existing prejudices against undesirables. In the end, money does not triumph over death, and knowledge does not heal wounds.
Dumas was the first master of escapist fiction. The novel stands, but what we escape from seems to be shifting radically.
TODO
- Providence. The wicked get punished by their own misdeeds.
- I found the intricate plots very compelling
- weird ending
Wow, it took me 7 months to slog through this book.
You can tell it was was written 170+ years ago, in a different language and as a serial.
Parts were good, but they were few and very far between.
Glad that is over!
I listened to the audiobook and the performance was incredible. It's a terrific story but very long.
Vraag mij niet waarom ik dit herlezen heb. Ik herinner me vaag dat ik het zeer indrukwekkend vond toen ik het een eeuw geleden las, en ik zal wel iets gedacht hebben als “in de rapte eens lezen, tussen twee andere dingen door”.
Ahem ja. Dit is een lang boek. Serieus: een te lang boek. En het is echt wel wijs om lezen, maar dan toch wel vooral als een tijdsdocument — want echt literatuur zou ik het niet durven noemen.
De personages zijn meer dan karikaturaal, het verhaal is bij momenten zó ongeloofwaardig dat het ongewild humoristisch wordt, en de voorafschaduwingen zijn zo voorafschaduwend, dat er bijzonder weinig verrassingen te rapen zijn.
In het kort: Edmond Dantès heeft alles om gelukkig te zijn: hij heeft een beetje geld gespaard, hij staat op het punt om kapitein van een schip te worden en hij staat op het punt te trouwen met de mooie Mercédès. Danglars, die met Dantès vaarde, is jaloers. Fernand, een visser, is verliefd op Mercédès.
De dag voor Dantès' trouw schrijven Danglars en Fernand samen met de dronken Caderousse (een buurman die de vader van Dantès woekerrentes vraagt) een brief als zou Dantès een Bonapartist zijn (zéér not done in 1815). Dantès wordt gearresteerd op zijn verlovingsfeest, en ondervraagd door Villefort, de substituut van de procureur.
Villefort is een royalist, maar ziet in eerste instantie niets zwaars aan de hand met de loze beschuldiging , tot blijkt dat Dantès wel degelijk een brief op zich heeft: het was de stervenswens van zijn kapitein dat hij die brief zou bezorgen aan de Noirtier. Noirtier is een hardcore Bonapartist en — hier komt de clou! — de vader van Villefort, die Noirtier de Villefort geboren is.
Daarop smijt Villefort Dantès meteen in de gevangenis, zonder enige vorm van proces, in het Château d'If, de maximum security prison van die tijd, op een rots in de zee een paar kilometer voor de kust van Marseille. De brief zorgt ervoor dat Villefort op de hoogte is van de nakende terugkeer in Frankrijk van Napoleon en geeft Villefort meteen een zware promotie.
Dantès blijft jaren in eenzame opsluiting in het Château d'If, Ondertussen sterft de vader van Dantès, geraakt Fernand aan macht en geld door zowat iedereen voor wie hij ooit gewerkt heeft te verraden aan hun vijand, is Villefort na de tweede terugkeer van de monarchie na Waterloo procureur des konings, wordt Danglars een rijke bankier, en trouwt Fernand met Mercédès die het opgegeven heeft te wachten op Dantès.
Als Dantès op de rand van zelfmoord staat in de gevangenis, hoort hij lawaai dat blijkt een collega-gevangene te zijn, abbé Faria. Faria is belezen, intelligent, weet van geneeskunde en scheikunde af, leert Dantès talen en wetenschap, en samen reconstrueren ze hoe de vork in de steel zit met Danglars en Fernand en Caderousse en Villefort.
Tien (tien!) jaar na hun ontmoeting en veertien jaar na zijn gevangenzetting, slaagt Dantès erin te ontsnappen. Faria heeft hem vanalles geleerd, en ook en vooral verteld waar er een immense schat begraven ligt, op het eiland van Montecristo.
...en dan begint de wraak van Dantès. Eén voor één verschuift hij pionnen, tot hij uiteindelijk iedereen die hem gevangen gezet heeft, kapot heeft gemaakt. De zaken worden een beetje gecompliceerder omdat al die mensen getrouwd zijn en ook kinderen hebben: alleen daardoor is Dantès geen allesvernietigende wraakengel, maar enkel bijna-allesvernietigend.
Kluten en esbattementen, moord, vergiftiging, vermommingen, personages die blijken personages uit lang vervlogen verledens van elkaar te zijn, drama, melodrama, pathetiek, avontuur, duels, subterfuge: dit is geen boek, dit is een telenovela.
Zoals ik zei: wel leutig om lezen, maar dit is écht iets dat beter tot zijn recht komt in een tv-serie, denk ik.
Revenge is something best served cold, and when it has been twenty years in the making, its even better for the one who wants the revenge!
Edmond Dantes has such a promising future ahead of him and a wonderful girl waiting for him at home. On the day of his engagement he is torn away from her, and trasported to prison, where he is left to rot for fourteen years. He was punished for the crimes of others and for one who wished that no one know. He was sacrificed for the advacement of others and those who were jealous of what he had attained in his short life.
During his imprisonment, he is fortunate to meet the Abbe next to him, and through a tunnel, they are able to communicate. The Abbe passes on his knowledge to Edmond and after the death of the elderly man, Edmond takes his place and finally find the fortune that the man had been hiding. After reinventing himself, he begins the slow painstaking job of finding and extracting the revenge of which has for so long dreamt.
But at what cost does revenge come?
Loved this read! It was one of the better books I have read through in a while, and although long, it was worth every turn of the page and sleepless night I spent going through it! I recommend this read for all!
I will not say this lightly, but wow. One of the best books I've read in 2014, if not in my lifetime!. And this is only the abridged version. Breathtaking story, pace, suspense, thought-provoking, everything. I'm glad I finally read this classic for it renewed my knowledge of the novel based on the watered-down movie adaption! The movie was nothing like the book! almost a different story. I need to read the unabridged version now. Again, wow.
Not very impressed. I read it because Ioved “The Three Musketeers,” but I didn't like it as much. After a great beginning, it gets dull and too chatty. Nothing much happens in the whole book and the characters speak so much and are so pompous that they turned me off. The biggest flaw for me though was how impersonal the novel is. After the great beginning when we are in Edmond Dantes's head and as soon as he becomes the Count of Montecristo, we stop hearing his thoughts and feelings and he is treated objectively. So much so that by the end of the book we know everything the victims feel and nothing about how he feels. Also, he is given too supernatural powers–nothing comes in his way; his plans roll in undisturbed. In the end also he is so pompous and facetious about his doubts that totally turned me off. The book is overlong like the Three Muskeeter, due to the fact that Dumas wrote in weekly installments at that time and made more money writing longer works. There are still nice things, but not worth 56 hours of listening. Read the “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” instead, if you want something monumental, but worth it.
My good friend Arjun recommended to me The Count of Monte Cristo. I listened to the version read by Richard Matthews, a British reader and he read it very well indeed. Of course the book was originally written in French and I know not who did the translation that I read, but it was as if the book were written in English. One choice they made that, to my mind was the right choice, was to keep names and titles in the French, for example the Procureur du Roi, monsieur de Procureur, and so on, rather than the Royal Prosecutor. Knowing a little French, I had no trouble with this, but I wonder how it would have read to someone with no knowledge of French? It reminds me of my reading A Clockwork Orange and being a Russian speaker; my experience of that novel was not the same as it would be for non Russian speakers. Anyway, enough of that. On the book. Arjun is of the opinion that it is the best book he's ever read. I wouldn't go quite that far, but it was very, very good. It's the first and only Dumas novel I've read, and may in fact be the first French literary novel I've read. The tale is a simple tale of revenge for a wrongful imprisonment. The Count himself becomes almost God-like in stature; he seems to be omnipotent and able to influence people to do his will. In fact, that aspect seems a little unbelievable, sort of like Jason Bourne of 18th century France, but with Jason Bourne you know you're reading make believe as it's so far fetched. The Count seems much more credible than Jason, but he loses some of that credibility as his powers and knowledge increase. How, for example, could he possibly learn to speak so many languages like a native in so short a time? Language is something that I know something about and I know how far-fetched that really is. But, once disbelief is suspended, the novel becomes great. At some 30-odd hours, you would think it would be a little dull in parts, and to be honest it is, but at the same time it is easy to listen to. I was a little worried at the morality of the Count and his taking revenge with such little humility and sympathy, but the ending assuaged that fear of mine and he redeemed himself admirably. I think I can say that without a spoiler alert. All in all, I'm very glad that I read this book and I would heartily recommend it. I give it four.
Wow! This was a marathon read. I love, love, love this book. I thought some parts in the middle dragged on a bit, but you really need to read all of it to get the full effect. Edmond Dantes / The Count of Monte Cristo is a fantastic character, and I loved the mystery of the plot.
For a story which dwells so centrally on pain and suffering, it manages to inspire and exude hope.
Excellent tale of betrayal and revenge, both realized and withheld.