من روائع الأدب الكلاسيكي.

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“قد يبدو أحيانًا كأن الله ينسى أن ينصف المظلوم فترة من الوقت، لكن عدالته تمهل ولا تهمل”.

“من يسكب الإنتقام في كؤوس الآخرين يعرض نفسه لخطر الشرب من كأس أمر!”.

ألكسندر دوما.

"Why read the classics?" asks Italo Calvino in an essay that I know about, but I haven't yet read. My own attempt at an answer is that they are the foundation our current culture and worldview are based on. In another approximate quote that right now I am unable to source correctly : we are able to look further into the world because we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Alexandre Dumas is one of these giants, often mischaracterized as a simple adventure peddler or as a young adult oriented author, a victim of his own huge popularity. Like many other young boys, I have been thoroughly enchanted by the humorous and daring deeds of the three-plus-one musketeers, but I was wary of picking up the much bulkier tome describing the trials and tribulations of the Count of Monte Cristo. Why bother spending weeks struggling with the kitten-squisher, when there are already several movie versions available? and why waste my time with a book for children when I can read some 'serious' stuff? The same Italo Calvino suggested a special shelf in the bookstore for this kind of famous novel : Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too" . The actual content is a lot more mature and philosophical than I expected :  as the introduction mentions : "There are not many children's books, even in our own time, that involve a female serial poisoner, two cases of infanticide, a stabbing and three suicides; an extended scene of torture and execution; drug-induced sexual fantasies, illegitimacy, transvestism and lesbianism; a display of the author's classical learning, and his knowledge of modern European history, the customs and diet of the Italians, the effects of hashish, and so on."

With such a famous subject, inclusion of a synposis and a warning of spoilers should be superfluous, but here's both : Reading further may expose you to spoilers!

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A young sailor from Marseille named Edmont Dantes is falsely accused of being a traitor and a spy for Napoleon, exiled on the island of Elba at the time. On the eve of his bethrotal, Edmont is sent to the Chateau d'If prison where he will spend almost two decades locked in a solitary dungeon. After a daring escape and helped by the discovery of a hidden treasure, he will return to France to exact his revenge from the people who betrayed him.

He was a young man of between eighteen and twenty, tall, slim, with fine dark eyes and ebony-black hair. His whole demeanour possessed the calm and resolve peculiar to men who have been accustomed from childhood to wrestle with danger.

The novel, judged with the eyes of a Millenial, is showing its age : the language is often excessively lurid; a good editor could probably cut at least a third of the page count without losing anything essential; the plot twists can be spotted from a mile away; some characters are lacking depth and subtlety in their assignation on the good or evil side of the spectrum. Yet, the subject itself is not only epic, but timeless, as proven in the numerous modern adaptations and re-tellings (like "The Stars My Destination"). Edmont Dantes adversaries are more than simple evil people, they are representations of the corruption of the most basic pillars of society : Fernand (the army), Danglars (the economy), Villefort (the justice system), Mercedes (marriage). Politics, the aftermath of several decades of revolutionary wars and poverty are some of the other hot button issues of the 1840's thrown into the mix, and are still hot button issues today.

On the other side of the balance, Dumas is apparently putting religion - faith in the biblical God of vengeance, submission to the rule of Providence. The reader must be patient, because only in the final chapters will we see  Edmont Dantes question his righteous conviction that God is on his side. Initially, Monte Cristo is revealed as another incarnation of Faust, selling his soul to the Devil for a chance at playing the role of the Hand of Fate:

Listen, I have always heard speak of Providence, yet I have never seen her or anything that resembles her, which makes me think that she does not exist. I want to be Providence, because the thing that I know which is finest, greatest and most sublime in the world is to reward and to punish.

... and only later asking the hard questions about the right and wrong of his path, especially when trying to accuse the children of the sins of their fathers. Having reached the summit of his vengeance by the slow and tortuous route that he had followed, he had looked over the far side of the mountain and into the abyss of doubt.

In many instances of the novel, the characters appeal to God in prayer or in admonition over their misfortunes, but for me the defining moments come when the men and women are shown to be sole responsible for their own deeds, like Caderousse being offered more than once a chance at redemption, and failing each time to choose the right path. Dumas is expressing I think the tumult of the revolutionary times he was living in : The French Revolution and later Bonaparte have challenged and often destroyed all the old rules of the centralised, divine right government, replacing them in theory with the rule of reason and in practice with a predatory and selfish anarchy. Like the count of Monte Cristo, Dumas is searching for new institutions and new ideas to lead the way of humanity into the future. Part of his argument is to return to the Law of Moses, but he cannot ignore the humanist principles that put Man in charge of his own destiny. Here are a couple of quotes to illustrate this debate:

I leave each of them on his own pedestal: Robespierre in the Place Louis XV, on his scaffold, and Napoleon in the Place Vendome, on his column. The difference is that equality with the first was a levelling down and with the second a raising up: one of them lowered kings to the level of the guillotine, the other lifted the people to the level of the throne. (Villefort)

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Should a jurist not be, not the best applier of the law or the cleverest interpreter of legal quibbles, but a steel probe for the testing of hearts and a touchstone against which to assay the gold that every soul contains in greater or lesser amounts? (Monte Cristo)

-- -- --

Take care, Madame. That is not how God should be worshipped. He wants us to understand and debate His Power: that is why He gave us free will.


For all the soul searching and the social commentary, Dumas never forgets that he is a popular writer who needs to keep his audience captivated and begging for one more installment (the novel was first published in serial form in a newspaper). He is paying his dues to the Romantic school, even as he opens the path to modernism. Young Albert describes the count to his mother in these terms : I am inclined to consider him as some kind of Byronic figure, branded by Fate's dread seal: some Manfred, some Lara, some Werner ... . Other signs of Romanticism is the fascination with Oriental cultures, no doubt a result of the wildly popular translations of the Arabian Nights :

Ah, the Orientals, you understand, are the only people who know how to live!

.. and an interest in the occult, in perception altering drugs and in pseudosciences :

... a face which to a trained physiognomist betrayed an almost repulsive character.

The novel offers new avenues of investigation and critical commentary in almost every chapter, and I would love to spent more days trying to put all my ideas in order, but I am also beckoned by the other books I have started reading, so I will try to go on fast track from here on:

- Like Dickens, Dumas has issues with his portrayal of women. They are either evil to the bone or angelic figures so bland and spineless it makes you want to gag on the sweetness. Valentine is a perfect illustration of the ideal woman of 1840: innocent, ethereal, prone to fainting fits, submissive and only interesting in keeping house for her man. She is the spitting image of Esther from "Bleak House" . Mercedes at first glance appears as a wilder, more robust character, but will be later relegated to the simplistic role of grieving mother and repentant sinner. I would not put too much blame on the author though, since these were the atitudes prevalent at the times.

- an early sign of the changing times and changing morality : When you think, Caderousse said, letting his hand fall on to the paper, that what you have here can kill a man more surely than if you were to hide in the woods to murder him! I have always been more afraid of a pen, a bottle of ink and a sheet of paper than of a sword and a pistol.

- a glimpse at the secret of Monte Cristo's power and success : There are twenty-four hours in a day, sixty minutes in an hour and sixty seconds in a minute. A lot can be done in eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds.

- on regrets and past mistakes : So it is true that every one of our actions leaves some trace on our past, either dark or bright. So it is true that every step we take is more like a reptile's progress across the sand, leaving a track behind it. And often, alas, the track is the mark of our tears! (Villefort)

- on dignity and integrity : I know that the world is a drawing-room from which one must retire politely and honourably, that is to say, with a bow, after paying one's gaming debts. (Monte Cristo)

- an early example of product placement and marketing : The courtyard of the Bell and Bottle, with the three tiers of galleries which make it seem like a theatre, with the jasmine and clematis which lightly entwine its pillars like a natural decoration, is one of the most lovely inn yards anywhere in the world.

- an uplifting conclusion : Embrace Life, even in the deepest pit of despair : Wait , and Hope!

my conclusion: this is a milestone in the road that leads to the modern novel, and Dumas is here the equal of his contemporaries: in social engagement he announces the best period of Dickens and Hugo , while in spiritual fervor and volcanic emotions he announces the rise of Dostoyevsky. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a much stronger novel than "The Three Musketeers".

Ahh, the delicious taste of revenge!

This book deserves more than 5 stars! The plot is engaging, full of twists, turns, and suspense. Dumas created multi-dimensional characters with depth, allowing readers to feel for them, dislike them, or simply understand them. And don't let me get started on the language and the writing style: Dumas knows how to use vivid and descriptive language, painting a clear picture of the settings. Exploration of human nature, historical and cultural context, and character transformation are just a few aspects that make this a timeless masterpiece.

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes."

- من روائع الأدب العالمي وليس الفرنسي فقط، ومن القصص التي ستبقى خالدة لبساطة الفاظها ودقة حبكتها وتطور شخصياتها وسمو رسالتها الأخيرة!

- ظلم، فعذاب فإنتقام مروّع بكل ذكاء وتخطيط عالي الدقة، فوقفة مع الذات ثم خلاصة احداث قد تلخص الحياة ذاتها " قل للملاك التي ستشاركك حياتك ان تصلي بين حين وآخر من اجل رجل حسب نفسه - كما فعل ابليس من قبل - في مرتبة الله، لكنه يعترف الآن في خشوع ومذلة ان الله وحده هو الذي يملك الإرادة العليا والحكمة اللانهائية"...

-على الهامش: الرواية اعمق واوسع من الفيلم بأشواط...

[My earlier review disappeared!!!]

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all-time favorites. Honestly, I would say that trying to review or describe this book is a vain task for me because I will never be able to do it justice with my words that fail to form coherent sentences that express my feelings towards this epic classic and to describe the humbling journey of reading it from start to finish. I've read this 1000+ page tome twice, and twice I've have relished almost every page of it without ever being daunted or impatient because of the length, which is not often the case with long books with me.

When I start to write that this book is an epic tale of revenge, I stop because it is so much more and I find it horrifying that I should not also mention that this book is an epic tale of love in the same sentence, that this is also an epic tale of redemption, an epic essay on human emotion and an epic documentation of human nature in its multitudinous shades - to not mention all of this in the same sentence feels like an injustice to the book. So no, I will not try to describe it. I cannot. I can only say that this book leaves me speechless. Utterly speechless. But... How can I stay silent, as a reader, one yearns to speak of the book that has moved them so much. So do I. So I try.

Everytime I write a review for a book I've read, I realize I write more about how the book made me feel - which makes calling it a review a bit of a . This book made me feel so many things. Forgive me for being repetitive and borderline incoherent, I've already warned I'll be those things. This book made me feel so many things - intense, humbling, terrible, hopeful, retrospective and introspective. I'm just picking words from a jumbled word cloud in my head, there are so many more. It gives me anxiety that I cannot put into words what reading this book meant to me.

And like any lover of books who has just read a book that they instantly adore, I cannot but urge every person who will listen to read this novel. If you invest time and interest in starting this epic story, I can promise you that this book offers returns that make your investment seem minute in comparison. And for people who love classics and the literature of that age, what are you waiting for.

What can I say about this popular classic?
It’s a revenge story that you can enjoy, because victims are bastards who deserve it all. Well, mostly.

It’s long. It’s very compulsively readable.

It’s over the top and melodramatic. It's also very engaging and a page turner.

It has a little bit of a philosophy of egoism and then in the end, after destroying lives of his enemies and their families, Monte Cristo wonders for a moment: “Did I even have a right to play god? Anyways, I’m off, bye”

It’s a book about two great loves of Count. One, when she thought she lost him, continued living with a broken heart. Another one told two times that she’ll immediately kill herself the moment he leaves her. In the end one woman is left with her life destroyed, broken, whispering his name into the waves. The other one gets a guy and sails into the horizon with him. Guess who’s who?

It’s the best TV show I’ve binged in less than two weeks.

And if I lived in Paris in the middle of the 19th century, I would definitely be waiting in line near the kiosk that was selling the new issue. Bravo to Dumas and his ghost writers!

Perhaps you are reading this review because you are genuinely curious to know about The Count of Monte Cristo and are searching for some input before undertaking such a big reading commitment. If that is the case, then I must warn you this review will not help in that decision. If at any point I come across as a wee bit overzealous or even rude, just please keep in mind this is merely a passionate expression of my love for a story, just another fellow reader screaming from the proverbial rooftops about the book that saved my life. For the 16,695 days I have been alive this has been the unequivocally greatest book I have read, and for the estimated 16,695 days I still have remaining, I will continue to praise and soliloquize the genius of it, and if and when the occasion calls for, I shall also fight vehemently for all its honor and glory, donning a bicorne hat, tucking one hand into my corset as I dictate to the entire empire to not read this. Do not ever read this book. I repeat, do not read The Count of Monte Cristo.

Why? Well, allow me to tell you why. First, I consider myself an optipessimist, a half-a-glass-of-water type of guy, neither half empty nor half full, equanimous meniscus balanced at the precise midpoint of the glass. This means that although I recognize the potential in everyone to enjoy a similar experience as I had with this book, I remain doubtful you will fully appreciate it. That is why I am so hesitant to share. So, I am refusing to present any excerpts or quotes for this review; I will not tease you with any spoilers; nor will I share one iota of the plot. Why should I? They, the authorities, my community, friends, and family, all left me in a hole to rot and die, to suffer the tortures of solitary confinement, and despite all their neglect, even as I laid there despairing about the light of quintessence extinguishing from my soul, as I was gradually becoming a shell of my former self…was also the exact moment a flaming chariot descended from the sky followed by the enchanting clatter of a supermax prison library book cart being wheeled down the corridor in my direction… From the instant I received this book, it saved my life. Now, do I really want to share the greatest literary gift I ever received? Not yet. I am not ready to reveal the true magnificence of this tome. Before I could appreciate this book, I had to suffer, so therefore, you as the prospective reader of this Classique Francais now must also suffer in order to get a full appreciation for the book. Like M. Dantes, I was arrested, detained, and confined to a concrete box. The difference was that I had actually caused harm, broke the law, and was put on trial – none of which was attributed to or benefitted from by our naivete protagonist. Only those who know suffering will find meaning and appreciation from this book. I think some kind of adverse experience with the legal system is required in order to recognize what passes for justice is nothing more than a perversion of what the balancing of scales was intended to be. Punishment has become the balancing weight displacing what used to be true accountability and forgiveness. Systemic corruption resulting from greed for the wealth that the current system creates is the motivation to fuel the fears which perpetuate injustices of the criminal justice system. The case of M. Dantes was an example of how greed moves people to callous action to get what they want, a thought process aligned with the philosophical questioning of why do I need to grow an apple tree on my land when I can just go cut the trees down that are on your land? The logic here is that my need for the fruit must be greater than yours. For some, it’s the forbidden fruit that is the sweetest, and for others, it’s the freest fruit, or maybe when you’re rotten to the core it is the fruit that can be taken by manipulation or coercion that tastes the sweetest.

I hate them. I hate what they did to Edmond Dantes. I hate all those who comfortably sit back while remaining complicit to the egregious injustices heaped upon an innocent man, finding amusement in the destruction of his life. Oh sure, no one here had an active role in the treacherous plot to ruin this man, but your silence was just as damning as giving your consent, and according to current laws in certain US states like Ohio, Texas, Indiana, and California, where misprision of a crime is enough to hold you culpable, which if convicted could place you behind bars like the poor M. Dantes. However, it is not felonies that we are ignoring, is it? No, it is crimes against humanity, particularly how fetishization of the law lead to the condemnation of an innocent man’s soul to a lifetime of purgatory. Do you pity poor Edmonds in his suffering, and will you cheer him on in his revenge? Or do you sit there quietly detached while watching a man get chewed up and swallowed by a system so corrupt as to forgo a trial and sentence a man to serve life in hell without a chance of reprieve? Do I hear claims of all the compassion beneficently oozing from your sanctimonious lips for anyone who has been impacted by the system, by crime, and by the criminals of this world, when in fact you let it happen, you encourage it to happen, you made it so, you did it, you do it, and will you do it again?

Oh, a bit harsh you say? Did my accusations seem unwarranted and offensive? Do you feel persecuted? Attacked, singled out, hung out to dry, thrown under the bus, insulted, degraded, does it not feel so good to be accused of that which you did not do? Good. There you have a small taste of what M. Dantes felt. Now go lock yourself in a dank basement with nothing for at least a decade but leave yourself without the benefit of knowing you will ever be free. That you only exist, and your body is to remain confined to a living tomb, alive, but not living. Learn the horror of isolation and loneliness, read it, live it, breathe it, and leach into the depths of Chateau D’if, become absorbed into the stone-and-mortar entity…

The perspective I gained from this story is what saved my life. At a time when I did not think it could get any worse, I discovered how bad it could really be. The insight I gained gave me a whole new appreciation for my own situation. I will forever be indebted to this book for the power it had to shift my thinking, putting the spark back in my soul and inspiring me to rise from the abyss and salvage what life I still had.

The saving grace for our protagonist was not his capacity to overcome adversity by the strength of his own fierce independence, but rather by the help and mentorship he received from others along the way. Highlighting how we can know all there is to know, and have all the skills, but without the support of other people, any one of us can succumb to the cruelties of the world. M. Dantes found the assistance he needed, but will the rest of us be supported when we find ourselves in the darkest of valleys? Maybe, maybe not. Not all stories conclude happily, and it is not my place to tell you how The Count of monte Cristo concludes. Maybe you will read about a man who lives a thousand lives in a thousand lands, or how he got the sweetest of all revenges, or how he finds true love, and then loses it suddenly in some unforeseen irony. Now, you can watch the impotent version of the story in one of the movie adaptations, or just read the book, but make sure it is the unabridged version for crying out loud because Dumas and/or his ghostwriting team were very deliberate in the amount of detail him/they included in this story which would be incomplete if anything were removed from his/their carefully crafted masterpiece.

Odio a Goodreads porque la app se cierra de la nada cuando uno está inspirado escribiendo una reseña.

En resumen, lo que decía antes: Te amo, Edmundo Dantes

This is the ultimate story of revenge and justice. Edmond Dantès is a bright young man with the a promising career and a lovely fiancé. But it all comes to any end when he is set-up. His envious friends and enemies get him marked as a traitor, gets wrongfully imprisoned, and the plot really takes off from there.

The story shows mental resilience, determination, and most importantly: patience. Dantes grew to look beyond the immediate woe and began plotting his revenge. He befriends the priest, a fellow prisoner, who teaches him and inspires him to live. Dantes becomes the pupil of the priest and learns of a secret treasure. Dantes eventually escapes the island fortress Château d'If and takes up the hidden fortune. After he assumes the identity of the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, his plot for revenge unfolds.

The book can be summed up with "I have always had more dread of a pen, a bottle of ink, and a sheet of paper, than of a sword or a pistol", pg. 39, spoken by Caderousse, one of Edmond's supposed friends, who betrays him out of jealousy.

Overall this was a solid and classic story. It is definitely well worth the read. The 2002 movie does a pretty good job at sticking to the plot. Although it deviates some and adds some creative flair, I enjoyed the film as well. Anyways, I highly recommend the book first and foremost to anyone who enjoys classical literature. Thanks!

They don't write novels like this anymore. That's because they make television drama series and soap operas instead. To my mind, this novel is the 19th Century equivalent of a long-running and compelling television series. I can readily imagine being a reader of the Journal des Débats between August 1844 and January 1846, impatiently waiting for the next installment of Le Comte de Monte Cristo to be published, eagerly discussing each installment with my friends around the 19th Century equivalent of the water-cooler, exclaiming at each plot development, gasping at every cliff-hanger.

What fun it has been over the past few weeks to consume The Count of Monte Cristo in much the same way as I watched all seven seasons of The West Wing one after another a few years ago: wanting to spend as much time as I could with the story, yet simultaneously wanting to slow down in order to prolong the enjoyment, loving (almost) every moment of it. The Count of Monte Cristo is probably more Dallas than it is The West Wing, but you get the general idea.

The plot’s the thing here. Dumas (and his collaborator August Maquet) created a dense and complex story, the many threads of which are woven together into a most satisfying whole, with no threads left loose at the end of more than 1200 pages. This is the story Edmond Dantès’ revenge against the three men who caused him to be unjustly accused of treason and imprisoned for fourteen years. Dantès, who becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, carries out his revenge after developing a careful plan over many years. For him, revenge is most definitely a dish to be eaten cold. It’s also a dish which causes a degree of moral indigestion, as he comes to realise that what he sees as a divine obligation can have unintended (and horrific) consequences.

It’s far from a plausible story and it’s fair to say that the theme of revenge is more successfully realised than is the theme of redemption. The plot is indeed totally over the top, with elements of fable and fairy tale, replete with Orientalist imagery which for me brought to mind The Arabian Nights. Luckily for such an intricately plotted novel, the story moves along at a cracking pace, much of it in dialogue, which makes for an easy read notwithstanding the novel’s length.

Characterisation is somewhat sacrificed in the process of weaving the many strands of the plot together. While the Count himself is a compelling character, other characters are less so and female characters in particular are rather flat. One exception is Eugénie Danglars, who has the potential to be very interesting in her own right, although not enough time is spent with her for her potential to be fully realised. However, deficiencies in characterisation are more than made up for by the sheer thrill of the tale.

My enjoyment of The Count of Monte Cristo has been increased by it being a buddy read with several members of the Comfort Reads group. It has also been increased by listening to it as a French language audiobook downloaded from www.audiocite.net. Apart from hearing Dumas’ words as they were written, there was the immense joy of hearing beautiful, literary French, including the wonderful simple past tense, never heard in regular speech.

I can’t say that this is a flawless novel and deserves five stars for that reason. But I was on the edge of my seat as I listened to it for some 47 hours. As I neared the end, I started wondering just how soon I could justify a re-read. It doesn’t get much better than that.

3.5 Stars. A retrospective post.
I really wanted to like this book much more than I did.
I've noticed it being very favourably reviewed on GRs lately, so maybe I need to try it again?

„Граф Монте Кристо“ е абсолютен шедьовър! Едмон Дантес несъмнено се нарежда сред най-великите и многопластови литературни герои, а пък неговите тежка житейска съдба и впоследствие забележително отмъщение представляват незабравима приключенска история. Александър Дюма е уловил духа на началото на 19-ти век в Европа и вложил изключително силни размисли, увлекателно разказвайки за епични събития...




„Виждате ли, господин Бертучо, дърветата са приятни само защото дават сянка, а самата сянка е приятна само защото навява мечти и видения. Ето че аз купих градина, като мислех, че купувам само едно обикновено заградено място, но не било така; това място се оказа изведнъж градина, изпълнена с призраци, невписани в договора. А пък аз обичам призраците; не съм чувал мъртвите да са сторили за шест хиляди години толкова зло, колкото живите правят за един ден...“