The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics) by Alexandre Dumas pere (1997)

The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics) by Alexandre Dumas pere (1997)

Where the novel succeeded was transporting me to Dumas's vision of a lush, romantic Europe: full of carnivals and operas, noble scoundrels and dirty nobles, of duels and murder, of revolution and love, hidden treasures and secret identities. The problem is that the story doesn't really go anywhere with these elements. Its original publication as a serial really shows- even in my abridged Bantam edition it often drags for long stretches- partially due to a frequent lack of sympathetic protagonist.

Edmond Dantes, the hard-working and ambitious young man we meet at the introduction of the novel transforms himself into the Count of Monte Cristo in order to gain the power to wreak vengeance upon his betrayers. But this Count merely is a petty, obsessed man- he flaunts and wastes his wealth on narrow-minded hate. And thus, for much of the novel, his complicated machinations came off not as masterful but rather arbitrarily convoluted.

It was not until the love story of Valentine and Maximilien is introduced that I somewhat regained an emotional connection to the plot clogs. The real hero for the couple here, though, is the magnificent Monsieur Nortier and not the Count. Despite being unable to do much more than blink his eyes, he still able to mastermind the situation to do the heavy lifting in ensuring Valentine's happiness and freedom.

The Count does eventually seen how much he's gone too far in his obsession with revenge. Rather than exploring his guilt, however, Dumas very quickly exonerates Edmond as righteous with a cheap invocation of religion. As a reader, I felt really cheated of a true resolution for a man as guilty as his tormentors.

Maybe the storytelling 'canon' I was raised on is too different from the one being invoked here; there is values dissonance. Vengeance owns you- your attachment to it seals your fate, ties you up into the same end as your victims/tormentors. Edmond Dantes took it upon himself to be a god, or maybe rather udge, jury, and executioner. To leave the story thus I felt a bitter disappointment, and ultimately the whole exercise seemed like a romp rather than an epic/classic tale of revenge. ( )

I did not realize that this book was abridged until after I was into the second chapter, but since there are notes throughout the book, I don't think I missed too much of the story. This is my first Barnes & Noble Classics book but hopefully I will buy several more. This is such an exciting story that I found it very hard to put the book down each time I sat down to read it. ( )

Favorite book of all time.