Progress Book #13 of 100
This is the second time I’ve read this book. The first time was about 5 years ago, and I couldn’t put it down. It was the abridged version and I was very excited to see that it was on our list of 100. The story was so good I couldn’t wait to finish it and actually cheated in the last 100 pages. I had to see what happened and instead of reading the last 100 pages, I skipped ahead to the end to see how it turned out- don't worry I didn't do that this time. For this list, we got the unabridged version which is probably at least 300+ pages more than the abridged version. I thought the story would come back to me as soon as I started reading, and while I was able to remember a few things, most of the story seemed completely new. It’s a tale of injustice, deception and revenge. Edmond Dantes is a young naïve sailor publicly accused of sympathy towards Napoleon on his wedding day. His innocence is almost annoying, but I think Dumas was just showing the extremes of good and evil and how a person's character can change. Sentenced to prison, Dantes life is destroyed by jealous colleagues. In prison he befriends another prisoner Abbé Faria who opens his eyes to everything. He is taught languages, history, math, and most importantly the evil that exists in the world. With Faria’s help, he recalls every detail that brought him to prison and realizes that 4 of his colleague put in him prison. From that moment on, he is set on revenge against those who put him in jail. His goal is to ruin the men by destroying their lives.
I don’t want to give too much away, but this book isn’t all sad dark stories. There were honest sincere people in his life and while Edmond is bent on revenge against his enemies, he also helps save and elevate those who were his friends. One of the best stories (since there are many in this book) involves his old boss Morrel. Right before Morrel is about to lose everything Edmond arrives to save his company, family and name. Later he befriends Morrel's son Maximilian and continues to assist the Morrel family through everything. They are his adopted family and from them he has love.
The writing style was easy to read and straightforward, but sometimes I would get a little lost with all the characters. Edmond himself, has at least 4 different names and pretends to be different people. Even his title, The Count of Monte Cristo goes by a few different names. I found myself frequently re-reading sentences and paragraphs trying to figure out who was talking or who they were talking about. Also, the book is very long. With the abridged version I couldn’t put it done, this one took me 3-4 weeks to finish at 1065 pages. I didn’t skip ahead to the end this time and really enjoyed the story. It’s definitely one of the better books I’ve read on the list. With so much drama, how could you not enjoy it. I would recommend this book to anyone, but if you want a page turner just read the abridged version.
I give this an A: 95%
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