I know it’s been a while since I’ve written here, and I’m sorry. I’m hoping to get back into the swing shortly, though, as I finally finished reading “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and will soon finish “The Mysterious Island!” I bought my unabridged copy of the first classic in a little bookstore across the street of the London National Library, in the summer of 2012. I didn’t start chewing on it until several months later, and my goal was to finish it before April 2013, but I barely got halfway. I picked it up again in Oct. 2014, but allowed myself to be distracted by other books until a couple months ago.
Finally, I told myself, “I’m not going to start another book until I’ve finished ‘The Count of Monte Cristo.'” I really wanted to read some new books, so this became my motivation. My fastest reading of it was by reading a chapter a day, but I couldn’t keep it up for long. Eventually, my husband and I decided to try out Audible. My first free book: “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Not only did this give me another mode of reading it, but it gave me a deadline of our one month trial. And finally, with the help of Audible.com, the last page was read on Sept. 1, 2015!
So here it is: the long awaited review of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” by Alexandre Dumas.
Like many others, I’ve seen and loved the movie produced in 2002. The movie encouraged me to join my friends who had read the book for their high school class, even though they warned me “The movie’s not like the book.” No, it’s not. But I like both of them for their different reasons. I’m really curious to read the unabridged version, because honestly, I felt like the entire middle could have been cut out. Maybe all the details of the parties and extravagant riches were meant to satirical, but I got bored. The revenge is much deeper and striking in the book, since Edmond went after his framers’ wives and children as well. I didn’t quite fall for all his “Sherlock Holmes” disguises, as I quickly suspected him, but wondered “how could he always be at the right place at the right time?”
The characterization seemed satirical, as each character had one goal and that goal defined them. This made them all seem too dramatic and almost foolishly stereotypical (but then again, they are high society Parisians) 😛
In the end, I liked it. ***(3 stars)*** I can see why it’s a classic, and I’ll see the movie with a different perspective from now on. Will I read it again? Haha! Maybe the abridged version. 😛 Seriously, the last theme of “Wait and Hope” were really the feelings I had while reading – waiting and hoping to get to the end. 😛
C. Rae D'Arc 