Receive Your Copy El Conde De Montecristo Imagined By Alexandre Dumas Distributed As Manuscript

generally don't read classics, it's only in lastyears that i have started collecting these lovely penguin classics editions and i emphasis here on "collecting" as it is easier than reading, But now i have been slowly going through my physical bookshelf, last year I read David Copperfield and this year it's Idiot and now this, Okay, I started Idiot and Cristo last year and finally finished reading them this year,

Finishing this tome was a real challenge as you get to know within few chapters that it will be a revenge story, There are plot twists that one would guess about miles ahead, the character at times felt shallow and sometimes it seems like things were exaggerated for no reason.
but would i change this for anything else No, because it would feel like you have cut an essential limb from the body,

it is scary to see how close Dumas has come to predict the future through this story, He talks about betrayal, corruption, jealousy, politics, and love in this book and even afteryears society has not changed, if possible things has gotten worse,

With a length ofpages and utterly predictable, this book is still an amazing adventure to go on, I rolled my eyes at times, giggled like a child, felt angry for injustice, and fist bumped in the air yelling "YES", this story made me feel so many emotions and it's a story that will stay with me forever, This book is long. Everything about it feels longfrom the words, to the sentences, to the scenes, Given that it was serially published meaning Dumas made his money by the word it's obvious why it's so damn long, But trust me, this story is NOT a waste of time,

What it isis everything, What starts as a thriller, becomes a Game of Thronesstyle soap opera, and finishes as a murder mystery, It's a revenge story, in theory, but more than anything it's about love, It's really an existential comingofage for adults, The length of seven books, The Count of Monte Cristo contains nearly as many themes and plots and characters, Probably, it covers twice as many subjects, It's basically a Bible.

Something tricky about it is that the first hundred and some pages are absolutely phenomenal, The story starts better than just about anything else, which kind of surprised me, For something of this length, I expected it to be slowand at times it isbut the beginning is definitely a page turner, one that doesn't read dated at all, which again surprised me.
This book is like two hundred years old and translated from Frenchand while at times it's as headscratching as Shakespearethe beginning feels like reading a really good Michael Crichton book.


Edmond Dantes / The Count of Monte Cristo is, logically, the first character introduced, He's incredibly likable from the start: he's, has his shit together, treats his father like gold, is madly in love, and excellent at his job, In short, there's a Disney story ahead of him, Just thinking about it is exciting, until in quick succession several extremely unlikable characters are introduced whom all conspire against him, They're jealous little evil bitches and they plot and scheme, and as their deeds unfold, the story becomes a thriller, Unfortunately, the characters that start the book are definitely the best, beside one or two others, Fortunately, after they throw a giant fork into Dantes' road, they don't just disappear, No, this is a revenge story, They come back and get what they got coming to 'em,

The problems start to arise after the firstor so pages, after Dantes gets screwed, suffers, loses hope, becomes bitter, and transcends into the Count of Monte Cristo.
After this, aboutnew characters are introduced, only one of whom really measures up to the previous cast, Dumas spends the nextpages of the story predominately fleshing out these characters in the form of a soap opera, which is frustrating, The previous ones are so good, you're way more eager to learn about them, It feels like you're getting off topic, lost in new characters that only fit into the story tangentially by theme, And, although this part isn't necessarily bad or insufferable, compared to the thrilling first act, this soap opera seems that way, It doesn't help that this part of the story is when the language dates itself, the sentences grow to their longest, the dialogue seems like one soliloquy after another, and the words they speak are plain archaic.
The

story seems to go downhill, quickly picking up steam, ultimately headed for a nasty crash and burn,

It doesn't. If the first hundred pages aren't the best in all of literature, it's only because the last hundred are somehow even better, All of the crazy complexity Dumas writes into the second act of the story comes together in the third, What seemed to only tangentially fit into the story becomes the glue that holds together a masterpiece, And when The Count of Monte Cristo starts exacting his revenge you spentpages eagerly anticipating, of course it's satisfying as hell, What makes it even better is seeing Edmond Dantes resurface himself in the ugly skin of Monte Cristo, After all his misery has made his existence merely to put others through worse albeit somewhat justifiably, you start to love him again, and he shows that The Count of Monte Cristo isn't a simple revenge story that went on for way too long.
No, it's much more than that,

But if you want to know, you'll just have to read it for yourself, Wait and hope, my friend, wait and hope, Overpages of suffering and revenge!

I enjoyed it, I did not like it quite as much as some of the other big classics I have read, but it was very good, The two things that brought it down a bit for me were:

It felt a bit more drawn out than it needed to be, At a couple of points I was ready for Dumas to get to the point,
Some of the plot was very convoluted, While this did lend itself well to the Count's intricate plotting, I would occasionally get to a chapter and say, "Wait, what!" A few times I tried to reorient myself with chapter summaries online, but stopped after it became difficult to avoid spoilers.


With all the negative out of the way, I will say that is was definitely a great book, At times it was riveting, At others it was clever, At pretty much all times it was dark and seemingly hopeless, The unabridged is great because it has everything as Dumas wanted it, but it does require quite a bit of commitment,

Final judgement: A must for those who want to read all the classics, but probably a bit much for the causal reader, sitelink
If you are planning to pick up a classic with a great plot, this book should be on the top of your list, Alexandre Dumas will take you for an extraordinary ride through the life of Edmond Dantes,

This novel starts with the theme of jealousy and betrayal, which forces some people to frame innocent Dantes as a Bonapartist, He later gets thrown into a grim fortress prison on an island, Dantes spends fourteen long years in this oubliette, From there, he learns about the treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo, He starts his second journey to take revenge for all the sufferings he had to endure,

I am a person who always believes in Gandhi's words that forgiveness is the attribute of the strong, I am not too fond of reading revenge stories due to this reason, The central theme of this novel is retribution, Still, I loved it and gave it five because I think the author has done an extraordinary job in this novel, This book is more thanpages long, and it took me an eternity to finish reading it, I think that this is an absolute mustread book for everyone,

“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, You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome, Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you, "

WHEW!! I do believe this is the longest book that Ive read!

Clocking at aroundpages on my ole Kindle, its a beast of a book.
Honestly, this is not something to be taken lightly if you take on this masterpiece,

Not only is it HUGE but its a classic, So its going to be wordy my friends, They paid authors back in the day for every word that was written,
So my dear Alexandre Dumas, he got bank with this tome!

The Count of Monte Cristo has always been on my bucket list for completing.
So late one night after drinking multiple glasses of wine,

I said, “Fuck it! Lets do this!”
Yeah, it was a lot of liquid courage.


And it was a journey folks,

The Count of Monte Cristo is not a book to finish in a day or even a week, Its a journey of revenge, redemption and hope, Its a journey to take down your enemies in a frightening and calculating way, Does my beloved Edmond Dantès find love again Does he get revenge for being betrayed and framed


Well, if youve seen multiple movies of this plot over the years, then you already know some of these answers.


What I did not realize is that the movies are not remotely like this beast of a book, There is so much more calculating, more characters good grief, the amount of characters, . . whew! and plot points that are completely different,
Yes to books! Now that I've read this, I prefer this tale instead of the Hollywood version, Its much more believable and the "too convient" plot is taken out,

Some word of advice,

You might struggle with this book if youre not into classics, You might also struggle in the middle with all the characters and plotting,
You know why Because you cant see the ending and all the precise planning that the Count is putting into play,
Its a dull blade being sharpening over and over again, until its finally ready to be plunged into a evil, dark heart,

Am I glad I finally read this You bet your sweet ass I am,

Thank you Edmond Dantès for making me "wait" and "hope" to see what type of man you actually turn out to be,
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 theth Century equivalent of a longrunning and compelling television series, I can readily imagine being a reader of the Journal des Débats between Augustand January, impatiently waiting for the next installment of Le Comte de Monte Cristo to be published, eagerly discussing each installment with my friends around theth Century equivalent of the watercooler, exclaiming at each plot development, gasping at every cliffhanger.


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 plots 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 thanpages.
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, Its 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.


Its far from a plausible story and its 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 novels 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 sitelinkwww, 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 cant say that this is a flawless novel and deserves five for that reason, But I was on the edge of my seat as I listened to it for somehours, As I neared the end, I started wondering just how soon I could justify a reread, It doesnt get much better than that,
.