The Count of Monte Cristo

by Alexandre Dumas 

Review of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

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       The Count of Monte Cristo is the story of Edmund Dantes, a young man from Mersailles who is about to be married to his beloved Mercedes and has just been promoted to the captaincy of a ship belonging to his employer and friend.  But in the blink of an eye, all that is taken away.  He is betrayed out of envy, greed, and fear, and confined to the darkness of the dreaded prison, the Chateau d'If.  After fourteen years, through an unusual set of circumstances, he escpaes and finds a vast treaure hidden on an uninhabited island called the Isle of Minte Cristo.  Ten years later, he returns to France under the title of The Count of Monte Cristo, a man who holds wealth and power beyond kings and emperors.  He returns with one goal, one thing in mind, to take vengeance on those who betrayed him.

       This is the best book I have ever read.  From the first moment, I was blown away by its unparalled brilliance.  Nearing the end, I must admit, I was given a few scares.  There were times when the events of the plot seemd pointless and lacking ind irection.  But everything played its part, and every event had its purpose.  For it is not just a story of revenge.  It is also a story of love, of mercy, of redemption, and of hope.  As the story increases in complexity of plot, we can slowly see it increasing the the complexity of ideas.  Scarcely have such enrapturing and heartfelt themes ever been portrayed in another work of literature to my knowledge.  It has everything a reader could ask for, hate, love, romance, despair, action, suspense, and, as I said before, hope.

       The book is, depending on the volume you read, anywhere between 1100 and 1500 pages long.  A word of warning, steer clear of the heavily edited version which amount to a meer 500 or 600 pages.  These are the work of the devil.  But the masterpiece in its full form is not so much a work of Dumas as it is a work of God.  I can feel God's power when I read this book, and in a way, that is what the story is really about.  I cannot recommend it enough.  It is more than a thrilling tale of adventure, it possesses the rare ability to really teach something to those who read it.  In many ways, I am changed from having read this book.  It is one of the most rewarding, if not the most rewarding 1200 or so pages you will ever encounter in all your literary endeavors.

       I will leave you with these final words, the most important of the story and so important to each of our lives, "Wait and hope."

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Count Orad

        A lot of books have some thought-provoking themes but a poor story (The Catcher in the Rye), while some books have a gripping story but no themes to provoke thought (Harry Potter Series). A mark of a great book is one that does both. The Count of Monte Cristo is one such example.

       It has the best outright story I have ever read, it was 1400 pages of sheer delight. To anybody unwilling to read it because of its size, don't be put off as by the end you'll agree it was perfect length. Furthermore the themes of the novel do give you pause for thought. Quite simply, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the greatest books ever written.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Rasputin

        I dont know why a few others call this book boring..Its a great novel  and one of the best of all times.The movie is good in explaining the details of the character of Edmond especially his hatred of God..The book is full of life though the introduction of the count to the Paris society goes on and on.The ending is quite unexpected when Edmond marries Haydee . I wont say its disappointing as Mercedes lives in our heart for a long while ,specially because of  her unending grief of solitude...The duels , Edmonds escape from prison ,his frienship and love for the preist are extraordinary ...Its a classic that lives in our heart forever and a wonderful book to read  for literary lovers.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Sushie

        Wow such mixed reviews, I thought it was great. Althought at one point I had to write out a map of all the characters and how they related and what their names were to begin with. But it was worth the effort. The story may not have gone where I wanted it to and Edmond was not the sort of "man" I would have liked the most, but I loved it all the same. Great read. 4 out of 5 for me.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Shannon

        I'm not sure how people can say they liked this book.  By the time he had escaped from prison, I had the sad realization that I was not even one fourth of the way through it.  Boring, boring, boring.  It just went on and on, with unplausible scenario after unplausible scenario.

       And the ending...quite a disappointment.  It was not exactly what I was hoping for.  Far too much unbelievable melodrama, and far too many characters going on and on with far too indepth story lines that made me want to skip ahead and find out where on earth it was all leading.  The answer was nowhere.

       A big, fat zero on this stinker.  Watch the movie if you like this sort of thing.  But if you simply want 18th century literature, stick with Dickens or Austen!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Distinguished Jiggleman

        If you like things that are awesome, you might like this book.  However, beware, once you're done, you will have to live with the realization that you will live the rest of you life never being able to read a better book!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Satt

        Simply the greatest novel ever. always known for its revenge plot yet somehow the way in which the count goes about this infact makes the plot become a minor part of the books greatness. far more impressive is the large number of charaters that aren't just used to make a plot or make a book feel as though there are alot of people, all of whom have motives of their own personilties which interact with one another on such a scale and with ue subtilty that it comes across as genuine rather than just 'lobbing' people together for the sake of plot. the book also pushes some of the taboos of even the romantic era of which it was written which along with its readibliy truely makes this book worthy of this list.

       N.B. for people reading this review please do not think that this is a story of just revenge as it has be 'bastardised' by the film versions with their indivual simple narrative. It is far more complex and you should let yourself be engulffed fulled by each page. If you allow for this to happen then like presivous persons have noted before me you will be sad that the book does not continue for an eternity and that there is little to no aspect of life of which this book does not touch, be it love, greed, fear, betrayal, death and (the overly mentioned) revenge, but understandily so as the revenge deliverd by the Count is that of sheer genius.

       for other people whom have read this book i am still shocked by learning after the first time that i read this book that Dumas actually wrote based on a wage per line which although may bring into question the depth of which he writes in does show how great he actually was to keep all the aspects of the plot, subplots and characters in place with such grace as like a great conductor effortlessly guiding his orcastra on a whim. Yet as i must mention again unfortunately for us fans Dumas wasn't the greatest capatialist of his day or im sure the novel would have been written (and continually read) until his death which could have seen at least another 10,000 pages or so the the greatest epic novel ever written.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Satt

        This is my favourite book off all time!! I was genuinely sad when I stopped reading it. A novel that has it all, an absolute must read!

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by RMac

        I remember reading up to page 800 and becoming depressed at the realization of having only 600 pages to go. The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel of staggering brilliance. Dumas's story telling peaks in the narration of an ordinary man perplexed by revenge.If your looking for an entertaining read, you've hit gold.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Kevin

       This novel has the unique distinction in my experience of being the only book I actually tore up and threw away four pages before the end.  It started out so magnificently and was wonderfully well written until around halfway through when the author seemed to gradually lose the plot. This happened contemporaneously with the lead character experimenting with hashish, so my view is that there is some element of unconscious autobiography present and the author's adoption of this drug resulted in the trashing of what could and should have been an absolute triumph in european literature. A terrible shame indeed.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Paul B. 

       The Count of Monte Cristo is said to be the greatest tale of revenge ever told.  This novel has it all.  It has love, sex, drugs, revenge, action, and mystery.  The count is one of the greatest heroes in literature to date.  The patience he shows in exacting his revenge is admiral to say the least.  The Count of Monte Cristo is a master of disguise, a distinguished gentleman, an accomplished scholar, and the hand of god all rolled into one.

       The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is the story of a young sailor who has been cheated of the life he was supposed to have.  Our sailor’s name is Edmond Dantes.  On the night of young Dantes’ wedding his supposed friends, motivated by jealousy, betray him and get him unjustly imprisoned in a French prison for several years.  Edmond manages to escape after many years have past and that’s when the real story begins.  Dantes transforms himself into the count of Monte Cristo and spends decades planning and exacting his horrible revenge.

       This book is extremely long (1400+ pages) but not difficult to get through at all.  I actually wished it was longer the first time I read it.  I could have read ten thousand pages of this classic novel.

       It should also be noted that none of the movie adaptations that have been made of this book do any justice to it.  In order for anyone to make a movie that would compare with the actual book the running time would have to be about 9 hours.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Anonymous 

         This novel, in my opinion, is a must read !  It contains everything that one looks for................love, revenge, adventure, hatred, committment and last but not the least an interesting and orignal story.  This is one novel that I have read more than three times and have enjoyed it more than the previous occasion.  The movie, I would say does not do any justice to the orignal novel.  I just read " Prisioners of Birth " by Jeffery Archer and that reminded me of "The Count of Monte Cristo " as well.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas was reviewed by Anonymous 

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