Submitted by ComicsNBigBooks t3_yc2xcl in books
I can confidently say that this might be my new all-time favorite book. I don't know that I can do justice to the whirlwind of emotions I had while reading this book, but let's just say that the story was emotionally riveting all throughout. I found myself really latching onto the characters (especially Edmond Dantes/the Count of Monte Cristo), and other characters both major and minor. For me, it was never boring or meandering. Every chapter served a purpose, and the way Dumas, through his prose, builds up the Count as a powerful, mysterious figure seemingly controlling fate itself is masterfully done. I watched the 2002 movie immediately afterward. Good movie with a very good cast, but on a scale of 0-100%, it's about 5% the book, the rest creative liberties (it's impossible to tell the story as is, or close, in 2 hours).
There is so much I could cover, but I'll just say that the way Edmond Dantes immediately wins the readers heart at the beginning with his kind, easygoing, likable nature, only for that to be pulled out of the crime when he's accused of a crime he did not commit, is effective. The way his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo his handled is wonderfully written. I love how there is such an air of mystery to the Count, and how this mystery is relayed by the characters reacting to the Count. We see, not through Dumas literally telling us, but through the Count's own reaction to certain events, just how cold and bitter he has become, with disturbing reactions to capital punishment and other morbid events. We're desperate to see his revenge plot against his enemies play out to the T. And he mostly achieves this revenge...only to, in the midst of an unintended tragic consequence involving a child's death, causes him to reapproach how he will exact his final revenge. I also love how he defeats each of his enemies in the order from "least important" to "most important" in terms of how they helped ruin his life. But the takeaway amidst all of the darkness, both of emotion and of events, is that there is always hope. The battle for Edmond's soul becomes more important than his revenge, as evidence by his sparing of Albert de Morcerf and later of Danglars.
It's late, but I just wanted to put out some thoughts that captured my awe upon finishing this beautiful story.
Cu_Chulainn77 t1_itk91o3 wrote
I love that Edmond Dantès is a much more human character than most of your heroes. You can see that being wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years has changed him a lot. He is still a good person with a good heart, but he is also much more hardened from his life experiences. He'll gladly kill a man in a duel and not lose a wink of sleep over it. The rush he gets when watching executions is something the Edmond Dantès before being imprisoned would have been repulsed by. I like the fact that he isn't the incorruptible hero that can be beaten and tortured to no end and still remain unphased by it, like you often see with fictional heroes.