Excerpt from The Wife of Monte-Cristo: Being the Continuation of Alexander Dumas' Celebrated Novel of the Count of Monte-Cristo
It was now chateau-renaud's turn to start. The woman meanwhile had withdrawn into a remote corner of the court-room, where she sat with her companion, a tall, yellow, emaciated man, with a bald, pointed head, who nervously occupied a chair, his hands on his knees and his eyes fixed upon the crucifix hanging on the wall back of the judges. The woman had cow fully covered her face with a thick vail; not a feature of her countenance could be distinguished.
A supposed sequel to the "Count of Monte Cristo" written by Jules Hermina attempting to capitalize on the success of Alexandre Dumas' novel and overblown doesn't even come close to describing the florid prose. Painful in the extreme to read, I made it all the way through.
Even odder are the Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe added on at the end of this particular edition and not attributed to him at all.... Copyright lawyers would have a field day with this one!
I'd really give it 2.5 if I could but, nonetheless, it was a fun rollicking read, with good guys and bad guys and racing all over the world to "save" those that are loved from those who are threatening to destroy everything worth saving! Not "great literature" but fun to read. Luckily we were able to find this tidbit at a rummage sale for $1.00 (publishers date 1893). So, some of the printing is not perfect but we could figure out the vast majority and had fun reading it aloud...our favorite oft' repeated word was "zounds!"