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The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas

Start date: February 1, 2013

Finish date: February 28, 2013

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What Members Thought

Jul 13, 2011 Anna Kļaviņa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, rakstnieks, historical-fiction, read-in-2011, made-into-a-film, 1001books, europe

Truly generous men are always ready to feel compassion when their enemy’s misfortune exceeds the bounds of their hatred.

Amazing story. I should have read it years ago when my mom told me to

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Jan 20, 2012 Yuu Sasih rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, romance, fiction, history, adult, classic, favorites

Sailor Edmond Dantes was supposedly happy; at the age of 18 he got one hell of a promotion to be a ship captain and was about to marry his love, a bautiful Mercedes. But envies mixed up with some complicated politic situation made him ended up in Chateau de If, the most hellish, solitude island prison in France, with false accusation of treason. Prisoned in Chateau de If for 14 years, Dantes was about to lose hope of his innocence and liberty when he met Abbe Faria and learned the truth behind t Sailor Edmond Dantes was supposedly happy; at the age of 18 he got one hell of a promotion to be a ship captain and was about to marry his love, a bautiful Mercedes. But envies mixed up with some complicated politic situation made him ended up in Chateau de If, the most hellish, solitude island prison in France, with false accusation of treason. Prisoned in Chateau de If for 14 years, Dantes was about to lose hope of his innocence and liberty when he met Abbe Faria and learned the truth behind the conspiracy that led him there. With Faria's guidance, he finally escaped from that island prison and found the island of Monte Cristo which bear the unthinkable amount of treasure Faria had always dreamt of. After self-styled himself as The Count of Monte Cristo with the treasure he got, he slowly planned his revenge toward whoever took part in his 14 years of misfortunes.

I first knew this story from the anime Gankutsuou which free-styled adopted this story into a very beautiful visual art. After that I become curious at this story and then the newly opened Times Bookstores in my campus has this book with a drool-worthy price, so I immediately bough it, of course. lol.

What I love about classics are their beautiful description and their loyalty into plot detail. Most of classics didn't bother about pages and chapters as long as the story needs to go. In classics we know that authors were paid for their words, which rarely seen in this current hype-focused industry. This Count of Monte Cristo was one of those beautiful and epic classics--epic, because, don't you know the pages and chapters for the unabridged version? 894 pages long sum up about 117 chapters in which the letter is so tiny you'll get migrain. But is this book tend to be boring with that amount of pages? Hell no! Once you put it, you'll never put it down, trust me. Even when I put this down--and forget it for quite a while--it was merely because I have this hectic school schedule I need to put it down if I want to pass last semester smoothly.

I love the character of Count of Monte Cristo. Transformed from an innocent and naive Edmond Dantes, The Count was full of hate and misery from his misfortunes that took his father's life out of poverty and Mercedes' love. He was wicked yet gentle, cold yet polite, and ruthless yet passionate, which made him so eccentric to every eye that saw him. He believed himself as a Providence who was sent by God to bring punishment toward wrongdoers and he never half-heartedly doing this so called punishment. He coldly sent his enemies--and their families--into unfixable ruin slowly and smootly, without their noticing. Yet he helped misfortuned people here and there, though his intention somewhat being mixed with his vangeance plan since every misfortuned soul he saved always ended up being his willing--and oblivious--pawn to destroyed his enemies.

The plot was smoothly carried, dragging here and there, but overall engaging. How the Count built his plan and all of the coincidences that helped him made both reader and other characters believed like he was actually a Providence. And Dumas' resolution for the Count was heartbreaking. He carried along the moral of the story that in the end, nothing good came from hate and revenge, and though the Count finally fulfill his revenges, I don't think he will ever be happy again, even the Count himself admitted it. By being a Providence, he gave himself into the devil's clutch.

And whoever think that this story was just about revenge and love-drama, you're wrong. For this story also speak mostly about religion and God's existence, about faith, politic, and human greed. Most human bad side are revealed in here, how friends at one time could be your biggest enemy in your fall, how human could actually do everything to his own profit eventhough many will suffer because of his decision. All in all, this story was about everything happened in human life.

I really should make a favorite shelf now, do I? ...more

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