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The Count of Monte Cristo
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June and July Book - The Count of Monte Cristo
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Leah M
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rated it 4 stars
Jun 21, 2012 09:34AM
hhmmm yes i am interested in that Christa, sounds good.
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Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "I could set up an activity separate from the book of the month that is the reading of all the Three Musketeers books, but there would be no deadline so you could just talk about them as you go, is ..."I guess that could be cool. I was planning on reading them all eventually anyway.
@ Christa,,,,lol i know me too...i have read over half of the Man in The Iron Mask,quite a while ago now ( i mean it's been that long that the book has dust on it lol).and as you know i have the Counte of monte Christo book with the actors from the movie on the cover.....but yes spose we cant put the inevatable off any longer!!!!!
Okay I have to admite I am having one major problem with this book. I am getting all the names mixed up and each charter has more then one name! Anyone else having trouble keeping the charters straight?
Yes! More than once I've had to do a name find and resift the chapters to figure out which person goes where, what they did, and to whom they're related. I'm going to have to start keeping a family tree map in my Nook binder.
Hahah, I guess I should have a notebook near by to write down who everyone is.
I may do just that! :)
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Okay I have to admite I am having one major problem with this book. I am getting all the names mixed up and each charter has more then one name! Anyone else having trouble keeping the charters st..."
I was a bit confused but the book I had included a page at the beginning that explained who each character was and their multiple names.
Oh lucky! I want that one, what version do you have? The one I am reading in my sisters and I ahve to give it back so I am going to buy the book when I once more have money.
google spark notes for The Count of Monte Cristo and you will have all the character info you need and then some!
Great thank you!!
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Oh lucky! I want that one, what version do you have? The one I am reading in my sisters and I ahve to give it back so I am going to buy the book when I once more have money."I have no idea. I'm sorry. I checked it out of a library.
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Okay I have to admite I am having one major problem with this book. I am getting all the names mixed up and each charter has more then one name! Anyone else having trouble keeping the charters st..."
I found I have had to reread chapter 27 "Caderousse's Story" to help keep all the characters straight.
I agree that all the names and the relationships among the characters are confusing sometimes. But this is still a damn good story, am I right?As it was serialized, I can imagine people waiting with baited breath for the next installment, like waiting for the next episode of Lost, 24, the results on American Idol...
If you can track it down, Richard Chamberlain played Dantes in a fabulous 1970's miniseries version. The role was perfect for him.
I've had a crush on him since I was maybe 7 years old, so I own the DVD, naturally!
I didn't know there was a miniseries! I shall be looking into that :)
I saw a mini series at the library but it was all in french. I was bumed.
I'm good as long as there are subtitles!
I think there were subtitles, but my family wasn't interested and I didn't have time to watch it on my laptop.
Here's a link about the miniseries.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072824/
Click on Richard Chamberlain too, he was absolutely gorgeous and one of the hottest actors at that time. I guess you could say he was my first love.
Last weekend, I watched Count of Monte Cristo movie, made in 2002. And I don't like the way it changes in some important part. Reading the book is still the best, besides I have never seen another version of this marvelous story.
I see the movie but i dont read the book yet, is not the best movie but is ok there is much chance from the book? who is better for your point of view movie/book because even if most of the times the book is better sometimes the movie is too...
Almost certainly the movie does not have as much of the story in it as the book.
Patricia, the movie I saw is totally good. In my opinion, it's a little bit different from the book but beyond the comprehension of the book, it's fine.Watch the 2002 movie version without reading this book first, can't be confusing for those who haven't read or know about this story. But for those who have read the book before, don't expect much from this movie.
Yes Brenda, couldn't agree more! :)
Peter wrote: "The length of any book depends on what edition you get. Many editions of long books like this are abridged, whether for financial or artistic reasons, but I always read unabridged editions. Sometim..."My class read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables back in high school. It was terribly daunting but our teacher was very wise. She had us reading it like a soap opera. We only had to read a certain chunk each week and she let us skip the background bits. We all read it and loved it. The other class were just told to read it without any guidance and none of them finished it.
Hi! Newbie bumping in.I have a love-hate relationship with this book, like the one I had with Vanity Fair. When I finish a chapter I can easily turn down the book and do other things, but when I start another chapter I immediately get sucked in. Has it something to do with the fact that these two novels were serials when first published?
But I love the soap-operaish story. I love the characters. It is sad that Edmond is bent on revenge in spite of the abbe's warning, but I guess that's our story. I'm also enjoying Dumas' descriptions -- it's my first time reading one of his works -- and I loved the Carnival. I can't wait for the Danglars or Fernand or Mercedes to finally appear! That is, if they will. I haven't spoiled myself yet.
So I'm only 100 pages in... but since I've started reading it, I can't stop thinking of the palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba." It's supposed to be about Napoleon, but I think it's pretty applicable to Dantès's case, too.
Well, I am tickled every time Dumas mentions Janina in Greece.It's actually Ioanina, and I have been there. Stayed for several days while traveling around Greece in 1998 and it was one of my favorite places. It has a huge lake with a tiny island in the middle (I believe that's where Haydee's family escaped to in this book), and in fact, the island these days is a tourist spot with lots of lovely shops and tons of adorable wild rabbits hopping around.
Many places mentioned in this book and made me more curious to visit there.Also, I wonder where Edmond Dantes go at the end of the story.
Is anyone reading this on a nook and if so, are your pages turning slow? This is the only book I have read that takes so long to turn the page!
Tami, I don't read it on a nook. But once I was holding and began to read it (real book I mean), I couldn't seem to let this book go. And yes, this book have so many names (characters) which makes me confused and I have often turned a page because I forgot who is he/she.
I would think it would be hard on a nook to turn back to look for something, I like having the real book in my hands.
No, Tami, I don't read on a nook. But it might be moving slowly because the book itself is so long. I don't know, sorry!
Now that i'm finally reading it (here), i feel that the plot is so intense, the way that jealousy,envy and ambition moves four characters against an innocent man - so dramatic, almost like an opera - that i can't read it fast enough to know what is going to happen next; i start a chapter and in a second (that's how it feels) it's over.... and i keep telling myself it´s the last one over and over again, chapter after chapter....until i fall asleep over the keyboard (yes, it happened...), or i have to push myself to do some work.......I know the story, i've seen many adaptations in the TV, there was even a soap opera here in Portugal a few years back based on this story, but i never got to read it. It's......how do you call it,... breathtaking? unputdownable?.....
and i don´t mind the thorough descriptions, actually i love them; it gives a background to the characters, a scenario. Here in Portugal, we had a few authors that also used this type of description - Eça de Queiroz (my favorite), Julio Dinis, etc.
Loving it!
Isabel, I agree with you.All the wonderful details make it interesting. I love the chance to learn about history, and the setting is so important to the story.
It would make a great soap opera, with short suspenseful segments. Since it was published in serial format probably this comes naturally.
I like the fact that many if not all of the places mentioned in the book actually exist. This makes it seem much more real as I can follow the events as they occur on a map or read background information on the historical event mentioned i.e. The Hundred Days and the Greek War for independence.
It seems very historically accurate, maybe it was a true story hmm? "Cupitor Impossibilium"- I desire the impossible. I like this saying.
I have been slowly working my way through this, reading in day-to-day assignments (it works for me), and am now in the mid-seventies chapters. I would just like to know if anyone else has been having moments where they are seriously tempted to just throw the book at the floor/stick it in the freezer. Such drama! For those that wonder, it is "The Promise" that led me to make this post. Also, to Tami: I have a Nook, (which makes book-flinging sadly impossible). I can recommend the free EPUB version from Gutenberg.org, as I haven't had any slowness problems.
I must admit to never having to urge to put a book in the freezer, my wood stove? Yes, but the freezer? Hahahaha!But to your question, I am finding it very interesting and if my eyes would only not get tired so fast I think I would have finished it by now. The only thing I have trouble with is keeping the charters straight. Most writers today do not have so many charters, you have two or three main charters with several support charter, but in here they are all impotant charters and what is worse a lot of them have the same names!!
I'm probably dating myself there - when I was younger, I saw some tv show (Friends?), and one of the characters had a habit of putting really upsetting books in the freezer (I think I remember it being Little Women?).I have no idea why that stuck, but now anytime a book upsets me I think about sticking it in the freezer, and I feel better, haha. It's a very interesting, hook-laden story though, and I can't imagine having to wait for the next installment of the serial. Complicated name&family charts aside, it's rapidly edging into my top 10. I think you're right when you say many of today's popular writers lack that complexity that make books like CofMC so delicious.
I read a "mystery" recently that left me angry (with myself, for bothering to finish) at the end. She writes for adults, but this author seems to think her readers never passed second grade. THAT one could have gone in the woodstove for all it was worth :)
I'll take conspiracies, intrigue, villainy, and hand-wringing melodrama any day.
Hahaha Friends, I used to love that hsow, or rathe rmy Step mom did and I grew to love it also.I think is it so interesting that that was how books were writen then, chapter by chaprter and published in the newsletter, but of course what better way? everyone read the newspaper. I had never thought about it before until I read the forward to CountMC.
In the day (19th c) almost all novels were first published serially, in monthly magazines. Then if they were popular enough the episodes were collected together into a volume and put on sale. If you look at those works, you can spot where the cliffhanger is, that hooks the magazine reader and gets him to buy the issue next month. And then the following chapter always has some introductory or descriptive stuff, to get the reader back into the work. All the works of Dickens, H. Rider Haggard, and Wilkie Collins were of this type.
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "It seems very historically accurate, maybe it was a true story hmm? "Cupitor Impossibilium"- I desire the impossible. I like this saying."
It actually was based on a true story. Of course Dumas turned it into something way more elaborate. I can't remember the details. if yall want I can browse through some of my research on it.
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "Hahaha Friends, I used to love that hsow, or rathe rmy Step mom did and I grew to love it also.I think is it so interesting that that was how books were writen then, chapter by chaprter and publi..."
That was kinda how comic books started. Just short stories in the newspaper evolved into small books with pictures and finally to TV shows. If you look at characters from classic novels you realize they were the start of the characters we have in our pop culture today. Take Sherlock Holmes, for example. Conan Doyle created what was probably the first hero and sidekick duo, Holmes and Dr. Watson. Next came characters like Batman and Robin.
Every writer was inspired by something great before them. :)
Jada wrote: "Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "It seems very historically accurate, maybe it was a true story hmm? "Cupitor Impossibilium"- I desire the impossible. I like this saying."
It actually was based o..."
According to introduction of my version of the novel (Penguin) it was based on a true story about a Frenchman who was betrayed by three "friends" who were jealous of his bride to be. The frenchman ended up imprisoned and lived as a servant to a rich man. When the man died he willed the frenchman some money. He then went to seek revenge against the three who betrayed him. Wikipedia does a good job of recounting the true story.;
Jada wrote: "Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "It seems very historically accurate, maybe it was a true story hmm? "Cupitor Impossibilium"- I desire the impossible. I like this saying."
It actually was based o..."
Please do. I put my two cents worth in but that's about all it is worth
I think a lot of the best stories are based of true ones. The truth always makes for an interesting tale, with some flurishes thrown in to keep the pace going.
Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "I must admit to never having to urge to put a book in the freezer, my wood stove? Yes, but the freezer? Hahahaha!But to your question, I am finding it very interesting and if my eyes would only n..."
I'm a very stubborn person, and when it comes to books i make it a point to read it all the way to the end, no matter how thin, uninteresting....the story may be - i end up being disappointed some of the times...you know the feeling when you reach the end, you close the book, and you think....what was the point?......well....alas.... :)
William wrote: "Jada wrote: "Christa - Ron Paul 2012 wrote: "It seems very historically accurate, maybe it was a true story hmm? "Cupitor Impossibilium"- I desire the impossible. I like this saying."
It actuall..."
Will do. I'll try to post something soon. :)
