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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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Well my copy says it's the Abridged version, so I don't know what that means exactly but I am addicted to this book. I started it at work yesterday - I work at a book store so my reading is allowed- and I couldn't put it down. I wanted to cry when Dantes got arrested, and Ferdaned drives me knutts. what a horrible man, but I suppose things happen.
Christa wrote: "Well my copy says it's the Abridged version, so I don't know what that means exactly but I am addicted to this book. I started it at work yesterday - I work at a book store so my reading is allowed..."Abridged means it's shortened. That's ok. I read an abridged version myself and didn't realize it. Eventually I want to read the full version. Probably sometime next year when I've forgotten the story and it's new again.
Is it going to drastically effect the way that the story goes? I didn't realize that that was what it meant! Thank you for explaining that to me. I suppose someday I will have to go back and re read it in the complete length version!
All the basic stuff (the plot and the characters) will be the same in an abridged version. They're not going to rewrite the work, after all. What they will do in abridging is leave out stuff. The long descriptions of scenery and setting that were necessary, in the day before photography and Wikipedia? Gone, mostly. Also a lot of the authorial asides -- sermonizing, reflections upon the morals of the characters, ruminations on the State of the World Today -- all the boring stuff, essentially, goes to the wall. Some abridgements are very light, and some of them are too much.
Aww I wouldn't call it boring, I can see how it would be, and I know it must be hard work to be an abridger. I could never do it, slicing up books? AHHHHH!!! But I think those boring bits add so much to the feeling of the book and giving the reader, especially us new people who are unfamiliar with the politics of the day, an insight into what the author was really trying to say with his book.
Thats a very good point. However, I have yet to find myself at all disappointed with the outcome of how amazing this book is. I mean really the beauty of Addes speach that goes on for three and a half pages about Napolean. How could one not see the beauty in that. I agree some of the details which are removed tend to really take away from the magic of a book but I haven't felt like I am being jipped by the lack of details that the Abridger took out. I don't mind that I am being jipped 700 pages because the abridger left a stunning amount of beauty in the book!!!
I cannot put this book down. It contains historical and political information of those years, and the characters are really realistic. I also believe that this may be a true story considering that Dumas was a general in Napoleon's army.
Christa wrote: "Is it going to drastically effect the way that the story goes? I didn't realize that that was what it meant! Thank you for explaining that to me. I suppose someday I will have to go back and re rea..."It affected the way I read it but I was able to fill in some gaps by doing some research. Maybe you could try that.
I don't mind if someday I must read this book again, from the first page. This book is totally awesome. Somehow, it seems like I was in there inside the book. Yeah, of course I'm wishing that I could be there :DReading this book also teach me that revenge isn't the best way to get the satisfication. And maybe, by knowing what happen to Dantes, so don't be too sincere to others. We don't know what is in the minds of them. They maybe our friends, but just take care of ourself. Be wise.
Yes, we learn about politics too. So, does this book make you feel a bit bored, especially if you are not interested in politics? Or you still feel this book interesting?
Nissa Tanura wrote: "I don't mind if someday I must read this book again, from the first page. This book is totally awesome. Somehow, it seems like I was in there inside the book. Yeah, of course I'm wishing that I cou..."Idk. Politics is boring but when it's from another time in history and culture I don't mind. It really puts you into that world ya know. Talking about Napolean back then was like talking Hitler during WWII. He was on everyone's minds.
I'm finished finally. One of the classics that I have never been bored while reading. It is unbelievable how hard Dantes tried to take revenge, and I think his endeavors are praiseworthy.
I am almost done, just a few forty pages more, I am seeing that now that Edmond is getting his revenge he feels really bad for all th ehurt he is causing other people. It's like he wants them to pay but he feels so bad for their hurts he can't do it. Poor Edmond. He is so good.
I just finshed and what a happy ending. Not like the movie but deeply satisfying all the same. I love the courage of Albert and Mercee to leave and make their own way, to leave all that comfort even if it was bought with ill begotten money, I don't think I could do it. I hope Edmond has many children and lives the rest of his live in peace.
Agree with you, Christa!Edmond felt very guilty to those who also suffer because of his revenge to others. That's why revenge isn't the best solution. But for all that has happened to him, on the other hand it was all worth it. I myself can't imagine what would I do if I was him, after all that happened to him.
And yes, what Albert and his mom's decision in the end of the story is the best way I think. That may be a difficult situation for them and not giving wealth as they had before, but it certainly gives more inner satisfaction.
Edmond was very focused. I think if I had spent years in jail, then got out and came into such a fortune, I might be tempted to just skip all the work of exacting revenge and enjoy my life! It's kind of frightening that he kept that hate and drive for retribution in his heart for so long.I also thought he was a bit hard on Mercedes. At a time when women were so dependent on men, I don't know what he expected her to do for all those years. I guess if she had entered a convent that would have satisfied him.
I doubt if Dumas ever thought much about that last point, Tami. That was long, long before even proto-feminism. If asked I would expect him to say that she should stay unmarried and faithful to Dantes, even if this meant poverty and childlessness. Since Albert is an adult now that makes it, what, 20 to 25 years? Her childbearing years are pretty well over now. And an unmarried/childless woman in a Mediterranean culture is a zero, with no role in society. And although there isn't any discussion of it, surely she had parents. Her father had the right and duty to -give- her in marriage, if for no other reason than to ensure that she (and her mother, after he died) were provided for. She probably had no choice.
I think Edmond was less angry at her being married than he was with the fact she had married the number one person responsible for his plite.In the movei she was told he was dead and other things as well made her more willingto marry, but I cannot remember if she was told he was dead in the book.
Also Meredes was sort of a Gypsy from what I could tell. And they had different rules about being married and the womans role.
I didn't feel that he was harder on her than she was on herself; it even seemed he had a great deal of concern and guilt after her "punishment," such that it added considerably to the other circumstances leading him to question whether he really was permitted by providence to carry out such actions. He stood before her and asked her, "Before I leave you, Mercedes, have you no request to make?" When she responded only with desire to see her son safe and happy, he asked of her again "But have you no request to make for yourself, Mercedes?"
In that moment, it is she who says she *cannot* ask more (and maybe I read too much into this, being an incorrigible romantic, but I asked myself, was he hoping for a remaining spark of... love? If not love, then duty to the memory of that love?), in that she will always have to remain halfway between the memory of the Edmond she loved and the shade of the Edmond that destroyed her husband and means of living.
Even thus rebuked, he worries for her future intentions. I really do feel like she's punishing herself more than he could, and thus unintentionally(?) inflicting retribution on the now guilt-ridden Edmond.
It was torturous and sad, of course, but I think there was some justice in their parting.
Mercedes was in the book told by old man Dante's that Edmond was dead other wise he would have come back to them. So it did in her head absolutely justify that she was able to get married. I was horrified that she chose to marry the man responsible for the fate of Dante's though. It really frustrated me. I loved the book but I was livid with Ferdinand throughout the whole book. I was to myself wishing that Dumas would eliminate the guy. Dante's really took advantage of a horrible situation and made the best of it. Who would have thought to trade places with the dead? The lessons that Dante's gained from the Addes was astonishing. I myself found that I gained respect through this book, of what the world is and is not.
Edmond for sure takes a huge part of what he learned and did not put it towards good aspects of what the lessons were meant to teach. But rather he took the pressure of hatred and jealousy and used it to really sabotage the life of Mercedes and her husband and family. I feel like there was a sense of needing to gain revenge for the pain and suffering endured by Edmond, but it as well was not right on his behalf to go in and ruin the world which Mercedes had built for herself.
Mercedes I feel did really take the responsibility upon her own shoulders that made her really feel like what Edmond had done was her fault. Though it was not her fault as to the depth of sabotage she undergoes, I felt like it was not her fault at all. It was merely a battle between two jealous men.
She didn't know Ferdinand was responsible, did she?I understand there is a sequel. Anybody read it?
Oh cool! I didn't know there was a sequel, thanks for the link.
I have not read the whole sequel but I think the language is too simple compared with the book. I think the sequel of a classic is not necessary, and I prefer not to read. If the author had ended the book, anything is not to be written, even the book was not completed. I think it is another point that what makes the classics more interpretable.
No, I was thinking of THE COUNTESS OF MONTE CRISTO, by Dumas himself. See:http://www.amazon.com/The-Countess-Mo...
There are no reviews, and I am wondering if it is one of those depressing much-later-in-life sequels that you wish the author had not done. Also, Dumas had a 'stable' of assistants, the way a painter of the time might have had a 'studio', to help him with his work. Dumas's stable may have gone beyond just research and background stuff, to writing material.
Oh, thank you Brenda. I had no idea about it, I will take a look at it. :)
I don't know as she ever was aware that Ferdinand was responsible for the "death" of Edmond, but I think she still did hold herself as responsible for the "death" of Edmond
Ayça wrote: "I have not read the whole sequel but I think the language is too simple compared with the book. I think the sequel of a classic is not necessary, and I prefer not to read. If the author had ended t..."Agree with Ayça! And yes, thanks Brenda. I am interested in finding out about it.
Polls up for next months book. Vote fast because thanks to my not paying attention you only got a few days. Here is a link.http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/69...
I just got done with the book about 2 minutes ago...I'm still in a bit of a shock and not sure what I think. I've seen the movie and about half way into the book, I knew there was no way I could compare the two since they are so different from each other. I guess I am a romantic to have wanted Mercedes and Edmond to get back together in the end. Now that I'm thinking more on it, it wouldn't have been realistic for them to get back together after over 20 years. The book was written absolutely beautifully and I loved it. But again, I'm not sure how I felt about the ending yet.
Also in the movie Albert was Edmound son, which never happened int he book. Edmound was much to honorable to do anything of that sort. So in the movie youc ould see them getting back together. I like how the book ended.
No, it would have been terribly unrespectable for Albert to be Edmond's son, and Dumas could not have written it that way. Nor do I feel that, having engineered Ferdinand's downfall, Edmond in good conscience could have married Mercedes after. What would Albert be obliged to do, with his mother marrying his father's destroyer? It would be too much like HAMLET. I see no other end for the plot except for the various parties to crawl away separately; there can be no -happy- ending to a revenge plot.
Albert mya no longer respect his father, but asking him to forgive and maybe even live with the man who caused it all does seem like a bit much.
Just finished reading it (a bit off time....). Loved it! I had seen many versions in the tv, but they do not reflect the story as told in the book; i was also under the impression that Albert was Edmond's son, because that's how they tell the story in the movies, maybe to justify Mercedes marriage to Fernand????? It makes no sense. The sory is....overwhelming. The way Edmond planned his revenge to the minor details, never leaving loose ends - he was really machiavellian sometimes - of course that it got out of hand - i guess that's why Danglars lived to tell....; anyway LOVED IT - thank you so much for this reading suggestion.
I agree with you guys. I don't like the idea of Albert being the Edmond's son. It's just wrong. I like how Dumas actually makes Albert a worthy gentleman, and how Monte Cristo likes him, albeit he is the son of Fernand. Brenda is right, it would be re-engineered Hamlet. I also like that Monte Cristo leaves Mercedes and moves on, trying to find new happiness with Haidee. It's like he rewrites the history of his life upon a new blank sheet of paper.
I don't think Edmond is trying to torture Mercedes by taking his revenge on Fernand. As he says in Chapter "The Nocturnal Interview", it is just like his revenge on Villefort and Danglars. He despises Mercedes, but he doesn't go that far to hurt her.
As for the point of the book, in my opinion, is not the revenge itself, but the effect of that revenge over Dantes aka Monte Cristo. He feels remorse, regret, instead of satisfaction. That's what makes it really sad, isn't it? Revenge hurts, it doesn't heal.
"Revenge hurts, it doesn't heal" That is a great summery.
I just finished this for my Catch Up Challenge. This was one of my favorites from this year's readings. The story is just epic. It's long, but never a drag. Alexander Dumas is a wonderful storyteller.
I just finished rereading this book for my 2017 Catch Up Challenge. I don't remember when I first read this novel, but it was around the late 90's. Definitely before the 2002 movie (which I enjoyed, even with how different it was from the book). Still, the book is so much better because there is so much more to Dantes's revenge.I found it interesting that Dantes was willing to fight Albert for the offense Albert believed Dantes committed, even if it meant killing the young man. It actually seemed part of his plan. But, then Mercedes came and begged for her son's life and Dantes began to understand that he wasn't just getting revenge on those who did him harm, but all those around them, who didn't have anything to do with his hurts. I don't think he truly cared before that point. Later, when Edward is killed, it really hit home how his revenge destroyed not just his enemies, but the innocent, as well. He wanted to help the innocent who were affected. Although he'd already tried to fix things for Maximilian and Valentine, he now tried also to help Mercedes and Albert. And, he ended up letting Danglers live. I'm not sure that was part of his original plan (IMO).
The ending was perfect. And, there was an important message. "Wait and hope." That was the message Dantes left the young couple, to wait and hope. A very good message. :)
Somebody mentioned something about history, I've heard that Alexandre Dumas was not known for historical accuracy, take for example The Three Musketeers. However, his book still entertains and explores the depth of humanity's heart and soul. And the slow, yet spectacular and brilliant turn of events is worth the reading.