The Count of Monte Cristo book review

The Count of Monte Cristo, the classic, bestselling novel written by Alexandre Dumas, is a long, epic story of personal transformation and revenge. However, this story is also about doing good things for other people, all while remaining anonymous. I confess that I won’t be able to stop gushing about how good this book is. But, before we move on, let’s get into The Count of Monte Cristo book review, and see if there are any flaws.

Edmond Dantès, a good-looking, hard-working, and talented young man, is about to get married to a desirable young woman in town. Because of her good looks, she garners the attention of lots of other young men. However, she is devoted to Edmond, and will marry him soon.

Unfortunately, fate and jealousy intervened with the goal to take Edmond out of the picture. The jealous suitor frames Edmond for a crime, and gets him arrested. The poor, unfortunate fellow, who had such bright prospects for his life, gets thrown in jail, and forgotten about.

But, that’s where this story of love, revenge, and also good deeds, gets even more interesting and engaging. Because, Edmond begins a transformation. While in jail, Edmond goes from being a young, innocent boy, and morphs into a mysterious, reclusive, and wealthy man of business.

How does that almost magical transformation happen? How does Edmond go from an almost naive young man into a reclusive philanthropist and banker?

Fortunately, I won’t share those secrets. But, I will confide that as I was reading The Count of Monte Cristo, I felt that Edmond had made himself into a dark-type of Batman character. His transformation was remarkable, and believable, too!

And, the believability of this story is what made it even more remarkable.

After Edmond’s transformation into ‘dark Batman’, he plots his revenge on the people who set him up for a crime he did not commit. And ironically, he anonymously helps out some people who were good to him when he was young.

A down-on-his-luck character in this story might wonder, ‘Who was that guy who helped me get out of my financial woes?’ That was the Count of Monte Cristo, that’s who. Just like Batman. Wow, what a story!

The prolific French author, Alexandre Dumas, wrote the epic tale of The Count of Monte Cristo. My unabridged version has 1,241 pages of compelling plot twists, intriguing characters, and riveting psychological interplays.

At times, the storyline did become almost overwhelming with detail. Despite the imposing length, I recommend that you read the unabridged version to receive the author’s desired psychological and emotional impacts from this epic fairy tale.

The author of The Count of Monte Cristo was the renowned Alexandre Dumas. He was born in 1802 in a small town just outside of Paris, France. By the time he was only 22, the enterprising, biracial young man had moved to the city of Paris and quickly became a successful writer of plays for the theater.

Later in life, the author was writing multi-part, serialized stories for newspapers and magazines. These multi-part stories were published monthly, weekly, or even daily.

Dumas published The Count of Monte Cristo in 1844, after having first published it as a serialized story in a daily French newspaper.

To keep readers interested, and compel them to buy the next magazine or newspaper, Dumas wrote dramatic, punchy plot twists and cliffhangers. In fact, I think of Alexandre Dumas as being the king of cliffhangers!

Dumas’s style of creating melodramatic, spine-tingling plot twists and cliffhangers is apparent in The Count of Monte Cristo. In fact, this novel was like a magic carpet ride with fantastical, but believable, characters and plot twists. It was wild!

While I promised not to reveal too much of this epic tale, I will say that some of the cliffhangers were breathtaking, hanging-by-the-edge-of-a-cliff, heart-wrenching moments. They were literal cliffhangers!

This is a French film-adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. I haven’t seen this movie, but the trailer makes it look excellent.

The creative and prolific author of The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas, wrote many other novels and plays. However, The Count of Monte Cristo was my favorite, by far.

In addition, he wrote a few novels about The Three Musketeers. For me, I was a little let-down while reading The Three Musketeers series. The first book in the series was the best, but it was not as good as The Count of Monte Cristo.

My second favorite novel by Dumas was The Man in the Iron Mask. Like all of his novels, The Man in the Iron Mask had lots of treachery, jealousy, and revenge to keep the reader engaged.

FINAL VERDICT

Alexandre Dumas, who I refer to as the cliffhanger king, wrote the engaging novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, in 1844. It was first serialized, and then published as a book that became a commercial success. In fact, it made Dumas wealthy.

The plot centered around a good young man with a pretty girlfriend. Together, they would have had a lovely life. But, a jealous admirer framed the young man for a crime he never committed.

He was locked up, and forgotten about. But, this young man transformed himself, and devoted the rest of his life to getting revenge. Along the way, he also helped people who had helped him, but he did it anonymously.

This book is a magic carpet ride of cliffhanging adventures, psychological intrigues, and emotional upheavals. The protagonist lost everything, and obsessively fought to get it back. Did he succeed, or did his obsessions finally doom him?

You’ll have to read The Count of Monte Cristo to find out, and I recommend you do read it. I think you’ll love it just as much as I did. Get the unabridged version so you don’t miss any of Dumas’s intricate details.

There was also an English-language, 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. Here’s an interesting discussion, with movie excerpts.

I loved The Count of Monte Cristo, and I believe you will, too! If you’ve already read this surprisingly good book, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Content and photos by Doug Martin and Our Book Banter.