The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas, 1844 Read: 10/28/21

I am going to preface this by saying I have seen one of the movies made from this novel, before I read it. So I knew the basic story.

This is an extremely long novel because it covers a few decades of time. It is very well written, although at the time novelists felt the need to describe every single item and scene with as much detail as humanly possible. Therefore, a few areas dragged a bit.

Also, as was common in adventure novels of the time, there are multiple "deus ex machina" moments where you're just like...come on, really??

That all said, I enjoyed this very much. It was suspenseful and emotional and by the time you're done, you feel like you've been down in the pit with Dantes yourself. His very human longing to get revenge on those who hurt him is understandable and you find yourself rooting for him to destroy other people's lives despite yourself. The book is much better than the movie.

Rereadability: Yes

Time to Read: 25 days

Classic: Absolutely