Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Series: Word Cloud Classics
Rating Out of 5: 2 (Managed to read it… just)
My Bookshelves: Classics
Dates read: 3rd – 16th January 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Novel
Publisher: Word Cloud Classics
Year: 1844
5th sentence, 74th page: “Yes, Noirtier.”

“Alexandre Dumas’s novel of justice, retribution, and self-discovery – one of the most enduringly popular adventure tales ever written – appears here in a newly revised translation.” “This novel tells the story of Edmond Dantes, wrongfully imprisoned for life in the supposedly impregnable sea fortress the Chateau d’If. After a daring escape, and after unearthing a hidden treasure revealed to him by a fellow prisoner, he devotes the rest of his life to tracking down and punishing the enemies who wronged him.” “This newly edited version of the original nineteenth-century English translation speeds the narrative flow while retaining all the essential details of Dumas’s intricately plotted and thrilling masterpiece.” The classic nineteenth-century translation has been revised and updated by Peter Washington, with an introduction by novelist Umberto Eco.

Sent to prison on a false accusation in 1815, Edmond Dantes escapes many years later and finds a treasure which he uses to exact his revenge.

I seriously struggled with this classic. Normally I love the different ways in which language is used through time. Even when the version I have has been translated from another language… but there was just something about The Count of Monte Cristo that I just couldn’t get behind. I’m definitely going to give it another try in the future. Just at this point in my life… it was a big nope not into it for me.

I did give this a really good shot for the first 150 pages… and then from henceforth I just skimmed it. As I said, there was just something about it that didn’t capture my attention. It was just an incredibly slow journey…

I can understand why this is a classic though. It is full of great symbolism and storylines. Full of themes which are impossible to forget. I’m looking forward to rereading this again when I’m kind of old and slow… it’ll probably be more the type of story I want when I start to slow down too. Or at least, that’s the theory.

<- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Three Musketeers ->

Image source: Amazon