The Count of Monte Christo - Alexandre Dumas

Numbered rightly among the timeless classics of which almost everyone has heard, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ is revered as an adventure yarn par excellence. While others of his works may perhaps be even more famous, ‘The Three Musketeers’ in particular having benefited from numerous film interpretations, this is the work for which Dumas deserves to be remembered. It is a huge book, crammed with plots and sub-plots, replete with classical references, and strung together by the fantastic coincidence, unbelievable derring-do, and highly romantic styling that typified French literature at the time. ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, as ...  Read the complete review

Napoleon's exile to Elba and failed restoration forms the backdrop of Dumas' epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, ruin and revenge - a novel as important today as it was on initial publication. Chronicling the life of Edmund Dantes, a young man who seems to have it all - a beautiful fiancé, a promising career and well-respected - his life is suddenly turned upside down when he conspired against by those jealous of his success. Accused of treason, Dantes is arrested on the day of his wedding and sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Chateau D'If. Unable to understand the reasons for his incarceration Dantes spends years in solitary ...  Read the complete review

=====Before you start, this looks long===== =============================== Yes reader, this is quite a long review for a long book. That said, I won’t be giving away very much plot, or even details of what the players in this story actually do. I hate it when I read an op and it spoils loads of “good bits”. Herein lies a description designed only to capture the atmosphere, ethos and remarkable distinguishing attributes of The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. =====Dumas eh? Sounds foreign===== =========================== The Count of Monte Cristo (not Christo, as is written in the subject title) was written between 1844 and 1845, ...  Read the complete review

This story is an old legend of Parisian police archives that Dumas took and shaped into this stunning novel. Without spoiling the story, I must tell you a bit about the plot. We see our hero, Edmund Dantes, at the start of a promising young career. He is second in command of his merchant ship and will soon captain his own, he takes care of his elderly father and is engaged to be married to his childhood sweetheart. At the start of the novel we see him returning to the port of Marseilles after a long but successful voyage. He has planned to marry his sweetheart and preparations are made for the wedding. Unfortunately his happiness is not destined to be, because a ...  Read the complete review

This truly is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Ok, so it's long, but it remains totally fascinating throughout. It's a wonderful adventure story, which also looks at the workings of the human mind on a deeper level - what motivates us? How far are we prepared to sacrifice innocent people to acheive our own goals and desires? Can this ever be justified? It's a long, complex novel, but the basic plot is something like this: the hero, Edmund Dantes, is a naive young officer on a merchant ship, about to become a captain and on his way home to marry his childhood sweetheart, Mercedes. Everything in his life seems perfect - until, on the ...  Read the complete review