The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

This is a book I read recently as a Buddy Read with a book blogging friend, Tracey. It took me far too long to find the book. It wasn’t on my shelves, nor owned by anyone I asked. As she’s a slow reader and I’m a fast reader I didn’t worry about it too much, just encouraged her to start when she wanted. I was fairly sure I’d catch up. You know the old parable of the tortoise and the hare? Anyway, I finally took time out from everything in an effort to find the book, partly because I wanted to visit Syber’s Books. This was meant to be the last visit before they close forever, that was wrong, but I’m digressing. No, it wasn’t at Syber’s. It wasn’t at Helena’s either. Checking Benn’s Books website I found that they had zero copies of all the iterations of this book listed on their website. I then checked Dymock’s in Chadstone. I also rang them to be sure they had it in stock. Then I rolled on into their bookshop and bought the cheapest copy. 1,243 pages long, and that excludes any Introduction, Foreword, Notes or anything else. It is one of the longest books I’ve read. I finally finished it a couple of weeks after Tracey.

I feel I would not have finished it without Tracey’s gentle encouragement. The style of writing is rather old-fashioned, which is hardly surprising seeing it was written in the 1840s. Dumas was wordy and described things in detail. Two more unsurprising details considering he was being paid by the word. The Count of Monte Cristo was serialised between 1844 and 1846. There have been other books I’ve stopped reading because of too much attention to detail. The difference with this book is Tracey.

This is meant to be about the book, but you know how I ramble. Tracey writes a much more disciplined blog than I, and she notices things I haven’t. For instance:

During this time we’re given access to Dantès thoughts and feelings but after his escape, the reader is no longer privy to his plotting and planning to bring down his enemies. Regrettably we only see the effects of his master plan by joining a range of individual characters including the conspirators and those in their immediate orbit as events transpire.

I hadn’t noticed this change while reading, I must have been lost in the story. Parts of the story were enthralling, while other parts were slow and tedious. Do we really need such detail of his imprisonment in the Chateau D’If? And the answer there is yes and no. With such detail we get some idea of how long he was imprisoned and how that must have felt to him. But with such detail we might feel overwhelmed and stop reading.

I don’t know how much you know about the book. The short version is Edmond Dantès is sent to prison until his escape some years later. He leaves prison, finds the riches he’s been told about in prison and having become the richest man seeks revenge on those who put him there. It becomes revenge in the first order. Not just to kill the people who put him in prison, but to disable them financially and emotionally. I felt the revenge went quite a bit too far.

Things I liked about this book

It shows us some details about French society. Not society in general, but high society. We see that it is very important for etiquette to be followed correctly. I’ve just finished watching the 2002 version of the film The Count of Monte Cristo with Guy Pearce as the rival. Because of the limited time they had available there have been a number of shortcuts used which totally derail the etiquette shown to us in detail in the book.

I learned some new words. The only one I wrote down is ‘bituminous’. I looked it up just now and it means to be impregnated with bitumen. I find that absolutely fascinating. The word was first used in 1620, but in this case it seems to be meaning that the mud underneath the water can suck a person in and swallow him up.

It was incredibly interesting how much history we see in this. There was a reference to ‘the last Exhibition’. I’m assumed this was like the World Expo 88 I attended in Brisbane. It seems to be related as held a series of eleven French Industrial Expositions with the tenth being held in Paris in 1844. And when was Dumas writing this book? 1844-1846. So this reference on page 909 of my copy is very topical and up-to-date.

I feel I should say a couple of words about the translation. I didn’t check this publication with any other publication of this book. I’ve no idea whether it’s true to the original or no. But, the cadence of the text didn’t feel English, and titles and locations etc were given to us in the original language.

Do I recommend this book?

It depends on your reading style. If you have more patience with this style than me then absolutely. If you read historical fiction then absolutely, although you should bear in mind this wasn’t history when it was written it was totally modern and up-to-date. Do you want to say you’ve read a classic? Again, yes. If you fit into any other category I do urge you to find someone to read it at the same time as you. If you’re anything like me you’ll find it a challenge.