The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ Alexandre Dumas pere (Author), (Translator, Introduction) "On February 24, 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples..." (more)
Key Phrases: deputy crown prosecutor, count muttered, count exclaimed, Monte Cristo, Mme de Villefort, Mme Danglars (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Romantic novel by Alexandre Dumas pere, published in French as Le Comte de Monte-Cristo in 1844-45. The hero of the novel, Edmond Dantes, is a young sailor who is unjustly accused of aiding the exiled Napoleon. As punishment he is sentenced to life imprisonment in a French island fortress. After 14 years, Dantes makes a daring escape by taking the place of a dead companion; he is sewn into a burial shroud and thrown into the sea. Having learned from his dead prison mate of a vast treasure on the island of Monte-Cristo, Dantes eventually makes his way there to uncover and claim it. Adopting the persona of the Count of Monte Cristo, Dantes becomes a powerful, shadowy figure who eventually avenges himself on those who wronged him. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

`this has been called the greatest adventure story of all time, and with a great deal of justice` NIrish Times

'my best re-read of the year ... It's quite simply the best revenge story ever written' Books of the Year --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1136 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014044615X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140446159
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (386 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #769,591 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read the _full_ English translation, January 1, 2003

By	John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Silver Lake, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've reviewed this book before. I'm writing another review of it now so that it will appear on my list of reviews next to my review of the butchered 2002 screen adaptation of this epic work.

Alexandre Dumas's _The Count of Monte Cristo_ is one of the greatest novels of all time and in fact stands at the fountainhead of the entire stream of popular adventure-fiction. Dumas himself was one of the founders of the genre; every other such writer -- H. Rider Haggard, C.S. Forrester, Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, John Grisham -- is deeply in his debt.

The cold, brooding, vampiric Count (born Edmond Dantes; known also, among other aliases, as "Sinbad the Sailor," Lord Wilmore, and a representative of the firm of Thomson and French) is the literary forebear of every dark hero from Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Pimpernel to Zorro, Batman, the Green Hornet, and Darkman. And the intricate plot provides everything any reader could want: adventure, intrigue, romance, and (of course) the elegant machinations of the Count himself as he exacts his terrible revenge on those who have wronged him -- thereby serving, or so he believes, as an agent of divine justice and retribution. Brrrrrrrr.

The book is also a good deal _longer_ than many readers may be aware. Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the English translations have omitted everything in the novel that might offend the sensibilities of Victorian readers -- including, for example, all the sex and drugs.

That's why I strongly recommend that anyone interested in this novel read Robin Buss's full-text translation. Unlike, say, Ayn Rand (whose cardboard hero "John Galt" also owes his few interesting aspects to Monsieur le Comte), Dumas was entirely capable of holding a reader's undivided attention for over a thousand pages; Buss's translation finally does his work justice, restoring all the bits omitted from the Bowdlerized versions.

The heart of the plot, as most readers will already know, is that young sailor Edmond Dantes, just as his life starts to come together, is wrongfully imprisoned for fourteen years in the dungeons of the Chateau d'If as the victim of a monstrously evil plot to frame him as a Bonapartist. While in prison he makes the acquaintance of one Abbe Faria, who serves as his mentor and teaches him the ways of the world (science, philosophy, languages and literature, and so forth), and also makes him a gift of a fabulous treasure straight out of the _Thousand and One Nights_. How Dantes gets out of prison, and what he does after that -- well, that's the story, of course. So that's all I'm going to tell you.

However, I'll also tell you that the 2002 screen adaptation doesn't even begin to do it justice. The plot is so far "adapted" as to be unrecognizable, except in its broad outlines and the names of (some of) the characters. Pretty much everything that makes Dumas's novel so darkly fascinating has been sucked out of it. It's not a bad movie on its own terms, but if you're expecting an adaptation of this novel, you'll be disappointed. And if you've already seen it, don't base your judgment of the novel on it.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my two favorites, December 16, 1999

By	P. Matthew Wesley (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Count of Monte Cristo (Hardcover)

I first read the Bantam abridged Monte Cristo when I was 13 years old. Then, the next year, I saw the unabridged version and immediately bought a copy. Monte Cristo is an absolutely wonderful and wonderfully written masterpiece that tells the story of a young man that could be any of several people that you and I know. It is a story of injustice, despair, remorse, cruelty, misfortune, and evil. However, at the same time, the book manages to show that in the seemingly rotten world we live in there is hope, charity, love, honor, and purity as well. Edmond is one of the greatest dynamic characters of all time, innocently sent to face punishment that he in no way deserves. While enduring this unjust punishment, he meets a man and they become friends. Edmond learns from this man that everyone acts according to their own standards, and that everyone will eventually receive reward for the actions or crimes that they have committed, whether that reward be payment for honest living or pain in reparation for hardships forced upon others. Edmond then becomes that reparation, rewarding those that were his true friends, and exacting revenge upon those that caused him pain. A wonderful story, with excellent characters and an intricate plot. I would recommend this book for anyone that wants to laugh, cry, and triumph with a single character and his struggles. As the title states, this is one of my favorite books of all time, the only other that really compares with it is Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

70 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unabridgement Is Well Worth The Time !!!, May 30, 2001

By	"kentuckyreader" (Louisville, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Count of Monte Cristo (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

This is more of a note to compare the Oxford unabridged version to abridged versions of this story.

Previously, I read an abridgement of The Count of Monte Cristo and enjoyed it thoroughly. The story is a classic Man-Done-Wrong-Wreaks-Revenge tale.

Eventually, I decided to read the unabridged version, even though it is over 1,000 pages, and I'm exceedingly glad that I did!

There is an incredible amount of tension in this book, which miraculously enough is retained throughout the entire work. In the unabridged version, the reader is inserted into the story in a "you are there" sense, moment by moment, which is, in my opinion, the thing that retains this tension.

Not to disparage the abridgement, but - in shortening the story - the reader is sometimes not a participant in the storyline, but merely hears about the events in an off-hand summary. As a result of this, part of the soul of the book is removed.

That is a shame - especially with this work - because you are partly robbed of the emotional reward of following Edmond Dantes' journal from hell along his complicated strategy to struggle toward heaven ... which is a long journey from Marseilles!

You should set aside the time to read the unabridged version of this work! You will not feel the time a useless sacrifice!