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

by Alexandre Dumas père (Author), Robin Buss (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: Théâtre Français, deputy crown prosecutor, count muttered, Monte Cristo, Mme de Villefort, Mme Danglars (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss

About the Author
Alexandre Dumas (1824-95) was a pioneer of the Romantic theatre in France, for which he wrote a series of colourful historical dramas, although it is as a novelist that he is best known today. His works include The Three Musketeers (1844-5), La Reine Margot (1845). Robin Buss is a journalist and translator.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1312 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449264
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449266
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (144 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #795 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

183 of 187 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping tale of love and revenge, February 22, 2004

By	PurpleKat (Davis, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Warning: Do NOT pick this book up and start it if you have something that you need to do in the next day or three. You won't be able to put the book down, or if you do, you'll move zombielike through your everyday tasks while your mind stays with the adventures of Edmund Dantes.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a delicious book, full of intrigue, great fight scenes, love, passion, and witty social satire. Dumas has a wonderful grasp of human nature and a talent for rendering all the follies of man in delightful, snappy prose. I immediately recognized people that I know (yes, even myself) in his vivid characters, which made the book all the more engaging to me.

Some people might be put off by the size of the book -- it's a pretty hefty volume -- an tempted to buy the abridged version. Don't! I've heard from people who've read both versions that the abridged version is a pathetic, washed out shadow of the full novel. At any rate, as thick and impossibly long as The Count of Monte Cristo may seem when you open it for the first time, you'll feel as though it's far too short by the time you get to the last page.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars just perfect, November 2, 2003

By	D. Long "Mother of 5" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with the reviewers that this is one of the best books ever written. I read this book as part of a book club and probably never would have read it on my own--having read many of the books of Hugo and Dickens and other writers of that approximate era. I love both of these writers but find them both at times cumbersome and stilted and really wasn't in the mood for another. However, I could not put the Count of Monte Cristo down. This book seems freshly modern in writing style compared to these superb writers. From the beginning it is a page turner--almost Harry Potter like in its ability to have action, adventure and drama on almost every page. If you read the unabridged version you will find some allusions to morality and the wrongness of revenge which I enjoyed. But what makes the book great is the grandeur of the writing, the tightness of a wonderful plot, filled with subplots, the development of the characters, and the constant magic of combining romance and adventure. It is the ultimate romance book. If you watched the most recent version of the movie, you might be disappointed at the lack of sword fights, but there is never a lack of adventure and suspense. It might be 1400 pages long, but it never disappoints.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ROBIN BUSS's TRANSLATION from PENGUIN CLASSICS, August 28, 2007

By	J. Cooper (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is for those who've already decided they want to read The Count of Monte Cristo (you won't regret it!), and don't know which version to get.

Short answer: see review title, duh!

The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite book, and I've read several translations, both abridged and unabridged.

TRANSLATION
The Buss translation is the most modern, and reads most fluidly. A quick example comparing this translation with the one found on Project Gutenberg:

PG - His wife visited for him, and this was the received thing in the world, where the weighty and multifarious occupations of the magistrate were accepted as an excuse for what was really only calculated pride, a manifestation of professed superiority...

BUSS - His wife visited on his behalf; this was accepted in society, where it was attributed to the amount and gravity of the lawyer's business -- when it was, in reality, deliberate arrogance, an extreme example of aristocratic contempt...

Buss's work reads like the book was written in English. The two or so times that the work is nearly untranslatable (involving, say, an insinuated insult using the familiar "tu" instead of the formal "vous"), Buss makes a footnote about it. Other translations just skip the subtlety. The most common translation out there (uncredited in my version) reads like it's been translated from French to German to Chinese to English. Trust me, get Buss.

ABRIDGED V UNABRIDGED
Note: abridged versions of this book rarely say "abridged." You can tell by the size: abridged is 500-700 pages, unabridged is 1200-1400 pages. Go for the unabridged. I'm not saying that just because I love the book. The unabridged version is VERY confusing! The full text fills over 1200 pages, and pruning it to 600 leaves a lot of plot on the cutting room floor. Suddenly, arriving at dinner are 4 new characters; it's very tiring to try to keep up with the hole-ridden story of the abridged versions. And you know where the holes are? Publishers "clean up" the book by omitting the affairs, illegitimate children, homosexuality, infanticide, hashish trips, etc.

As an added bonus in the Penguin Classics edition, there's a wonderful appendix bursting with footnotes to explain all the 19th century references, and a quick guide to the rise and fall of Napoleon (crucial to the politics in the story).

Hope this helps. Get the book and start reading!