The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Such is the quote chosen for the back of the new, stylishly attired Penguin edition of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, and it does sum it up quite perfectly. This edition is a thoroughly complete and unabridged version, in a new translation by Robin Buss, who also penned the introduction (worth a look) and notes. This weighs in at decent doorstop size, £8.99 (RRP) buying you entertainment for quite some time… three weeks, for myself entertaining ...
...a synopsis of one of the most popular and enduring stories ever told… Edmond Dantes is a young and promising French sailor, about to be promoted by his boss, ready to lift himself and his father out of a life of genteel poverty and preparing to marry his sweetheart, local Catalan beauty Mercedes. Before he has a chance to realise his dreams, the jealousy of those around him intervenes. The envious first mate of Dantes’ ship, M. Danglars, teams up ...

ruth_cole 02.09.2003 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

I first discovered the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas while reading the book sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra. The main character that narrated the story was nicknamed Shakes because he loved to read and he always carried a copy of the Count of Monte Cristo in his back pocket, wherever he went. When I finished sleepers I was hungry for fresh literature. I convinced my Dad to buy it for me off the net, using Amazon, and a few days later a ...
...house. Looking into the box I could only see the front cover, a dark blue book with a picture of the main character of the story, Edmund Dantes. The front cover was roughly 12cm wide and 20cm high. It wasn't until I picked it up that I realized how thick it was !!! The first thing I thought was, how the hell could Shakes in Sleepers carry a book this thick in his back pocket wherever he went? Wow he must've had a BIG back pocket! How could he sit ...

Mr_Jingles 15.08.2002 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Watch The Film or Read The Book? ========================= I came across this book by accident on a secondhand stall. I had already seen a couple of film versions and thought it would be good to read the original. I wasn't expecting the book to be so very much better than the films, but it was. There is so much more detail in the book, and the filmmakers had changed the plot as well. The Plot ======= I'm not telling you too much of the plot ...
...Basically it is set in the Mediterranean in the Napoleonic times, and the handsome hero Dantes returns after a long while at sea to marry his fiancee and is stitched up by his rival. He ends up in jail and then spends the rest of his life plotting and gaining revenge. The plot has many things - a love story, a tragedy, a thriller, with lovers, plotters, pirates, brigands, and overall the book has many lessons to teach us. Dantes was consumed with ...

Guppy123 02.09.2005 (05.09.2005) · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo is a really interesting story, where we can see how selfish and hypocrite people can be to have what they want even make other lives a complete misery... It's, what we can say as, the human nature... 1) *THE HUMAN NATURE: SELFISH, AMBICIOUS, HYPOCRITE The story begins in 1815, Edmond Dantes, a yound officer, cames back from a trip, in the Morrel's ship called Pharaon. Dntes had to take the place of the capitain Leclerc ...
...Dantes then, that brings back the Pharaon to the port of Marseille. Since his arrival, he's received by Morrel, the ownership who made him the promess to make him the captain of his ship. Dantés is completely happy, this way he will be able to help his old father financily and marry his beautiful fiancee, Mercedes. But this happiness makes other jealous... First, there is Danglars the accountant of the ship who is fighting for the post of the ...

sweet_baby 11.02.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

I bought the book for £1.50 at a local bookstore. The size of the book was quite daunting but I easily got into the thread of the story. The way the main character gets his revenge is genius and was quite fulfilling for me. Although sometimes Dumas gave boring descriptions of the weather it was quite interesting as it is set in a different time where swords still have power and only early versions of guns were used. I believe it is better than "The ...
...me. I could empathize with the main character Dantes and imagined myself getting my own revenge, Ha Ha! Especially as he becomes a rich count near the middle, which is one of many dreams that you have when you're young. Dumas also feeds the imagination of sea lovers as Dantes initially works on a ship. The setting of France also induced me as I was learning French at school. In the story Dantes is found with a treasonous letter from Napoleon Bonaparte. ...

mamalik37 21.07.2005 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

...to be one of the most gripping book ever written. From the first hundred pages where the leading character is jailed, his expereninces in jail, his rise to near G-d like power and influence, to his mastery of man, to his insight and intricate weaving of a greater plan against his instigators. This is a classic of classics, I wish there was a sequel. I guarantee you will be hard pressed to find a book with a better first few hundred pages. I admit ...
...but picks up again to the later half of the novel. The author Dumas actually wrote this type of novel just to make money! I can only imagine what he could of written out of love. The jail sequences are so good this book was impossible to put down. I lent it to my brother who was sceptical at first, but he admitted afterwards that this truly is a brilliant book. If you have some familiarity of French and Italian society in the 18th Century, it will ...

gideon 27.08.2000 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

...to keep you interested all the way. Is there a book who can maintain a good story for more than 500 pages? Well this is it. There's no single chapter (something very difficult to achieve) without an interesting theme on it. Edmond Dantes is one of the best developed characters I've ever read of. You'll end the book wanting to be like him. There are a lot of other characters, which may be difficult to follow sometimes, but necessary (and so well ...

Kirbyiwaki 18.09.2008 · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

...is not for you. On the other hand - any shorter book could not bring you to share in the despair of our innocent hero Edmond Dantes with his terrible downfall as a result of machiavellian plots which see him lose his sweetheart, father, and to his despair at being locked away indefinitely in a terrible dungeon with no hope of freedom. Edmond's secret meetings with the Abbe Faria see him gain more knowledge than any simple seaman, but the education ...
...purpose to his life. The death of his teacher brings him an opportunity for escape which leads him to an unimaginable fortune and riches which allows him to take the title of the book. How he then returns to his hometown (miraculously being unrecognisable - even to his fiancee) and uses the very weaknesses of the plotters who managed his downfall against them, and in turn destroys each of them. Although written so long ago, the story has not aged ...

wgborl 03.04.2004 (04.04.2004) · Read full review
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Review of The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas