“All human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!”

Live and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!”

- from The Count of Monte Cristo


Don’t pass me over here. I know what you’re thinking. “Oh brother, another ‘classic’. Get a life – I read this in English class in high school and I can’t remember a word of it and if I do it bored me stiff. No way will I read it for FUN.”

You didn’t read this book. You just read the cliffnotes.

How do I know? Because you would have remembered loving this book and buying a copy to put on your bookshelf for all eternity.

I can say honestly it’s one of the best classics I’ve read all year. In fact, it’s one of the best books of all types that I’ve read this year. I stayed up three nights in a row till midnight pouring over its pages.

I’m in a quandary here – I can’t stand it when people give a huge, blow-by-blow retelling of the story (not only is it agonizing, but it ruins the story if you read it for yourself); and yet I’m also annoyed when people assume you know exactly what they’re talking about. So I’ve decided to give a brief – yes, this will be brief – synopsis of the story; in fact, I’ll make it so that it could fit on the back of a book cover. (And no, I didn’t lift it from the book jacket!)

The Count of Monte Cristo is the riveting story of a sailor boy who had all his hopes before him – captain of his own ship, marriage to the girl of his dreams – when, an hour and a half before the wedding, his three arch enemies accuse him of being an agent of the Bonapartist faction. For fourteen years Edmond languishes in prison, until he makes his escape to the island of Monte Cristo, where he finds himself not a penniless sailor but a ludicrously rich Count. From then on his unrelenting goal in life is to reclaim his girl, Mercedes, and exact revenge on his enemies…until he discovers that his revenge affects the ones he loves more than the ones he hates!

I think what I enjoyed so much about this book were the rich, colorful characters that populated the story. It wasn’t necessarily the breakneck plot that was so memorable for me, although I liked the adventuresome style, and I think the story can compete with today’s video games for thrills. No, it wasn’t the plot that I loved so much. It was the deep, heartfelt emotion that I shared with the Count, with Maximilian, with Haydee. It was the speechless but eloquent grandfather Noirtier and his mutual devotion to young, innocent Valentine. It was Mercedes’ too-late contrition and Haydee’s open, trusting arms. It was the ageless, generationless range of feelings – love, anger, revenge – that drew me in and held me close.

Character development: 8/10. Many of the main characters have wonderfully developed personalities. The main character, Edmond Dantes/Count, is a well-drawn and colorful hero, a very romantic figure, especially as the Count. While Mercedes is good as the pretty, shallow love interest, we never really get to know her, and that is a pity, although as shallow as she is, there wouldn’t be much to get to know! Likewise, we never really know Morrel, Albert, and Franz, but that’s simply because there aren’t enough scenes with them. The villains, Danglars, Caderousse, and the ever-changing Fernand, are all delightfully evil; however, this proves to be one of the downfalls of this book. Characters are either really good or really bad; there’s no in-betweens. But in real life most people have more of a mixture of good and evil; some are mostly good with a tinge of bad; some are mostly bad with a tinge of good. In any case, Dumas’ portrayal of human nature is hardly true to life in this regard! I love many of the supporting characters

Story line: 10/10. If I’m in a bookstore and I can’t decide whether to buy a book based on a brief skimming of it, I usually decide based on whether the synopsis intrigues me or not. In this case, it thrilled me! A young almost-captain thrown in prison on his wedding day, never to see the light of day for fourteen years, and then suddenly thrust into society again as the absurdly rich Count – this is good stuff! While the pace sometimes seems to be unable to keep up with the events, all the little subplots and twists and turns in the story make it an excellent read.

Writing style: 9/10. In some of his other books, Dumas deserves a good 6 out of 10 for his wandering, pointless writing, but here it is pretty tight and tense, most of the time. The style is remarkably modern for being written in French in the 1800s – frank, lively, and contemporary. It’s fairly complex, but shouldn’t be hard to comprehend for people who enjoy books written a step above the hack novels published now. If “frank” and “tight” writing doesn’t particularly tempt you, no fear; Dumas still goes off on an occasional tangent of description or wandering dialogue in Monte Cristo. It’s just, thankfully, not as often as with his other books.

Entertainment: 9/10. Although the shoot-em-up crowd might be a bit bored by the pace, which is a little layed-back in comparison with modern novels, they and most other readers will like the rest of this book, with its exciting plot and magical storytelling. I think the reason I liked The Count of Monte Cristo as much as I did is because it appealed to a wider audience than other books by Dumas. It has romance, adventure, and characters you grow to love or hate. It also is quite a lot peppier than other books; not as far as plot goes, since The Three Musketeers has just as much intrigue, but as far as pace goes, it’s more brisk and the adventures come a lot quicker.

Message: 10/10. There are so many themes dealt with in The Count of Monte Cristo that I don’t know where to begin. How do I explain the so powerfully shown theme of revenge turning on the one seeking it? How do I convey the masterful triumph of good-over-evil presented here without sounding trite and overdone? How do I express the end message of love being stronger than hate? I wish I had more words to work with in this brain here, to tell you all about the compelling themes that run through this book…but as it is you will just have to read it yourself to experience it.

There are a few cons to this book but they’re all pretty minor; none of them keeps me from giving The Count of Monte Cristo less than five stars. I guess the biggest con is the time it takes to read the book. It’s all of 500 pages long! I know that most of us don’t have the time to sit down for hours and read, so count on spending at least a week with The Count. Another drawback is the huge cast; there are so many characters that you won’t be able to keep track of them all! The second time through, everything will fall into place, but the first reading is confusing (“who is this character again?”). I also have a suspicion lurking in the back of my mind that there will be someone reading this review who won’t care for this book simply because the “classic” writing style – deep, complex, challenging – isn’t for them. But this classic is a lot easier to read than others you may have read, and it uses a lot of modern phrases and usages so you will feel right at home.

“But wait!” you say. “I like books that don’t have cotton-candy dialogue and a plot about as thick as concentrate juice. I enjoy a challenge. I love finding more layers as I read, more depth and emotion the more times I read through it, more themes the further I go.” That’s what I find so incredible about The Count of Monte Cristo – it’s both encouraging to the lower reader, by being a fairly easy-to-read and –understand classic, and appealing to the upper reader, with its subthemes and rich undercurrents of emotion.

I enjoyed this book more than some of Dumas’ other works, from the combined quality of the various aspects. It’s such a great story, and told with Dumas’ masterful storytelling, delivers a powerful message and tone. I absolutely recommend it for those who love great books in the tradition of the true classics.