2021 RE-REEDIT: Well I tried. It ultimately lost me on the political and royalist talk. It isn't as excruciatingly dull, excessive and filler-y as it is in 'War and Peace', but still. Maybe it is no longer for me. Or maybe I just don't know how to read classics anymore. Maybe I don't know how to read anymore.
However, I will retain my four star rating, mainly because of nostalgia, and I do appreciate it for the classic that it is, that everyone should read at least once.
Farewell, 'The Count of Monte Cristo', a block-sized Penguin Classics book from my youth.
2021 REEDIT: Actually, no. I will not abandon 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. I have too many fond booklover memories of it. I will reread it, give it a proper chance, someday. I owe my younger, fresher, more innocent self that much.
2021 EDIT: In the need to cull some books from my shelf, I feel I must now be rid of 'The Count of Monte Cristo', sadly. My decision is based on which books I know I could never reread, and this once top favourite from when I was very young, patient, inexperienced and impressionable is over 1200 pages long. I've narrowed my tastes somewhat and have become more critical since then. But I will treasure those fresh, innocent days - days like summer break - always. Oh, has it really been over ten years since I read 'The Count of Monte Cristo'? There's not a lot of it I remember; like all the hundreds of characters. And thousands and thousands of dialogue exchanges. It looks like it can be engaging if you have the time for it. It's a good, long classic.
Farewell, count.
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
A short review for a book so thick with human suffering, pain, love, madness, memorable characters, dramatic twists and turns, and travels to all walks of life? A review which cannot even begin to describe this masterpiece which, in less capable hands, could easily have been just a long-winded revenge tale with little substance and not enough imaginative story threads to carry its abundance of themes, with clarity?
Okay.
There is a lot to learn from 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. A lot to take from it. I read it in a week and a half and what a week and a half it's been.
It is an epic that is at once a tragedy and a story about never giving up hope. I got teary-eyed near the end and, to use a cliched expression, I was gripped to the edge of my seat throughout.
It is the longest book I've ever read, and one of the best. It could change lives for the better, it is that great.
Highly recommended.
Final Score: 5/5
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