Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Genre: classic
Published: May 27, 2003 by Penguin Classics (originally publ. 1846)
Translator: Robin Buss
1276 pages
My rating: 5/5

Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo first appeared in serialized form in 1844 to 1846 and was published in book form in 1846. The main character Edmond Dantès, a nineteen-year-old sailor, is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned without a trial in the Château d’If, a fortress off the coast of Marseille. A fellow prisoner Abbé Faria deduces that the people responsible for Edmond’s imprisonment are his romantic rival, an envious crewmate, and an ambitious magistrate who is desperate to protect his career. When Faria is on his deathbed, he reveals the location of a secret treasure to Edmond. Edmond escapes the prison, finds the treasure, and enters the 1830’s Parisian society to avenge himself as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo.

This was a fun book! This review will have spoilers because the book is a classic—if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor and read it.

The only thing I knew about this book in advance was that there’s a prison break. For some reason I had thought it would take place much later in the book, so the beginning of the book felt really fast-paced, especially for a classic novel. However, after the prison break, the story slowed down. There’s a big time jump where the narrative skips a decade, and we come back to find Edmond as the Count of Monte Cristo.

I didn’t like the way the main character had inexplicably changed during the missing decade. We find him cold and uncaring to the point that he actually waits for a man’s tongue to be cut off before he buys him as a slave! Why he had changed so much wasn’t explained until briefly at the very end of the book. There were also several new characters that were introduced, and I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly supposed to care about Franz d’Epinay or the superlong narrative about the bandit Vampa. I still don’t really understand why so many pages were spent in the events that took place in Rome, as in the end, Franz wasn’t a major character in the story, and even though we meet Vampa several times, he didn’t deserve such a long backstory.

This was the point where my interest in the story wavered, but once the Count moved to Paris, things picked up again and it was interesting to see how the Count's long con against the three villains played out. The book became even funny at points, and I was surprised at how—dare I call it?—non-homophobic the depiction of the lesbian characters was. Yes, there was misogyny and sexism and talk about “women’s nature,” but Eugénie’s mother also said that God had created her daughter that way, and there was no “bury your gays” plotline. I’d like to think that Eugénie and Louise became successful artists and lived happily ever after.

The ending, on the other hand, felt rushed. The Count finally realizes that he has gone too far in his desire for revenge, but we don’t see much of how this realization affects him. I would have liked the story to dwell on it a bit longer. The questions of when does revenge go too far and can a human being assume the divine role of an avenging angel were fascinating. I don’t usually enjoy morally gray characters, but I can make an exception with the Count. The relationship between the Count and his ward Haydée was also resolved fast, and the age difference between them rubbed me the wrong way. He must have been at least twice her age.

Regardless, I loved the book and it’s definitely a classic worth reading! Five out of five stars.