Product Description

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great literary adventures, indeed William Thackeray was so enthralled he began reading `at six one morning and never stopped till eleven at night'. The hero is Edmond Dantés, a young sailor who, falsely accused of treason, is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of Château d'If. After staging a dramatic escape he sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo and catch up with his enemies. A novel of enormous tension and excitement, Monte Cristo is also a tale of obsession and revenge, with Dantés, believing himself to be an `Angel of Providence', pursuing his vengeance to the bitter end before realizing that he himself is a victim of fate. This new edition uses the classic, anonymous translation that has been in print since the nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1602 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 928 pages

Customer Reviews

Make sure you have a lot of time on your hands for this one!
Apparently the book was originally serialised and it shows - it does have the feeling that it goes on a bit too long. It also tends towards the depressing. Otherwise, a very good read (Kept me busy for a couple of days on holiday)

Absolutely blown away by this book!
When our Book Club chose CoMC, I sighed inside thinking oh no not another achingly dull 'classic'.

How wrong was I - I can't put the thing down and am busy devouring it at every opportunity! It's got a bit of everything - double crossing dirty dealers, treasure hunting, starcrossed lovers, wrongful imprisonment - any one of these would make a fantastic film plot by itself but here you have them all in one book. It is in reasonably straightforward language which means you don't have to think 'too hard' whilst you're reading it, so you can relax and enjoy it.

I would agree that some of the chapters don't immediately seem to bear any relevance to the tale - but then as you read on you see that actually Dumas is busy setting the scene so all of a sudden you'll get an 'aahhh NOW it makes sense' moment!

Thoroughly enjoyable, unputdownable - this is the only book you'll need on holiday this year!

One of the greatest literary works
An entralling book of magnificent scale. The way dumas ties the many different links of the story togther is genius. I didn't find one moment of this story boring. It is a long novel and, as such, it is something of a commitment, but it is well worth it. A story that is primarly about the morality of vengeance, I wished at times that I could be transported back to france under the bonapartist revolution. I strongly recommend the penguin unabridge version.