O, Edmond! Edmond!I love this book.
I was inspired to re-read it after spending a month in Corsica, where, on a clear day, you can see the island of Monte Cristo from the east coast beaches. When setting eyes on the outline of this large rock, it's not hard to imagine something mysterious associated with it. In fact, these days, you can take a boat near the island to fish, but if you get too close, military boats come along to shoo you off.
As a story, The Count of Monte Cristo has everything - everything! Deception! Intrigue! Romance! Ambition! Honor and vengeance, redemption and forgiveness. More than one character sinks to the depths of utter despair. All that's missing is a bit of swashbuckling, which might have appeared, except that the story took a different turn...
Towards the beginning, it would probably help to know just a little about the politics around the time of Napolean. You can get by on context, though I did find myself reading up on some Wikipedia entries.
As the story progresses, it does get a bit soap opera-y, as all the characters eventually come together, and everyone happens to know everyone else. But, all the connections do make for a great story, so I'm not complaining. If this is your first time reading the book, it might help to write down the characters in order to keep track of them.
At 1,462 pages, this book can be called a tome. But don't let that discourage you! It's just more of the story to enjoy. I usually can only get a few pages of reading in a day, and it honestly made me happy just to have this book to look forward to, for whenever I might find a spare five minutes to indulge myself.
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