Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

THINGS I LOVED

• Alexander Dumas is a brilliant writer, and therefore his main character is such--this is a great story of vengeance and redemption.
• The characters were very intertwined--a component in the brilliance and vengeance mentioned above.
• The novel was long enough so that I was very attached to the characters by the end. That's my favorite kind of novel.

THINGS THAT BUGGED ME

• You could tell that it was abridged. Written in that time period and in France, the prose was just too simple (not that I'm completely serious in complaining about the simplicity because after all, that's probably the only way I got through it) and in some places it was just plain obvious that it was abridged. If only I knew French.
• Every woman except one was weak, weak, weak. I'm not even an absolute Feminist and it bugged me that the women were always fainting and screeching and wow, that just got annoying. Thank goodness for the feminist movement otherwise we'd be reading current books with women just like that. YUCK!
• SPOILER ALERT! If you think you'll read this book don't read this bullet point! Dumas depicted very deep love between Mercedes and Edmond and simply hinted that Haydee and the Count shared that same kind of love so when he sailed off into the sunset with Haydee it really bothered me; it didn't seem like a happy ending for the Count after all.

THE ENGLISH TEACHER IN ME

• There were parts where I would be reading along and then thinking "I think this is going to happen next--oh, I just made an inference--if I were to teach this novel, I'd ask this question after we read this portion of the novel so that the kids would make an inference there, too." Maybe that part of my brain will never shut off.

A GREAT POINT

"The Count went outside and saw the horses he had admired. . . three hours earlier. They're really handsome horses, he said. You were right to buy them, although you were a little late.

I had great difficulty getting them, sir, said Bertuccio, and I had to pay a very high price for them.

Are they any less handsome because of that? asked the count, shrugging his shoulders."

• I loved this quote! Something that is lovely isn't more or less lovely because of the time it took to obtain it or it's price or any other factor involved. It's just something great.