The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
By Alexandre Dumas
Translated by Anonymous
Published by The Modern Library Classics (2002)
It's February 24, 1815 and Edmund Dantes is having the best aura farming of his life! He's a 20 year old sailor, tall, dark, and handsome and he's just been promoted to Captain of his boss's merchant ship after taking over for the former captain after he died on its last voyage. He's also on the cusp of marrying the woman he loves, the beautiful and vivacious Mercedes. With his new rank, Dantes will have plenty of money to take care of his wife and his aged father. Could things get any better?
PSYCH!
First of all, Danglars, his shipmate, is pissed because their boss, Mr. Morrel, passed him over by appointing Edmund as captain and so he wants revenge. The second person that wants to poop on Edmund's parade of happiness is a dude named Fernand. He is Mercedes's cousin but is also in love with love with her as well (Let's get Ozark!). He even ponders outright MURDERING Edmund! Together with Danglars, they come up with a plan that will take down Edmund without incriminating themselves as the snitches.
The evil plan all hinges on a stop that Edmund's ship made on its way home to France. It just happened to stop at the island of Elba where Napoleon was in exile. A letter was given to the now deceased captain by Napoleon to his supporters in Paris. Edmund promised his captain on his deathbed that he would deliver the letter. You have to remember that after the dictator's first defeat, King Louis XVIII was reigning and anyone that still supported Napoleon openly could be arrested or worse.
Danglars and Fernand send an anonymous letter to Villefort, one of the king's ace prosecutors who goes extra hard on Bonapartists because his dad was one of Napoleon's supporters. So he has to prosecute them with extreme zeal so he himself will not be suspected of harboring anti-royalist sympathies.
When Dantes falls into his hands with the incriminating letter, Villefort realizes he is an innocent man with no designs on overthrowing the government but after he finds out that the letter was addressed to his own father, he makes the decision to throw Edmund the infamous Chateau d'If prison and throw away the key.
While in prison, Dantes finds out about the location of a secret treasure that could make him wealthy beyond all imagining. He vows that if he ever escapes his cell, he will use that treasure to take revenge on those who unjustly took away his freedom. And he doesn't want to just kill them. That would be too easy. He wants to make them SUFFER.
I have to admit, this book has been sitting on my shelf for 24 years. I bought it after seeing the old 2002 movie version of The Count of Monte with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce. I think I started it back then but just put it down for some reason early on and never picked it back up. It is a LONG book. Like 1400 pages long, but in the end it was worth it.
One of the things I liked about the book was that it was inspirational. You are talking about a main character who loses EVERYTHING and somehow finds a way to survive. He could have very easily just given up in prison and killed himself. In fact, he is on the point of doing that before he meets a fellow prisoner that gives him hope, the learned Abbe Faria. Who not only tells him about a hidden treasure, but also gives him an education. It just goes to show that even when things look their gloomiest, if you have a true friend, you can get through anything.
That brings me to a bigger theme: the humanity of this novel. It is Shakespearean in its breadth of showing the human soul in all its beauty and also all its horrors. Edmund, once he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo can show the utmost cruelty and manipulation to his enemies and yet show love and generosity to those who are good to him. At some point he even allows all those who wronged him a chance to repent and atone. He gives all his enemies chances to show goodness and that they have turned over a new leaf.
The Count reminded me so much of Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels because he is GOOD in the foreground of the plot, but behind the scenes he is working so many EVILS against his enemies. Smiling all the while but being a villain. And the fact in how long he takes to enact his revenge. In other ways he reminded me a little of James Bond, always staying cool and never panicking no matter how convoluted and trying the situations he finds himself in.
I love epic novels like this with a broad ensemble of characters. The trick is that if you have a lot of characters, you have to make them memorable so you don't get them mixed up. Dumas succeeds in doing this but I would recommend taking a few notes so you remember how everyone is related.
Like I mentioned before, this is a very long book, but I never got bored. Towards the end I got more and more excited because I was wondering if Dumas would have a good ending or it was just going to be crap. I was not disappointed. It reminded me of how small minded writers of our day have become. They don't know how to write a beginning, middle, and end.
I would highly recommend this book and it makes me want to watch any tv and movie versions I can get my hands on. I will say the recent PBS version was not something that impressed me after two episodes but I am going to give it another shot.
Also, this is an anonymous translation which I thought was a little weird but it seemed fine to me. I know there is a newer translation published by Penguin Classics.
My Grade: A+
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