Skip to main content

'The Count of Monte Cristo' has everything a novel needs to be exciting!

Poison, love, betrayal, and secrecy are just a few words to sum up "The Count of Monte Cristo." *Slight Spoilers

I watched the 2002 movie starring Jim Caviezel as Edmond Dantes and I absolutely fell in love with it. This reminded me that I had the unread book sitting on my shelf for years. Why had I gone on with my life without having read it?

This 1844 novel takes place during the Napoleonic era, a time when nearly everyone in society had secrets up their sleeves and nobody could be trusted. Edmond Dantes had it all: a kind heart, good looks, a beautiful fiancé named Mercedes, and a chance at becoming captain of the ship, The Pharaon, at just 20 years old. Unfortunately, his thriving life comes to a complete halt when he is falsely accused for treason and thrown into the Chateau d'If. After 14 years of imprisonment, he manages to escape and seeks out revenge on those responsible. 

Dumas succeeds at character development. This can be observed in the transition from Edmond Dantes to The Count of Monte Cristo.

From the time that he was Edmond Dantes, the protagonist is a man that only one could dream of! Dantes was successful, honest, loyal, and a good son. One of his negative traits, however, was that he lacked to see the bad in people. One can say that his gullibility most certainly did not help him during this time period! When Dantes developed into The Count of Monte Cristo, he most definitely changed, but was it for the better or for the worse?

He still carried with him that charismatic and caring quality, but being that he suffered so much and after realizing who caused his 14 years of imprisonment, he changes, and the readers begin to see this new identity, a dark side of the former Dantes. In the novel, there is a theme of the wicked being punished and the good being awarded. After TCOMC discovers the treasure, readers discover his trait of cleverness as he carries out his revenge plot. Throughout the novel, the changed man has all of his enemies wrapped around his fingers so well that it's almost like he's looking down upon pawns on a board game. Checkmate.

My opinion of one character in particular that shifted a bit is Villefort. Villefort has a scandalous secret and though he believes his past is buried, it will come back to haunt him. Readers will absolutely hate him at first, but will eventually see another side of him later on in the novel.

Set aside your judgement of how different the movie is from the book (Is that even possible for bibliophiles?)

Book lovers say that the movie industry ruins the story. Although I absolutely enjoyed the movie, I can attest this common phrase. The movie lacks so many, and I mean, So MaNy DETAILS! That is not to say, however, that the movie didn't capture the essence of the setting of the book. Long story short, if you loved the movie, read the book. If you read the book, still watch the movie, but don't let the fact that you read the book first affect your judgement of the movie. Despite the differences, I still love the film and recommend watching it.

If you dread books with a lot of characters, keep a character chart as a guide.

There are quite a lot of characters, but it's bearable. All of them are significant and connected, so be careful not to passively read them! Dumas succeeds at pointing out how flawed and sinful that society was during the Napoleonic era.

Here's the edition that I read!

Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. Bantam Books, 1981.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'The Neutral Ground: A Story About Sore Losers' SUNY College at Buffalo 'Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse Screening and Discussion Series' panel recap

The screening of "The Neutral Ground: A Story About Sore Losers," which took place last Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Burchfield Penney Art Center as part of the  Beyond Boundaries: Dare to Be Diverse Screening and Discussion Series , was followed by a discussion panel with Chief of Staff to President Katherine Conway-Turner and State University of New York College at Buffalo Chief Diversity Officer Crystal Rodriguez-Dabney; John Torrey, a professor who holds a doctorate in philosophy and Mikaila Morgan, an Africana studies major. Directed by CJ Hunt, a field producer for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, this first movie to launch the spring semester chronicles New Orleans’ fight over Confederate monuments and “America’s troubled romance with the Lost Cause.” “When we talk about racism and all these deeply embedded prejudices, they’re institutionalized, and when we talk about the way they’re in our institutions, it’s not just the statues,” said Ruth Goldman, an associate professo
Post a Comment
Read more

How to avoid family quarrels during the most wonderful time of the year: Thanksgiving

Ah, Thanksgiving: a time of cheer, laughs, good food and getting together with the family. But for some, it may be daunting to meet with certain members. After all, we’ve all heard of the in-law horror stories and watched the movies: “Monster-in-Law,” (2005) “Meet The Parents,” (2000) and “ Crazy Rich Asians" (2018). "Meet the Parents" (2000) Raffi Bilek, a Licensed Certified Social Worker – Clinical and the director of the Baltimore Therapy Center , shared his advice on how to avoid family tensions. “These days, I think politics is the hot topic. For the past couple of years, it’s gotten more and more polarized and political issues cause big arguments,” he said. According to a 2022 poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College , 19% of registered voters said that politics damaged relations with family members or friends.  With the recent release of the dates and locations of the 2024 presidential debates , it's likely to come about in conversation at le
Post a Comment
Read more

Women In Translation Month: The woman behind Jojo Adventure Books

photo credit: Cait Malilay Emily Shan is a New York City public school teacher, stay-at-home mom and author and creator of Jojo Adventure Books , a bilingual children’s board book series that’s written in Cantonese and English. Launched in September 2022, the series is based on real adventures, both big and small, of her daughter Jojo. “At the same time, I’m creating the resources for ourselves as well as families who want to be able to pass down that Cantonese language to the next generation and hopefully future generations beyond that,” Shan said.  What inspired her to launch this project is that while she was shopping for children's books, she noticed that a lot of them were more catered toward Mandarin-speaking families. Mandarin and Cantonese are tone languages. "Cantonese has six to nine tones, whereas Mandarin has four to five. You’ll see Cantonese written as traditional Chinese characters, whereas Mandarin will typically be written in simplified Chinese characters,&quo
Post a Comment
Read more