E. L. James: The Count of Monte Cristo (EBook, 2004, NuVision Publications)
eBook
English language
Published Oct. 9, 2004 by NuVision Publications.
Edmond Dantes, a sailor, returns home to Marseilles with the cargo he was assigned to retrieve and news of the death of that ship's captain. After making his report to the boss of the shipping company he is promoted to captain because of his loyalty and perserverance and joins his fiance to plan their wedding. On his wedding day he is arrested and falsely accused as a traitorous Napoleonic conspirator and sent to the Isle Chateau D'If where he is to remain imprisoned for the rest of his life and suffer unrelenting torture. In this prison after seven years and almost giving up hope, he meets Abbe Faria who is also sentenced to be incarcerated on the Isle forever. Faria is quite old but is digging a tunnel to the sea where he plans to escape. The Abbe sees that Dantes' depression is the real prison, not the lack of …
Edmond Dantes, a sailor, returns home to Marseilles with the cargo he was assigned to retrieve and news of the death of that ship's captain. After making his report to the boss of the shipping company he is promoted to captain because of his loyalty and perserverance and joins his fiance to plan their wedding. On his wedding day he is arrested and falsely accused as a traitorous Napoleonic conspirator and sent to the Isle Chateau D'If where he is to remain imprisoned for the rest of his life and suffer unrelenting torture. In this prison after seven years and almost giving up hope, he meets Abbe Faria who is also sentenced to be incarcerated on the Isle forever. Faria is quite old but is digging a tunnel to the sea where he plans to escape. The Abbe sees that Dantes' depression is the real prison, not the lack of nourishing food and strengthening activity, so Faria begins to teach Dantes languages, politics, law, mathematics, science, and fencing. Faria becomes a father figure to Dantes. But after 14 years the Abbe has a terrible accident while tunnelling and will soon die because of it. He tells Dantes how to escape and gives him the location of a great treasure. Dantes slips through the guards' fingers, finds the treasure which makes him as rich as a country, and calls himself The Count of Monte Cristo to conceal his true identity. But Dantes has spent his 14 years in prison devising the ruination of those "friends" who abandoned him to devastation. He believes that happiness must be fed by great suffering, therefore he constructs a Godlike deportment to win the trust and confidence of the long-lost acquaintances so that his revenge will be complete and their downfall will be downright termination. When the last target is felled, The Count of Monte Cristo goes away quickly and leaves this message: "Wait and hope."Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
I went into this thinking it would be a hard slog. But things just do not stop happening the whole way through.
This book comes from an era where authors existed who could write intrigue correctly. Alexandre Dumas was one of these authors, and this fact is in full force in the Count of Monte Cristo. Everything is connected to the story, to character development, and even the plotting of that unhappy prisoner of the Chateau d'If.
Because of this, it is important to get an unabridged version of this classic. If you, as the reader, thought at any point, 'well, that was superfluous', you are wrong. If, at any time you said to yourself, 'well, this clearly was from a time where the author was paid for the word, not like today, guffaw' and then crack open the 12 volume in the current popular fantasy epic, you have no sense of irony. Understanding that Dumas doesn't waste a word and includes plenty of irony is essential. Edmond Dantes, though acting as …
This book comes from an era where authors existed who could write intrigue correctly. Alexandre Dumas was one of these authors, and this fact is in full force in the Count of Monte Cristo. Everything is connected to the story, to character development, and even the plotting of that unhappy prisoner of the Chateau d'If.
Because of this, it is important to get an unabridged version of this classic. If you, as the reader, thought at any point, 'well, that was superfluous', you are wrong. If, at any time you said to yourself, 'well, this clearly was from a time where the author was paid for the word, not like today, guffaw' and then crack open the 12 volume in the current popular fantasy epic, you have no sense of irony. Understanding that Dumas doesn't waste a word and includes plenty of irony is essential. Edmond Dantes, though acting as the avenging of angel of God, does not ultimately gain satisfaction in his vengeance. He carries it out because he believes he is delivering divine justice. Of course, things go wrong, and innocent people get hurt, people the Count is ultimately unable to save. In a sense, The Count of Monte Cristo can be viewed as a morality tale of what happens when you reject/betray God. Dumas seems to be saying that he does return, and will offer mercy to those who will accept it after he leaves them destitute... but if one does not depart from their wicked ways, they will only be used as tools to satisfy the thirst of righteous fury.
Or it can be read as a great adventure story about revenge, if you want to take everything so literally.
