The Count of Monte-Cristo: Volume 1

· Chapman and Hall
4.4
668 reviews
Ebook
636
Pages

About this ebook

The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by French author Alexandre Dumas completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815-1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins just before the Hundred Days period (when Napoleon returned to power after his exile). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centres around a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about getting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. However, his plans have devastating consequences for the innocent as well as the guilty. In addition, it is a story that involves romance, loyalty, betrayal, and selfishness, shown throughout the story as characters slowly reveal their true inner nature.The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Luc Sante, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, Noah's flood, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Ratings and reviews

4.4
668 reviews
A Google user
I give the The Count of Monte Cristo five stars. . Dumas’ detailed descriptions give us an insight into the very mind of his characters. The complexities of social life in this time period make this a read that one can hardly set aside. While the main character, Edmund Dantes, is p sensible he nevertheless becomes one of Dumas’ most round characters. Alarmingly simple as the plot seems to be, one of love and revenge, it seems to be wrought from something impregnated into our very souls. An idea that lost love, Mercedes in the case of Edmund, could be recouped, and that those two volatile emotions, love and revenge, are precisely what keep us attached to this suffered protagonist all throughout the novel. J. Gaius Heyden
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A Google user
The Count of Monte Cristo by French writer Alexandre Dumas is an enthralling story about how hardship can change a man for the better. The main character, a sailor named Edmond Dantes who lives in a little fishing village not far from France, is engaged to marry a local Catalanian girl, when tragedy strikes. He is accused of being a Bonapartist, one of the most notorious groups of the time, by two people who have much cause to hate him. Fernand, a local, who is in love with the same girl who Edmond is engaged to, furious because he can’t have her, and Danglars, who works on the same ship as Edmond and is mad at him being promoted to captain, write a letter ‘denouncing’ Edmond as a Bonapartist. As a result of this, Edmond is put into a dungeon on a little island where he stays for 15 years. In this dungeon, while trying to escape, he meets the prisoner from the cell next to his who he soon befriends and is taught by. Just before Edmond’s friend dies, he tells Edmond a secret: that there are a lot of jewels and other riches hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo. Edmond, after escaping from his cell, finds these riches and sets off, now calling himself the ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ and rich beyond all measure, to get his revenge on the people who caused him to be punished unjustly. Much has changed in the 15 years that he has been in prison. This fabulous novel tells not only of how Edmond Dantes gets his revenge, but also from the other side, from the point of view of the people who he is getting his revenge on, showing their pain and suffering. The way in which he does this is intensely fascinating. The Count of Monte Cristo is an extremely well written novel, possibly one of the greatest stories ever written. I think it is a book that everyone should read; it will be enjoyed by everyone who lays their hands on it. It catches and holds the reader until the very end, keeping him in suspense. It truly is a wonderful story and is not too hard to read at all, although the language can be hard to understand at times. The way that the author makes the whole story tie in to the theme is really interesting. Sometimes it seems that Dumas is straying off course, but I really liked it how in the end it all came together to give you the complete story. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and fervently recommend it to everyone. It should be a book that everyone should read.
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Melissa C.
March 18, 2018
I am loving The Count of Monte-Cristo! What a great read! This version is broken into two volumes. This is volume one and does not include the entire book, so make sure to get the second volume to finish the story. There are several typos. Usually you can still understand the words they should be, but still distracting to the flow of the story.
1 person found this review helpful
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About the author

After an idle youth, Alexandre Dumas went to Paris and spent some years writing. A volume of short stories and some farces were his only productions until 1927, when his play Henri III (1829) became a success and made him famous. It was as a storyteller rather than a playwright, however, that Dumas gained enduring success. Perhaps the most broadly popular of French romantic novelists, Dumas published some 1,200 volumes during his lifetime. These were not all written by him, however, but were the works of a body of collaborators known as "Dumas & Co." Some of his best works were plagiarized. For example, The Three Musketeers (1844) was taken from the Memoirs of Artagnan by an eighteenth-century writer, and The Count of Monte Cristo (1845) from Penchet's A Diamond and a Vengeance. At the end of his life, drained of money and sapped by his work, Dumas left Paris and went to live at his son's villa, where he remained until his death.

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