September 1, 2009
Recent Reading: The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I admit it. As a grown and married woman in the mid-90s, I was addicted to Wishbone. That cute little Jack Russell terrier introduced me to a lot of classic literature I'd never read, as well as cutened (is too a word) a lot of works I was already familiar with. So when my book club chose to read The Count of Monte Cristo as last month's selection, I already had a passing knowledge of this revenge fiction and very little desire to actually take the time to read it.
Then I was reminded by Toni that it is one of her all-time favorite books (don't get too excited--she has a lot of all-time favorite books). And then Keith devoured the book like he doesn't usually do for non-science fiction reading. And Danielle mentioned how much she was enjoying it. When I finally opened the book to start reading, I was very pleased to find it so intriguing that I wanted to read it to the exclusion of everything else going on. And even though all that revenge-taking can really take a toll on a person's soul, I would like to think that Edmond Dantes found peace.
The cast of characters is expansive, the whole idea of this elaborate revenge over the top, and the abridgment much-appreciated. It was fun to compare different abridgments at book club; however, it was irritating to have to go to different sources to fill in some important blanks missing from my Barnes & Noble Classics edition.
A brief note about Alexandre Dumas: I was interested to find that his life reminded me a bit of our previous book club author, Robert Louis Stevenson. Both were described as leading Bohemian lifestyles, both travelled extensively and used those travels to flavor their works, and both died of strokes. And then there's the idea that I think Monte Cristo is actually the Treasure Island.
From keith • Posted 1 year, 1 month ago • Reply
Rita Diane Devlin
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