I love this story, and have read the abridged version. I started the unabridged, which now seems to be a pretty ambitious undertaking.

I started reading this on June 20th, 2007. ( )

"Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught."

First serialised in the French Journal between 1844 and 1846 "The Count of Monte Christo" is the ultimate tale of revenge and atonement.

Edouard Dantes was 19 years old, handsome, clever, about to be made captain of his own sailing ship and marry the girl of his dreams. Then, on his wedding day he is accused of a political crime that he knows nothing about. There are no charges, no trial or formal sentence yet he was to spend the next fourteen years in solitary confinement in the dungeon of a notorious island prison. At the moment of his deepest despair he is rescued by a brief friendship and mentorship of a fellow prisoner (a cleric scholar) in the next door cell. And the desire for revenge against those that put him there.

“It’s necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”

Within weeks of a daring escape he possesses a treasure that had few equals on this earth. He is now 33 years old, his father has died of starvation and his childhood sweetheart has married his arch-rival. All the plotters who put him in that dungeon are living the highlife in French society. Now gloriously rich and disguised as the Count of Monte Christo Dantes sets out to gain his revenge. But no ordinary revenge will do. It has to be exquisitely engineered and served cold. He doesn't want to simply kill them he wants to destroy them.

“You do not know that every day of those fourteen years I renewed the vow of vengeance which I had made the first day ..”

Despite its age this is a relatively easy read without too many archaic phrases although I'm not sure whether or not that this was simply down to the translation. It features bandits and smugglers, duels, affairs and romance, political intrigue and corruption, jail breaks and the risen dead, two cases of infanticide and three suicides, ghosts and bodies in the garden. In fact all the ingredients that you would hope to find in an adventure story whenever it is written yet despite the many characters that feature it's relatively easy to keep track of what was going on. At times it reads like a serialized novel with peaks and troughs, my copy of this novel was in excess of 1200 pages so a very hefty tome but overall I found this an enjoyable if lengthy read. ( )

Everybody knows the basic story. They've probably seen a movie version or heard many references to the man, Edmond Dantes, who was wrongly arrested, thrown into a dungeon on a French island, escapes after many years, becomes fabulously wealthy, becomes the Count of Monte Cristo, and after several more years, exacts his revenge on those responsible for his being imprisoned as a young man. Many pieces of the story appear in more modern guise in stories like The Lone Ranger who disappears before those he has helped are able to thank him. Sound familiar? I did not realize that Dumas, like Dickens, published this story in serialized form. Like Dickens that probably accounts for its length. It also feels very modern, like modern authors who revisit their basic characters in novel after novel. Often the result is a very quick read. This has the same feel.

I was amazed to see the 600 page version I was reading is called the abridged version. It turns out several hundred additional pages exist. I'll search out the fuller version to see what I missed. I'm sure there are more adventures but the abridged version probably captures the core story. We see a man obsessed with a quest. He wants to reward those who believed in him as a young man but more importantly he wants to make sure those who condemned him to years in a dungeon pay for their crimes against him. He develops what most people nowadays would call super powers. He is brilliant. He masters martial arts and turns to the orient, learning the power of various medicines, herbs, poisons, languages, religions, myths, mastering them all. He even uses his wealth to buy a girl enslaved after her royal father was betrayed by of the same men who betrayed Dantes. Once he moves to Paris he begins to have his revenge. All of the people he is seeking have become successful. One even marries the woman Dantes was about to marry when he was arrested. All now have different names as they achieved noble ranks. This makes it difficult for the reader to follow but it in no way distracts Edmond. He engineers their bankruptcy, loss of their loved ones, etc. The turning point comes when the son of one of them challenges him to a duel. He looks forward to killing the son of the woman he loved. She recognizes who he is and pleads for her son's life appealing to the man she once knew. He realizes his need for vengeance has turned him into a man he never wanted to become. His knowledge and wealth is based on working for years in the prison with a priest in the cell next to his. He knows that man, who he loved, would never have wanted him to become what he has become. While not a religious man Dantes realizes this is not who he wants to be. Things turn at that point. But it's not that simple. Still more to do. That's the way Dumas built suspense so the ready was always left wondering what will happen next. Read it. Only way to see how it tuns out. …......Who was that masked man? ( )

Amazing, beautifully written story of revenge and atonement. Not only do I recommend this, but I recommend that you read the unabridged version so that you experience the tale in the way Dumas intended it. ( )

El conde de Montecristo
Alexandre Dumas
Publicado: 1845
Novela Aventuras Histórico

Edmundo Dantés, un joven marinero, honrado y cándido, que lleva una existencia tranquila, solo desea casarse con la hermosa Mercedes. Pero su vida se verá arruinada cuando su mejor amigo, Fernando, deseoso de conquistar a su prometida, le traicione vilmente. Condenado a cumplir una condena injusta en la siniestra prisión del castillo de If, Edmundo vivirá una larga pesadilla de trece años. Obsesionado por su inesperado destino, dejará de lado sus convicciones para urdir la venganza perfecta. Historia transida de densidad moral y cívica, «El conde de Montecristo» es uno de los clásicos más populares de todos los tiempos. Esta edición contiene las dos partes de las que se compone y a las que precede la sapiencial introducción de Jean-Yves Tadié, catedrático emérito en la Universidad de La Sorbona.