Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group because none of us had read it, though it is included on most lists of the greatest novels ever written.  That said, most in the group were intimidated by its length and didn’t read it. 

Summary in 3 Sentences:  A happy young man is framed by several men who are jealous of his happiness and prospects for success and he is imprisoned with little hope of release on an Island off the coast of France. While in prison, he becomes friends and a protoge of an old Abbe who had also been framed, and who reveals to the young man where a great treasure is hidden. The Abbe dies, and our protagonist is able to escape, recovers the treasure, reinvents himself as the Count of Mone Cristo, and the remainder of the novel is how he exacts his revenge on those who had framed him and had him sent to prison.  

My Impressions: The Count of Monte Cristo lived up to its billing as one of Western Literature’s great novels. That said, one must make allowances for when it was written, for what audience, and how it would be read.  

The Count of Monte Cristo was originally written as a serial in 18 parts and was released in France over nearly a year and a half.  Knowing that, one sees how Dumas built tension into the book, created detours in his story to entertain and edify his readers, and keep them coming back as the plot evolved. 

To take on The Count of Monte Cristo is to begin a great adventure, and to fully appreciate the novel, it is best to see it that way. The story is generally well know, but what enchanted me was the feeling of immersion into the culture of France in the early 1800s.  That includes the political turmoil surrounding Napoleon’s assumption of power, the return of the King and Napoleon’s banishment to Corsica, his return to power and finally his banishment to Elba.  Edmond Dantes (Monte Cristo’s original name) is accused of spying for Napoleon prior to his return to power from Corsica, which lands him in prison, in the Chateau d’If (a real island castle off the coast of Marseille, France)

Because it is very “long form” we get to know the people, their values and prejudices, their joys and sorrows in a way that is not possible in shorter novels.  We get to know life in the middle and upper classes in France during this period and the characters indeed come to life. And of course, we compare  their culture to our own, our values and perspectives – my,  how people have stayed the same, while culture and values have changed.

The book begins with us getting to know Edmond Dantes in his world, as a happy, talented and promising young man, engaged to be married to woman he loved.  He is betrayed by men who were jealous of his happiness and success, and who after he was imprisoned, went on to profit from his absence and misfortune. The people we meet here – the three men who manufactured his “crime” and framed him,  the prosecutor who also wanted Dantes out of the picture, and Dante’s fiance – these are people we will get to know again 20 years later when Dantes reappears in disguise as the Count of Monte Cristo to exact his revenge anonymously – at first. 

The next portion of the book is about Dantes in prison, dealing with his misfortune, not understanding how or why it happened – almost Kafka-esque in the absurdity of it all. Then he meets the Abbe Faria who teaches and inspires him, until he is able, through cunning and luck, to manufacture an escape.

Dantes is able to recover the Abbe’s treasure to become suddenly extremely wealthy, but he doesn’t reveal himself to the world as Edmund Dantes.  We then lose track of him until he re-emerges as the mysterious Abbe Busoni in one identity, and the Count of Monte Cristo in another  – two identities he uses for the remainder of the book. He doesn’t admit to being Edmond Dantes until the very end.

The remainder of the book is a long story in which we get to know the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo and what has happened to his various antagonists, and how he interacts with them.  There are many side stories which entertain and edify the reader, and paint the picture of France in the early 19th century.

Key themes that I saw:

Edmond Dantes as a young man in love Dumas describes his hero in his early years as a good, eager, moral and ambitious young man, engaged to a beautiful woman and clearly on the path to success. He  someone who is admired by most, but also bitterly envied by those who didn’t have his gifts, talents, or other advantages. One of those who envied him was a competitor for a position on the ship Dantes worked on, and another was in love with the woman Dantes was planning to marry.  These are the ones who plotted to  frame Dantes, and have him arrested, which led to the rest of the story.

Dantes evolution in prison Dantes finds himself in prison on the infamouis Chateau d’If off the coast of Marseille (with many similarities to Alcatraz) with little hope for release, and he doesn’t know why.  He suffers, considers suicide, but survives.  He makes contact with Abbe Faria who also had been framed and was sentenced to life in prison, but who had learned to cope with his fate.  The two became friends, plotted opportunities for escape, and eventually the Abbe revealed to Dantes where he had left a great treasure.  When the Abbe died, Dantes was able to escape, and become “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

The Influence of Abbe Faria  Abbe Faria is undoubtedly the moral hero of the book.  He inspires moral growth in Dantes and though he dies relatively early in the book, his influence is felt in Dantes decisions and actions throughout the book.

His revenge plot – Dantes, now The Count of Monte Cristo, wealthy beyond measure after finding the Abbe’s treasure, is able to find out how and why he was sentenced to life in prison  on the the Chateau d’If, and then to plot his revenge.  It was indeed an ingenious and intricate plot, and adhered to the old adage that revenge is a dish best served cold.  It took years to unfold, and part of his intent was for the co-conspirators lives to be ruined but not to know how, or by whom, as was the case with Dantes.

His final insight – In the end Dantes has succeeded in his goals, even reconnects with his former fiance  with whom he’d remained in love, but too much had happened to each of them in the intervening years since their betrothal to renew their relationship.  Dantes took care of her and her family and then metaphorically “rode off into the sunset,” with an exotic woman whose life he’d saved.  We don’t learn what happened to them.  I did some research and several authors wrote sequels to The Count of Monte Cristo,  and some are considered quite good, but Dumas did not.  

What is missing: There is much in this book which requires the reader to suspend disbelief, but for me the biggest question is what happened to Dantes from the time he found the treasure to when he begins his effort to find and exact revenge for his imprisonment.  Over perhaps a decade, Dantes used his wealth to educate himself, to travel the world, to become multilingual, to become well-versed in the arts – to become a well-travelled man of letters and sophistication.  We are amazed at how he’d reinvented himself as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, but we learn little of how he did it.  Money and wealth can only do so much. 

Since I have some experience reading translations of great books, I did some research to determine the best translation, and came up with the Penguin Classics version, translated by Robin Buss and published in 1996.   Many of the other translations were done in the 19th century by Victorian era translators, and the English of that era. Buss’s translation is more accessible to modern, especially American, speakers of English, and corrects what he felt are many errors in the early translations.  The translator’s “notes on the text” at the beginning explain how and why he felt a new translation was important for modern readers.  
Also, I purchased a Cliff Notes to use to follow the book, which I do with most classics.  The Cliff notes version was ok, but used a different translation which had reordered the chapters.  I found that the Wikipedia article on the book was better, and wish I had read that instead as I read the novel.