How I wish my French were good enough to read the original. Hey, some of them are a real crock! This is the story I've been waiting for. You major in literature and you get over 60 and find time to catch up on all the "classics" you should have read. I got this one on sale, but even at full price it is a bargain. Since the novel was originally serialized, he's always reminding us of when we last saw a character he's reintroducing to the story-knowing that the newspaper with that vital information has long since been wrapped around a fish in a Parisian gutter. And an invaluable aid to keeping the story straight is supplied by Dumas himself. Sometimes the male characters get a little mixed, but that's to be expected in conversations where 4 or 5 are speaking at once. In a six-part audiobook I needed to back up and re-listen only a handful of times to catch something I'd missed. John Lee's clean, clear delivery seldom falters. What he suffers, what he does and, finally, what he learns about revenge, forgiveness and redemption are well worth the 56 hour journey. But what holds it all together is the Count himself. Yes, the good people are a little too saintly and the bad ones a shade too bad. It is a big, baggy story full of cul-de-sacs and blind corners, memorable characters and quotable sentences. For all its Gothic cloak-and-dagger antics it is a profoundly, even beautifully Catholic work of literature. For all it's sentimentality it almost moved me to tears. For all its improbabilities it is true to life. And it is also one of the greatest books I have ever read. It is Romantic in that overly-ripe, Victorian/Dickensian way that gets under my skin. Yes, it includes everything I don't like about 19th Century novels (Jane Austen excluded): it is sloppily, even glutinously sentimental. And thanks to John Lee and Audible, that flaw in an otherwise blameless upbringing has now been repaired. But the vending guy stood bolt upright, his eyes wide and his hair a-bristle: "That's a great book!" I was now convinced I was the only person in the universe who hadn't read The Count of Monte Cristo. I said The Count of Monte Cristo, with that same shrinking feeling I had at the lawnmower emporium. After a few casual remarks about the weather the guard noticed the iPod clipped to my jacket and asked what I was listening to. My train wasn't for a few minutes so I made a detour. A guard I've become friendly with was supervising the restocking of the vending machines. I imaged the thought that was forming under his feed cap: "What a dweeb." Instead, his jaw dropped, his eyes popped and he said "That's a great book! I read the unabridged version, and there's a lot of detail, but it's just fantastic!" A few weeks later I was catching the train to work. In the horsepower-and-self-propulsion world of your average lawnmower shop, literary discussions are not the ticket to respect. "That's ok, I have an iPod and I just started The Count of Monte Cristo." As the words left my mouth I realized I just forfeited any chance I had that this guy would treat me as a man and a brother. and the guy says, "With a lawn as big as yours, you really need a riding mower." I smiled, knowing I had the perfect counterargument to his sales pitch. It is a bit like watching "Masterpiece Theater"-not for everyone or every taste, but it's not an acknowledged masterpiece for nothing. Yes, there are some slower sections (characters, in accordance with the era, sometimes take 30 words to say what could be said in 5), but overall I found myself wanting to get back into the car or back on to the plane as soon as possible. This review relates to the whole book, not just Part I, but each section was a new adventure and looking back, you can see how Dumas has not wasted a character or scene that does not justify the plot and the outcome. One can only marvel at the decades-long plan that The Count, Edmund Dantes, has carefully set in motion to serve as suitable revenge for those whose greed and self-interest caused him to spend 14 long years in a dungeon. What a mistake it would have been to miss it! After a little "attitude adjustment", I found the flowery language elegant and fascinating and the character development is superb. I have "meant" to read this book for many years, but the length seemed daunting and the language stilted, at least by 21st century terms.
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