5 ms·

The Count of Monte Cristo -- I've read it a few times and I know I'll read it again. While there are a few books I've read more than once, I can't think of any

The Count of Monte Cristo -- I've read it a few times and I know I'll read it again. While there are a few books I've read more than once, I can't think of any I know I will read again.

edanm 2y ago
Wonderful, wonderful book. One of my favorites. It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third, but picks up again and continues to be great throughout.
- v-erne 2y ago
  >> It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third, but picks up again and continues to be great throughout. Yeah, as much as I love Count Monte Christo as a story, being it a movie (https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3 https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3), series (https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq) or anime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte...), the book gets so slow after first third that I have never actually read it through till the end. Its a pity that we can have new cuts of movies (Zack Snyders Justice League vs original one) but we will never get George R. R. Martin version of Count of Monte Cristo.
  - phtrivier 2y ago
    Tangentially: the 2024 version [1] of the movie has been a huge success in France (quite deserved in my opinion), and is about the open in the US. The imagery of the movie has a definitive "Batman" vibe - sort of "full circle", even though, apparently CoMC was not _really_ an inspiration for the Dark Knight, as the legend went. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_(2024_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_(202... [2] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/254769/was-batman-based-on-the-count-of-monte-cristo https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/254769/was-batman-...
    - v-erne 2y ago
      Thanks - I will check it out. The trailer looks a bit generic and definitely has a bit different vibe than Im used to (me not knowing French does not help at all :) ). Also the Count after transformation seems to have a different style - feels not as distinguished as old school actors in previous movies. But maybe it will be exactly what this story needs.
  - arnehormann 2y ago
    Try "Best served cold" by Joe Abercrombie. Followed by The Heroes. And to avoid minor spoilers, read the First Law trilogy first. All good books are great, The heroes is probably the best!
    - v-erne 2y ago
      Thanks, it looks more like fantasy than fiction - I always liked that Count is embeded is real historic events despite me being fantasy fan and almost never reading historic fiction. But somehow in Counts case it seems essential (and that's way anime adaptation was my least favorite). Anyway I will check it out.
- th3rac25 2y ago
  [dead]
l_j_w 2y ago
I occasionally use this service called serial literature that sends an email on the cadence you want for their selection of stories. I chose Count of Monte Cristo twice a week. After the first couple emails I ended up reading then clicking the “send next installment” link multiple times. I finished the book in a week. It was such a great read.
gadders 2y ago
I recently read the unabridged version, and really enjoyed it. The pacing is a bit patchy, but has (what we would think) surprisingly modern things mentioned - cannabis, lesbianism. If anyone wants a recommendation for another good book from around the same date, I recommend Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. It has it's adventure aspects, but is also just a great tale of male friendship between two different characters.
- perihelions 2y ago
  There's nothing anachronistic about hashish in 19th-century France; it was a widely-known narcotic long before that. If you read Wikipedia's "history" entry, Dumas and Paris are explicitly name-checked (among a lengthy list of writers), - "In the 19th century, hashish was embraced in some European literary circles. Most famously, the Club des Hashischins was a Parisian club dedicated to the consumption of hashish and other drugs; its members included writers Théophile Gautier, Dr. Moreau de Tours, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire and Honoré de Balzac.[19]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_des_Hashischins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_des_Hashischins
- th3rac25 2y ago
  [dead]
jjcm 2y ago
This is one of my favorites. It's one of the few where the hero manages to become the villain in the end, and does so convincingly.
- gadders 2y ago
  Do you think? He does show some mercy towards some people that have wronged him.
- ComputerGuru 2y ago
  That’s certainly one way to interpret it.
r00fus 2y ago
Just remembering my first reading thinking: hey they had complex financial instruments back in the 1800s. Also - market manipulation by use of faster comms. But really a nice story.
- perihelions 2y ago
  - "Also - market manipulation by use of faster comms." Optical telegraphs! They were a recent invention in Dumas' era, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph (How did Dumas colorfully describe those things? I think this is the paragraph: "Yes, a telegraph. I had often seen one placed at the end of a road on a hillock, and in the light of the sun its black arms, bending in every direction, always reminded me of the claws of an immense beetle, and I assure you it was never without emotion that I gazed on it, for I could not help thinking how wonderful it was that these various signs should be made to cleave the air with such precision as to convey to the distance of three hundred leagues the ideas and wishes of a man sitting at a table at one end of the line to another man similarly placed at the opposite extremity, and all this effected by a simple act of volition on the part of the sender of the message. I began to think of genii, sylphs, gnomes, in short, of all the ministers of the occult sciences, until I laughed aloud at the freaks of my own imagination.") https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184
WillAdams 2y ago
To expand on one's enjoyment of this, be sure to look up the historical biography of Dumas père's father, _The Black Count_. For even more fun, if one enjoys fantasy, Steven Brust's _The Baron of Magister Valley_ is TCoMC w/ all the names changed and the serial numbers filed off in a fantasy setting (and _The Phoenix Guards_ is _The Three Musketeers_, _Five Hundred Years After_ is _Five Years After_, and _The Viscount of Adrilahnkha_ is _The Man in the Iron Mask_).

The Count of Monte Cristo -- I've read it a few times and I know I'll read it again. While there are a few books I've read more than once, I can't think of any I know I will read again.

edanm 2y ago

Wonderful, wonderful book. One of my favorites. It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third, but picks up again and continues to be great throughout.

v-erne 2y ago
>> It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third, but picks up again and continues to be great throughout. Yeah, as much as I love Count Monte Christo as a story, being it a movie (https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3 https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3), series (https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq) or anime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte...), the book gets so slow after first third that I have never actually read it through till the end. Its a pity that we can have new cuts of movies (Zack Snyders Justice League vs original one) but we will never get George R. R. Martin version of Count of Monte Cristo.
- phtrivier 2y ago
  Tangentially: the 2024 version [1] of the movie has been a huge success in France (quite deserved in my opinion), and is about the open in the US. The imagery of the movie has a definitive "Batman" vibe - sort of "full circle", even though, apparently CoMC was not _really_ an inspiration for the Dark Knight, as the legend went. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_(2024_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_(202... [2] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/254769/was-batman-based-on-the-count-of-monte-cristo https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/254769/was-batman-...
  - v-erne 2y ago
    Thanks - I will check it out. The trailer looks a bit generic and definitely has a bit different vibe than Im used to (me not knowing French does not help at all :) ). Also the Count after transformation seems to have a different style - feels not as distinguished as old school actors in previous movies. But maybe it will be exactly what this story needs.
- arnehormann 2y ago
  Try "Best served cold" by Joe Abercrombie. Followed by The Heroes. And to avoid minor spoilers, read the First Law trilogy first. All good books are great, The heroes is probably the best!
  - v-erne 2y ago
    Thanks, it looks more like fantasy than fiction - I always liked that Count is embeded is real historic events despite me being fantasy fan and almost never reading historic fiction. But somehow in Counts case it seems essential (and that's way anime adaptation was my least favorite). Anyway I will check it out.
th3rac25 2y ago
[dead]

l_j_w 2y ago

I occasionally use this service called serial literature that sends an email on the cadence you want for their selection of stories. I chose Count of Monte Cristo twice a week. After the first couple emails I ended up reading then clicking the “send next installment” link multiple times. I finished the book in a week. It was such a great read.

gadders 2y ago

I recently read the unabridged version, and really enjoyed it. The pacing is a bit patchy, but has (what we would think) surprisingly modern things mentioned - cannabis, lesbianism. If anyone wants a recommendation for another good book from around the same date, I recommend Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. It has it's adventure aspects, but is also just a great tale of male friendship between two different characters.

perihelions 2y ago
There's nothing anachronistic about hashish in 19th-century France; it was a widely-known narcotic long before that. If you read Wikipedia's "history" entry, Dumas and Paris are explicitly name-checked (among a lengthy list of writers), - "In the 19th century, hashish was embraced in some European literary circles. Most famously, the Club des Hashischins was a Parisian club dedicated to the consumption of hashish and other drugs; its members included writers Théophile Gautier, Dr. Moreau de Tours, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire and Honoré de Balzac.[19]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashish#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_des_Hashischins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_des_Hashischins
th3rac25 2y ago
[dead]

jjcm 2y ago

This is one of my favorites. It's one of the few where the hero manages to become the villain in the end, and does so convincingly.

gadders 2y ago
Do you think? He does show some mercy towards some people that have wronged him.
ComputerGuru 2y ago
That’s certainly one way to interpret it.

r00fus 2y ago

Just remembering my first reading thinking: hey they had complex financial instruments back in the 1800s. Also - market manipulation by use of faster comms. But really a nice story.

perihelions 2y ago
- "Also - market manipulation by use of faster comms." Optical telegraphs! They were a recent invention in Dumas' era, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph (How did Dumas colorfully describe those things? I think this is the paragraph: "Yes, a telegraph. I had often seen one placed at the end of a road on a hillock, and in the light of the sun its black arms, bending in every direction, always reminded me of the claws of an immense beetle, and I assure you it was never without emotion that I gazed on it, for I could not help thinking how wonderful it was that these various signs should be made to cleave the air with such precision as to convey to the distance of three hundred leagues the ideas and wishes of a man sitting at a table at one end of the line to another man similarly placed at the opposite extremity, and all this effected by a simple act of volition on the part of the sender of the message. I began to think of genii, sylphs, gnomes, in short, of all the ministers of the occult sciences, until I laughed aloud at the freaks of my own imagination.") https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184

WillAdams 2y ago

To expand on one's enjoyment of this, be sure to look up the historical biography of Dumas père's father, _The Black Count_. For even more fun, if one enjoys fantasy, Steven Brust's _The Baron of Magister Valley_ is TCoMC w/ all the names changed and the serial numbers filed off in a fantasy setting (and _The Phoenix Guards_ is _The Three Musketeers_, _Five Hundred Years After_ is _Five Years After_, and _The Viscount of Adrilahnkha_ is _The Man in the Iron Mask_).