Robin Buss was correct, when he said, in his introduction, that this was:
'no childrens novel' and, 'parts of the story are so well known that they have developed a story all on their own.'The book is so different from the story I thought I knew. I am so pleased I chose this translation as the modern day english made it easier for me to understand.
We all know the part where Edmond was betrayed, by four people, all for different motives, his time in prison and his subsequent escape, however, I did not realise this was only a relatively small part of the book. The majority of the book is made up of Edmonds'revenge. What is clever about this book is that we do not learn about the plot in advance, we learn as we go along. Characters are introduced into the book and we have no reason why, or, who they are until later on. When we are first introduced to Caderousse I believed that Monte Cristo, in disguise, had let him off, how wrong I was, but we do not find out this until much later.
Edmond, even whilst carrying out his revenge, had a balance of being revengeful and being good, he supported those who were either destroyed by one of the above four,or had looked after him before he was imprisoned, he believed that this was his way of balancing the scales of what God wanted him to do.
You never learn how Edmond came to be where he was, how he developed his skills, after prison, or what happened after he found his treasure until the time he started his revenge, this would have been nice to know, in a way,it adds to the mystery. I was also left to guess how Edmond was truly feeling when speaking to his enemies, the only clue were little descriptions of his facial expressions or comments, or, subtle insults when making conversations.
I agree with a previous reviewer, concerning Mercedes, she did not appear in the book much and when she did, she appeared morose and unhappy with her lot. Granted she lost the love of her life, but she married and even when she knew who the Count of Monte Cristo was, her mood did not improve and she wallowed in her own self pity, she suffered, but not as much as Edmond did.
I would recommend that you read this book, it's not a book for reading on holiday, but take the time it is worth it and it has become one of my favourite books.
