In which I read (and read, and read, and read....) the Count of Monte Cristo.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

So I finished reading this book about a week ago, and I when I sat down to write my book report for the internets (because that is what I guess I do for fun these days) I found it really hard to do so.

It's hard, because this book is oh so very long.  Its a quick read, relatively speaking; I managed to down the 1400 page brick in about three months, which is a pretty good clip for me.  But it is also incredibly complex and convoluted, full of complicated character interactions and romantic plot twists (most of which involve Edmond Dantes, Master of Disguise, dressing up as a priest or an eccentric English billionaire to go places where even the well monied Monte Cristo dare not tread).

So a synopsis is beyond me, though if you have seen the movie you get the general idea.  Edmond Dantes, nautical prodigy and betrothed to the beautiful Mercedes, is falsely accused of being a Bonapartist by two of his associates and is condemned by the prosecutor of Marseilles in order to protect his own father (who actually is a Bonapartist for reals).  And so Dantes goes to the dreaded prison of the Chateau D'If, where he languishes for years and then meets the old Abbe in the next cell over.

Now in the book the Abbe does not teach Edmond swordsmanship, but he does tell him about the hidden treasure on the deserted isle of Monte Cristo in addition to giving him a world class education.  Edmond escapes the prison, finds the treasure, and then goes off to reward his friends and punish his enemies.

The book is actually very different from the movie.  For one, there are many, many more characters, all of them intertwined in betrothals and affairs and past interactions.  For another, Edmond never actually crosses swords with any of his enemies.  He rather uses elements from their own past (all have a stain of dishonor upon their record, of one sense or another) and engineers a situation which brings about their downfall, only revealing his true identity when they are, one by one, truly ruined.  There are four men involved in the Dantes conspiracy;  two die, one goes mad, the final one is financially ruined and briefly held captive by a band of Italian bandits (which appear to be at the service of Edmond), but is ultimately forgiven by an Edmond Dantes who is horrified at the collateral damage wrought by his revenge, which is extensive.

Edmond also doesn't get the girl in the book.  Mercedes has become an old woman in her unhappy marriage to Fernando, one of Edmond's principal enemies, and while Edmond still loves her he is a little ambivalent (and rather lacks understanding) about her perceived disloyalty towards him, his former betrothed.  She ends up in a convent.  In a twist which is kind of creepy these days, Dantes instead falls in love with his Greek slave Haydee, whom Dantes rescued from the Ottomans and has raised as sort of his own daughter....it's hard to place his feelings for her, but in the end they realize they love each other not as father and daughter or co-conspirators (she has an interest in seeing at least one of Dante's enemies fall), but rather as co-people.

It is at times a burdensomely romantic book, full of exotic stories and Italian smugglers, brave men and fainting women, faked deaths and drug usage, twists and turns and comings and goings.  There is a certain joy in reading it, and it is interesting to think about revenge in Dante's context (he truly believes he is the instrument of a vengeful God, though finally love for his fellow man softens his lust for restitution) and whether or not its justifiable, but ultimately I am not sure it signifies much.