The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I won't lie. It took me forever to read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. This classic is heavy going, and some understanding of French history during the Napoleonic era won't hurt. I will also admit that I cheated a little and watched the 2002 film adaption of the novel that stars Jim Caviezel and Guy Pearce. I can understand why the scriptwriters made some of the decisions they did. This is a big story, filled with numerous subplots.

The short of it is that the young merchant sailor Edmond Dantès has a bright future, except that he is brought down by three people he considers friends, who envy his potential. He is locked up for many years in a prison, his identity all but erased, and during that time his betrayers all become highly successful people – one of them even marrying Edmond's beloved Mercédès. While incarcerated, Edmond befriends a fellow inmate, who not only teaches him but bestows upon him the location of a vast fortune. When Edmond eventually escapes, he sets himself up as the rather Byronic Count of Monte Cristo, who returns to Paris to exact vengeance on all who did him wrong.

What follows is an epic monstrosity of a novel bloated with subplots and a vast horde of characters to make readers dizzy with all the names and relations if they don't keep notes on the side. How Dumas kept it all straight, I don't know. In other words, this is not a novel I'd suggest abandoning for a while then try to pick up again. You won't just have lost the plot, you'll have dropped it in a fathomless well without any hope of recovering it.

Dumas is a keen observer of human nature, and for that reason alone it's worth reading this novel. I suspect the convoluted plot was created precisely so that he could revel in the complicated dance he wove for his characters. One thing that did annoy me, and perhaps it is because of the writing style itself, is that he writes in a shallow third person that verges on omniscient – sometimes addressing the reader. This is purely a writing convention that's a product of its time, but if you're looking for a deeper understanding of a viewpoint character's inner workings, you're not going to get it here – Dumas is deliberately mysterious, often, in order to maintain suspense.

As a template for designing a complex narrative, The Count of Monte Cristo is rich for the pickings, and in that regard I do recommend it to authors who're looking for ideas. I certainly learnt a lot from this. Just be warned, this is not exactly a novel you'll read cover to cover in a week.

PS, you can pick up a free copy of this over at Project Gutenberg.