Review: The Original Soap Opera: Revenge All Too Successful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 18, 2013
"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas is long (1,200 pages or 26,131 locations on my Kindle), enthralling and a must-read. You will - as I did - forgive the over-long episodes written in that flowery almost Elizabethan-like language and phrasing. The translation is superb and modern. At times it reads more like a Shakespearean-era stage play than a novel, since much of the text is dialogue. It's easy to envision a dramatic on-stage production as you read along, imagining the sounds, smells, architecture, rooms, travel, manner and clothing of each character, so expertly written by Dumas (and his often cited ghost-writer, Auguste Maquet).It was originally published in 18 serial parts in the Journal des Debats in 1844, and quickly became a sensation all across Europe. It is, to this day, a classic of classics, extraordinary and absorbing. If you have seen any of the modern-day movies made from this story, keep in mind that due to the plot intricacy and length of the book, no film-maker can even begin to do justice to the original story. All the movies pale in comparison to actually reading the original text.The primary theme is, of course, revenge. Edmund Dantes, who was wrongly and illegally imprisoned for 14 years as a young man is the avenger, wreaking havoc on the lives and persons of those who were responsible for his imprisonment and the loss of his lady-love.Francis Bacon writes about the topic: "Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law weed it out."Marcus Aurelius writes: "The best revenge is to be unlike him who performs the injury."Mahatma Gandhi writes: "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind."And in the book, none other than the Count of Monte Cristo himself says, "Fool that I am," said he, "that I did not tear out my heart the day I resolved to revenge myself." But he did not tear out his heart. Instead he schemed to tear out the hearts of his victims. In so doing, the thrilling, shocking and sympathetic story unfolds in all its gory/glory but at times redemptive power. The unbelievably rich Count wreaks his clever, demonic destruction, page after page. It's a great read.  Join the millions who have read it and learned from it.When all is said and done, it's really just a marvelous and original soap opera. What a great 3 or 4 year-long TV series it would make!Of course it's a 5 star read.