Title / The Count of Monte Cristo

Author / Alexandre Dumas

Publication Date / 1844

Page no. / 1462

Overall Rating / ★★★★

It’s time for another 5 reasons to read style review and as you can see from the title today I am going to be talking about The Count of Monte Cristo. I have to admit putting off reading this book for quite a long time because of the size, but I ended up loving it so don’t be intimidated by the size.

• Originally written in French, this is a fantastic revenge tale. The basics of this tale is that a young man called Edmond Dantes is betrayed and ends up spending 14 years in prison. He comes back to seek revenge against those that betrayed him. I thought that the plot was compelling throughout, although I will admit that it took me a couple of chapters to settle into the flow of the story.

• Dantes is a fantastic protagonist and an interesting character study. This book spans many years and I loved being able to see Dantes development throughout. Although I think all of the characters were well written, I think some secondary characters seemed a little less developed then Dantes but since this is Dantes story it kind of makes sense.

• The writing is fantastic and will keep you engaged throughout this long book. Even in the slower paced sections, the writing and characters keep you invested. However I will admit that it dragged a tiny bit a few times but I still love this book.

• I think this book can be enjoyed by a variety of readers and ages. I will definitely reread this book at some point because I think I’ll pick up on things I may have missed during the first read.

• I am a big fan of this author and this is one of my favourite books by him, so of course I want to recommend checking it out. My other favourite is The Three Musketeers, for anyone interested.

Since this was originally published in instalments, it may be a good idea to read it in instalments or just set yourself a certain amount of chapters per week to make it seem more manageable. Do not be intimidated by the size and just take your time reading this fantastic book. Have you read this book? I’d love to know what you thought. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.

Pippa