Some classic books are still in print more than a century after being written because they have great moral themes (Les Miserables, say). Others, because they are full of symbolism in need of decoding, thus giving high school English teachers and college literature professors a justification for their existence as they assign books which will allow the instructor to show his or her chops in the role of literary priest mediating between the text and its readers (Moby Dick comes to mind).
The Count of Monte Cristo, by contrast, is still in print because it's just a really great, page-turning, potboiler of a read. There is no great moral message here (it is, after all, a soap opera revenge fantasy) and if there was any symbolism I was too busy being entertained by the story to pick up on it. What an incredibly fun book. Yes, it's very long and drags a little in the middle, and yes, it's hard to believe the young innocent Edmond at the beginning of the book has any relationship at all to the Sherlock Holmes/Moriarty/James Bond/James Bond villain/Dracula/Tony Stark figure that is the Count of Monte Cristo. Doesn't matter. The book works as pure entertainment and it's one of my new favorite fictions. It would be great if someone would create a min-series of this. The Jim Cavaziel movie just didn't do the lengthy plot any kind of justice. (The Robin Buss translation is the one to read.)
Completed: August 2, 2012
Rating: 9/10.
I love your comparison to Monte Cristo. However I don't exactly agree with you on it being a potboiler.
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