Book #20 The Count of Monte Cristo

So today is the day that I try to catch up on my blogging.  I am several months behind on posting this blog, but want to go ahead and write it so I can mark it off the list and move forward.  I am probably going to finish another book this week or next and I don't want to be 3 books behind, so here we go...


The Count of Monte Cristo, or what I can remember of it.  Let's do it this way to keep it simple, here are three things that are still with me months later and several books later.

1.  Dramatic timing.  The timing of the events in this book invoke feelings in the reader that sensationalize Edmund's life and actions.  One of the finest examples is the transition from a pre-wedding feast to abandonment in prison on a remote island in just a matter of a few pages.  Such great highs and hopes for a life of success as a newly named captain, contrasted against the instantaneous ruin of innocent imprisonment with no justice or knowledge of your crime.  This timing makes a great read.  Some other examples of fantastic dramatic timing are in the delay of the count's revenge.  He withholds his justified revenge for so long, it is like the constant sharpening of sword that will eventually bring his enemies down with the precision of a surgeon.  The last example of this dramatic timing that I want to give is of the revenge.  Each of the count's enemies receive their due in a swiftness of ruin that mirrors that of the imprisonment of Dantes.

 2. Precision.  The Count spends most of his time preparing just exactly what is needed to exact his revenge.  I can't remember exactly, but it is something like 10 to 15 years collecting evidence and people, building ships, buying things not for sale all to have a perfectly suited destruction for those who sent him to prison or restoration for those who showed him kindness.

3. Giant puzzle in a good way.  I usually don't like doing puzzles, but I do like when they have been completed.  After I finished the book and now reflecting on it, I have a new view to appreciate the construction of plot.  Each piece fits together so well into the next and into the picture as a whole, it is like a giant 1000 piece puzzle of a masterpiece.  Excellently crafted and despite being a longer book the plot doesn't drag and words aren't wasted.

Overall 10 out of 10.  It will be a while before I can circle back to reading this book, but I will read it again.