Is it any good?
>>7825413
Masterpiece
>>7825430
Really? I picked it up at a garage sale the other day lol, I might read it then.
My favourite book so far. It was even better than I expected.
>>7825413
It's good if you read a translation.
It's amazing if you read it in French and know France's history and identify with it.
It's Mike Tyson approved
>>7825537
make sure it isn't abridged.
>>7825413
One of my French favorites with Cyrano de Bergerac.
>>7825413
The story is fantastic but a lot of parts felt dragged out (which is not strange if you know how it was written) and I didn't connect with it on a personal level. I'd still recommend reading it though.My favourite part was Dante's relation with the father Abbia in the prison, his death was the only part that made me cry
>>7825413
I thought it was OK but maybe I didn't get a decent translation. I got bored 100 pages from the end and just read the spark notes instead.
>>7825430
What translation do you guys recommend?
I've tried reading it twice, and both times the writing was utterly dull. There's nothing engaging about the style or the story, how are you suppose to make it to page 500 where I imagine things get interesting?
>>7826281
well if you need 500 pages to get into a book... maybe you don't enjoy it
>tfw don't know anyone to betray me
>tfw no honorable father to save
>tfw no fiance to lose
>tfw no grace from which to fall
>>7826287
I figured I just got a stilted translation. Everything about the delivery was very matter of fact, it was the Gutenberg version.
It's excellent. My only gripes are that it's a bit long-winded at times, and the hints of christian faith near the end. But the way Dumas writes it, such a genial way steeped with fascination for everything in life, most of the time it's a joy to read.
>>7825413
Don't waste your precious time on this shit. The book itself isn't meant to be a serious classic-tier literature. In is just a 19 century entertaining novel made specifically for having a pleasure, no more.
>>7826358
>being this pleb
>>7826361
i'm sorry? You read shit i suppose, not me
>>7826364
Of course not sweetie, you're a smart faggot.
>>7826347
>>7826366
i'm not sure whether you really got me, since blebs are those who read non-classic literature for merely the sake of pleasure. Dumas isn't a classic author. Which of course means that you're a pleb
>>7826358
>implying intellectual stimulation isn't just another form of pleasure fulfilment.
Monte Cristo shows the human struggle at its most realistic, without the need for metaphor or uncharacteristic behaviour. That alone is worth your time.
I read little more than half the book before I got bored to death. I'm not sure if I read an abridged version or just a terrible translation but the book came off as very shallow, almost like I child's book. You never got to learn the characters on a deep level, like I wanted to know what Dante was really thinking to understand his motivations but I got nothing. It was just a series of events described one after the other without any real meaning, like the worst part of what I would describe as an adventure genre.
all newfags whining about translations: Oxford is the best
>>7826294
I just want a ship for myself with secret compartments to hide the hachis and stuff.
Do yourself a favor and ignore the foreword if you have one.
Mine spoiled a major part of the story before I even started.
>>7826177
The prison term is arguably the best part of the book. I heard it's drastically, maybe even entirely, removed in some abridged versions. Fucking travesty.
>>7826281
>>7826347
Buss is great and cheap ($9ish on amazon, penguin edition). Definitely recommend it.
>>7826986
Everything about Dantès after prison is intended to be inaccessible. He's more dream than man, to the reader just as much as to his contemporaries. That's the point. At the same time, he's undeniably still the center of the story, so you have a weird emptiness where the main character should be; it's almost a lack of a "real" main character because a lot of what you see isn't even him, but the things he's influenced.
If you want more empathy-friendly characters, you'll have to make it to Valentine and Maximilien. Dantès is intentionally distant, and the antagonists are obviously, if not evil, at least not "the good guys."
PS You missed the best parts between Dantès and Maximilien. The story as it relates to the Morrels starts great and only gets better.
>"Be happy, noble heart. Be blessed for all the good you have done and will do."
>>7827303
This should be common knowledge by now.
>>7827572
i was in jail when i read the count of monte cristo. his stay in chateau d'if inexorably changed me, brought me into the world of literature.
>>7827596
Glad to have you on board! That must have been a hell of a read in such a setting.
>>7826082
>It's amazing if you read it in French
The prose is far from being good though
A translation is perfectly fine
>>7826300
I really liked the Gutenberg translation, it's unabridged and tends to pick and choose from all the available ones. So it's not a true translation, but I liked it and the 3 Musketeers versions.
>>7825413
The book I've read the fastest, it trades complex language and philosophy for a plot, but what a plot that is. Edition I had was 900 pages long, and I plowed through it in 2 days.
Absolute masterpiece. Get the Robin Buss translation. (Penguin Classics)
>>7825413
Love it, haven't finished it but it's probably going to be one of my favorite books.
>>7827767
it really was. him meeting Abbe Faria was tantamount to a religious experience for me, something i wished for, to meet a worldly mind, locked in that cage alongside me, willing to teach me beyond my means, someone to impart wisdom to me. The sad thing is that it never happened. Just a buff black guy who talked about his baby momma all day, and asked me why i "be readin so much".
this is the version i found at the garage sale... i kinda hate it
>>7829401
would i or would i not look like a fucking idiot reading this in front of people?
>>7829403
Probably wouldn't, but it's a a bit gaudy.
>>7829403
You'd look like a pompous ass reading it.
>>7825413
It's my favorite.
>>7826177
His name's Edmond
>>7825413
Absolutely, one of my all-time favorite books.
On a separate note, how many times has this story been reskinned? I read pic related in high school, and it has a nearly identical plot skeleton. The revenge story is fundamentally satisfying, but I'm curious how many times the same story can be told, successfully, before becoming trite.
>>7828965
I thought this version too modern, loses any musicality the original piece had.
>>7825413
it's jizztastic
>>7826102
Well shit, I received this book as a gift but I just realized it's the abridged version
>>7825413
I had a good time reading it. I'd say it's worth it.
>>7830022
Just re-read through that a month ago and it is one of the only books from high school that is actually halfway decent.
>>7830420
Yeah, it's actually really good. Probably due to its similarities to Dumas' work. Plus, Colfer's prose is a lot better than one would expect from a YA author.
