A review by janey
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

2.0

Holy cow that was a tedious read. I mean, I disapprove of waiting until the last minute to save someone's life when you could have done so with time to spare, and there was a mess of that going on and some of it was totally out of hand, as anyone who has finished the book will know. But what really irritated me on a page by page basis was the constant repetition -- not just that the episodes were repetitious, but that the lines were --
So that someone would say,

"The end is nigh!" and then their companion would say, "But wait! I have a letter from Monsieur X!"
"What," would say the first. "A letter, you say?"
"Yes, a letter!"
"Why, where do you have the letter?"
"Here, in my hand!"
"Well, what does the letter say?"
"Here, you shall read it for yourself!"
And he proceeded to read the letter, a letter which had these words in it, which indeed made up the letter and the letter read as follows: {text of letter}

Then, after the letter is revealed in full, the characters will discuss the letter and explain to each other and the reader the meaning of the letter and I mean it never stops.

Every now and then there would be this funny little line that would make me laugh but this is a totally different Dumas than the man who wrote The Three Musketeers. I mean, I know that he was writing for serial publication so every word counts but jeez.