A review by librarianna81
The Count of Monte Cristo - Part 1 by Alexandre Dumas

5.0

Wow. This book was incredible. I don't even know how much I'll have to say, especially since I've been reading it for ages now...it was something like 46+ hours of audiobook. But read SO AMAZINGLY WELL (yay John Lee...I'd definitely listen to more of his work anytime). And the story itself...wow. I adore Dumas - he really knows how to spin a yarn. He writes beautifully, and you can picture every single thing with your mind's eye. And the stories he weaves...it's just unbelievable. How things all tie in together, how things reappear to play another part in the story.... I read that he wrote this as a newspaper serial (like Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov) and it amazes me that he could have planned things so far ahead. And there was constant plot action - whereas TBK was much more periphrastic, much more reflective than active. I would have been riveted to this story had I read it as a serial - so anxious for the next day's newspaper to arrive. SO good. And the ending tied everything together *beautifully*. I kept hoping for one thing but then doubting myself. Dumas really knew how to keep his audience guessing! And simply the way he tied it all together with "wait" & "hope". Who else but a master author could have summed up such a long book - not to mention much of life in general! - with so simple (but so appropriate) of a generalization?