The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is one of those books you must have on your bookshelf but never expect to ever read. It is a classic which was published in Europe in 1846. The book became an instant best seller. Prior to Monte Cristo, Dumas wrote the more populist The Three Musketeers.
To attempt a summary is almost insulting to the breadth of the storyline and Dumas' incredible command of space, language, and mood. The privileged class collides with pirates, slaves and imposters all dying (figuratively and literally) for a taste of coveted financial gain, and seemingly guided by the hand of Providence which, in this case, appears as the Count. Prestige plays a close second in import but, in this story, wealth is king and Monte Cristo spends (and gives away) money like it actually does grow on trees. It's quite spectacular to imagine and Dumas certainly fills the reader's mind with plenty of ways to spend from jewels to graft!
The deeper meaning of the book rests in justice, reward, repentance, and shame couched in a convoluted, but beautifully-constructed web of power brokers and their bystanders spanning twenty or so years. Dumas has a poetic style of dialogue and this otherwise very tedious process of deciphering connections and relationships is made fully palatable, clear as day, and more importantly, believable.
The wisdom of Monte Cristo lies in its simplicity of expression. “Often we pass beside happiness without seeing it, without looking at it, or even if we have seen and looked at it, without recognizing it” is one of my favorite quotes from Dumas. There are many more and Dumas certainly takes his role seriously as a purveyor of the truth and value of turning adversity into gain.
Having never seen the movie adaptation of this book, I was surprised and simultaneously let down by the ending (no spoilers here!). I suspect the nearly 500-pages was getting to Dumas by this point, but Dumas extends himself by laying to rest injustices perpetrated within a frame in which balance doesn't mean equilibrium as much as dividend - both emotional and spiritual. It is pretty near a perfect story and I didn't want it to end while, at the same time, I was feeling impatient for some resolution.
With patience and prudence as key values of the Count, my own personal growth curve was laid wide open in the reading.
Dumas provides a historically-accurate account of the life and times of the upper class during the rise and fall of Napoleon in France. It was a turbulent time, but one in which he was familiar. The opulence, although a bit sickening at times, inspires compassion for the desperateness of the wealthy class, despite their access to anything material.
Dumas addressed the nature of disparity in his book from both ends of the spectrum. He was, after all, the son of a bi-racial father, whose mother was a Haitian slave. The name, Dumas, was her family name. Although Alexandre Dumas faced poverty after the death of his father when Dumas was four years of age, his voracious reading and bloodline gave him later entree to venues of the French royalty.
