The Count of Monte Cristo

Numbered rightly among the timeless classics of which almost everyone has heard, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ is revered as an adventure yarn par excellence. While others of his works may perhaps be even more famous, ‘The Three Musketeers’ in particular having benefited from numerous film interpretations, this is the work for which Dumas deserves to be remembered. The original is a huge book, It is a huge book, crammed with plots and sub-plots, replete with classical references, and strung together by the fantastic coincidence, unbelievable derring-do, and highly romantic styling that typified French literature at the time. There are many translations or adaptions of the original. After a brief overview of them, I decided that the abridged version by _________ kept the story intact while making it a joy to read by narrowing it down some. However it seems that __________ in making the movie didn’t see things the same way.

‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, as most will already know, is a revenge story. In terms of its importance to the sub-genre, it may perhaps be considered THE revenge story – it is hard to conceive that it will be bettered: it sets down a blueprint and also a standard. The concept of the wronged hero, robbed not only humn agents, but by friends by human agents of his life and hopes, also sacrificing his humanity to return against the odds as an agent of vengeance, is an irresistible subject to an author and reader of adventure stories.

And the story is as compelling as one could want. Edmond Dantes is our wronged hero, a successful young sailor whom we first meet in the southern port of Marseille at the age of nineteen years. Edmond, besides being on the verge of a fantastic career, is blessed with an embarrassment of virtues. He is handsome, honest, and courageous, indeed:- ‘His whole demeanour possessed the calm and resolve peculiar to men who have been accustomed from childhood to wrestle with danger’.

Aside from his personal gifts he...