Is this really worth reading? The book is like 1,000 pages and I just learned the author was a black. Does it deserve the title of classic? I've heard it's just the 19th century equivalent of Young Adult literature. Have any anons read this and can share positive reports?
It is good, 3/4 of the way through it gets kinda slow and boring. I would read an abridged version maybe.
>>22506911>Does it deserve the title of classic Yes, you can just read the first 100 pages or so to see if you enjoy it enough to read the whole thing. When you get to the prison chapter you'll probably be invested enough to read the whole thing. The author was half black I believe. His father was some famous general who fought in the French army or something and got a nice title and French wife, so you could argue he was European enough to be a decent writer.
>>22506937nah he was a quarter black. I heard that this book wasn't really his (stolrn) on /lit/. I don't know if this is true though.
>>22506974>I heard that this book wasn't really his (stolrn) on /lit/. I don't know if this is true though.Could be, has been a few years since I read it and The Three Musketeers. maybe he had a co author or something; who knows. First time I heard this theory.
>>22506983I read it on the black literature thread today, which is currently archived.
It's fun. Very long but it's a page-turner. Great novel to listen to as an audiobook.
i liked it
>>22506911When I was a kid in the 80s it was considered a classic of children's literature. I was probably 12 or 13 when I read it.
>>22506911It's excellent, some pieces can be hard to keep track of since there are many characters over a long period of time and space, but it's worth it.
>>22506974I think you are mistaken, i read that he was 1/8 black
>>22506911Definitely worth reading. Dumas is an excellent writer, he wasn't a nigger or anything like that, he wasn't even an American generic black, he was French and before the French started letting all the trash in.
First 200 pages - goodNext 300-400 pages - snooze, but gets more and more promisingEverything halfway up to the end - great
He's proto batman
>>22507256He was quarter. His grandmother is described as ‘pure black negress’ and his father was fairly dark for a mulatto. At any rate, he was French.
>>22506974Dumas was known to have a ghostwriter co-author his books. Nobody knows the exact extent to which this guy is responsible for the books, whether he merely helped Dumas on some parts or whether he is the real author of large portions of his work, but it is a real thing.
>>22507651>He was a quarter [black]... At any rate, he was French.But you repeat yourself
It's a bloated children's book, but still an enjoyable read.Also Dumas was as black as Ryan Giggs.
>>22507830The general understanding is that Maquet came up with the plots and the characters but Dumas did the actual writing.
read the whole thing front to back all the while waiting for the counting to start and it never happened. really dissatisfied with this one
>>22506911One of my favorite books for a while when i first started getting into writing. The kind i'd hesitate to pick up and continue reading, because i didn't want the story to be over.
>>22509012>writing*reading
>>22506911Beginning and end are enjoyable. Middle ~500 pages got me so bored it took me months to finish. If you can stomach countless scenes of "and then everyone in the bus/opera/paris/ball stood up and clapped at the Counts elegance and wit" then you'll be okay. Book closest to isekai wish fullfillment that i've read.
>>22507587This is just another way of saying he's a Gary Sue. >>22509126It really goes to show humanity has been pissing and shitting themselves over the same thing since time immemorial.
>>22509220>This is just another way of saying he's a Gary Sue.He literally spends a significant part of the novel as a nobody and then a prisoner. You may consider him over powered in the end, but that is not the same thing as a Gary Stu. It's a pretty stock narrative device of sorrow and injustice followed by one stroke of good luck and a whole lot of hard work to attain revenge, which is then unsatisfying, and he has that scene where he's telling the younger man he wished he spent his time doing something else instead of focusing on revenge. The character starts from humble beginnings, rises to supreme power, but then ultimately learns a lesson through the resolution of his goal. It's nothing like a Gary Stu.
>>22506911There must be better novels on the same topic. I wasn't convinced by this one.
>Simon_says.mp3>Slow zoom in on the If castle>Ali smokes a cigar from a balcony>Haydee stays outside for a while then goes back in the castle>Monte cristo inserts DVD drive into PC>Giddies with excitement before starting ali_pasha_leaks.exe>moonwalks to the beat of the boombox while executing find_my_daddy.exe>spins around then launches its_bankruptcy_time.exe>Puffs his cigar>Leans backs>Murmurs "revenge is fun">Releases a cloud of smoke before noticing Haydee smiling at him
>>22506911>just learned the author was a black.WrongDumas stole it from his ghost writer August Maquet. Nigger loving french courts tried to cover it up but it's undeniable.
>>22507587if batman groomed a young exotic slave girl into being his concubine
>>22506911Cristo, not Christo.>I just learned the author was a black.No, he wasn't black, he was mixed.
>>22509445No he's definitely a Gary Sue. Dumas assaults you with relentless descriptions of his superiority and perfection that aren't even internally consistent. The Count is simultaneously hellbent on cruel revenge and totally unconstrained by morals constantly likening man vipers or animals governed only by violence and ambition....but his slaves all love him, and he treats them so well they insist on being his slaves against his protestations that they are free! Yeah, right.
>>22506911Get an abridged version. I read the full and while I don't regret it dear lord does the middle part get fucking boring. There's three parts, the first part is really good, second part is the majority of the book and it's all the ballroom wankfest you expect from a book in the 19th century but it does eventually set up the third part of the book, which is also very good.
>>22510341>it's all the ballroom wankfest you expect from a book in the 19th centuryfor me the exact moment when the second part becomes good was when villefort and madame danglars go to the count's house at auteil, because that's when it becomes clear the count isn't fucking around. The lowest most boring part of the book is the shit in Rome
>>22510341>it's all the ballroom wankfest you expect from a book in the 19th centuryYeah that's the good part
>>22510941The best part of the book remains the time in prison. Then it hits a bit of a lull. The best "revenge" moment is with Fernand, where the final blow is not dealt by the Count but by the reveal of the full extend of Fernands guilt towards him:When Fernand comes to the Count, demanding to duel, in a way he must feel kind of "liberated". In spite of all the bad things he's done in his life, here is a man, the Count, who has wronged him so much that it appears to Fernand that he is finally in a position again to defend himself righteously as the innocent man. >“Oh,” cried the general, as if branded with a hot iron, “wretch,—to reproach me with my shame when about, perhaps, to kill me! No, I did not say I was a stranger to you. I know well, demon, that you have penetrated into the darkness of the past, and that you have read, by the light of what torch I know not, every page of my life; but perhaps I may be more honorable in my shame than you under your pompous coverings. No—no, I am aware you know me; but I know you only as an adventurer sewn up in gold and jewellery. You call yourself, in Paris, the Count of Monte Cristo; in Italy, Sinbad the Sailor; in Malta, I forget what. But it is your real name I want to know, in the midst of your hundred names, that I may pronounce it when we meet to fight, at the moment when I plunge my sword through your heart.”– this being in response to the Count recounting the life and deeds and crimes of Fernand. Then Monte Cristo reveals himself by changing clothes to appear again as Edmond Dantès, at that moment removing the only footing the General had left to stand on after his life fell into ruins – a righteous quest for revenge – and leaving suicide his only option. Best revenge moment in all of literature. Of course the entire journey of the Count is morally objectionable as the results show us, but this moment still strikes me with how well it's executed.
>>22506911I am currently reading it and I think it's very entertaining, especially the parts with Noirtier and Calderousse in them, and the chapters have a very reasonable length.
>>22507830Truth be told I did get the feeling that some chapters felt distinctly unlike others, as though their authorship varied.
>>22506911It's well worth reading, one of my favourite books. Yes it gets a bit boring in places and could be a bit shorter, I believe Dumas was being paid by the word when he (and the other dude) was writing this. But the story is great, maybe the best revenge story there is.
>>22509445And then he gets top bang the fucking 15 yo like wtf
>>22514111I swear it was stated she was 20 in the Buss translation
WTF IS A GARY SUE????never heard this term in my lifet.litmajor
I guess I'll read an abridged version I don't have 1000 pages to waste on children books but I have 500-600 pages to spare.
>>22514362>t. cant even read a whole children's book
>>22514365Yes and No. I don't have time to read 1000 pages of children book.
>>22514368
>>22514345Like Mary Sue but male.
>>22514368Isn't the fact that the book is 1000 pages long proof that it actually isn't a children book? I mean, one of the key characteristics of a children book is that it has an easily digestible number of pages. It's just an adventure novel, aimed at young adults at the time when it released. But so was Moby Dick.
>>22514638>Moby Dick.comparing moby dick to monte cristo, I dunno if you're retard or just pretending
It's one of my favorite books desu. It's really fun
>>22514694I think you might be, because nowhere in my post was I making a comparison between the quality of both books at all. I merely mentioned that Moby Dick too was regarded as a young adult adventure novel at the time it came out so looking down on a book just because it was once widely regarded to be aimed towards a younger audience seems very stupid and ignorant to me.
Great book. Probably one of the best novels ever written.
>>22507396>Dumas is an excellent writer, he wasn't a nigger or anythingSo he wasn't black then? At all? I'm confused.
>>22514899He was like half or a quarter black. His grandfather or father was an officer in Napoleon’s army and also black.
>>22515015Pretty incredible story actually. The guy was born into slavery, got an education, rose to become a general in Napoleon’s army, got in a fight with Napoleon himself in Egypt, fled via a ship in the Mediterranean, was marooned in Naples, taken prisoner and locked in a dungeon, was released, moved back to France, had his kid, Alexandre, then died of stomach cancer. He was denied his military pension and an a renewed Army commission, so after he died his family was poor and his widow had to work in a shop for a living. She blamed Napoleon for their poverty. The son eventually went on to get patronage from another aristocrat to write before he was forced to leave France.
>>22515015Oh so other anon was lying. Thanks friend for clarifying
Kind of hilarious reading his story, somewhere down the line his ever more bleached ancestors just sold off the female parts of the family back into slavery without batting an eye.
>>22515036Sounds made up like the blacks thinking they build Stonehenge
no idea why this glorified ya is considered a classicit's nothing compared to actual literature, yet this bloated pot boiler is held up as valuable as moby dick and ulysses aresturgeon's law definitely applies to the canon and shit like this and balzac are certainly not worth the time
>>22514368You don't have time to read 1000 pages? How does that even make sense? Reading is reading whether you read a 1000 page book or three 333 page books. Is everything a competition?
>>22516862Valuable is Moby dick and Ulysses? Maybe on reddit. But yeah it's a fun plot-heavy book worth reading if you're aware it's not deep or anything. It's not so literary. It's like watching a really good period drama TV series
>>22510999Yeah you expect the revenge to be epic then they all turn out kinda anticlimactic and hollow. One guy kills himself, one goes insane, one just turns into a pitiable beggar. But then you have the beauty of all the ways the Count repays his friends, which is the real catharsis. My favourite part is when he recovers the priest's manuscript to publish. Yeah it's YA shlock but it's very good YA shlock.
>>22516862It's absolutely more valuable than Ulysses, what the fuck are you even talking about? Ulysses has had zero cultural impact and you can barely even call it a story. Most people won't remember a single meaningful thing from that book a year after reading it. The Count of Monte Cristo on the other hand is probably THE most influential revenge story ever written other than stories from mythology and the Bible. Yes, it's not high literature, but it is clearly far more deserving of a place in the canon than fucking Ulysses. I'd say in its importance it's similar to books like Dracula, Frankenstein, the Sherlock Holmes books, around the world in 80 days etc. They aren't high literature, but they have left their mark on the world of storytelling like very few others have.
>>22507118>children's literature>sub-plot entirely dependent on understanding bond valuationIt's not Dosto, I'll give you that.
>>22517309I found the results to be more than sufficient. Suicide is totally brutal end and the insanity was chilling in the way it actualized. Danglars got off easy, I agree, but the theatricality of it with Luigi Vampa was entertaining. Great book all around. I do not understand the accusations of YA or child's literature, besides the wish fulfilment (which is present in a number of classics particularly Dickens and Hugo) I did not find the story beats or descriptions of society any different than say Tolstoy. I think people just like to0 repeat what they heard elsewhere to lend themselves credence.
>>22518170It's undoubtedly "young adult". I think it was serialized too, as in the chapters had a weekly release instead of a direct novel. When you think about it, it's like the 19th century equivalent of a comic book.
>>22518851A ton of classics were released in that way
>>22506974>>22507396>>22509840Cool it with racism. Those books of his were pretty well written for an afroamerican.
>>22509865I will now read your book
>>22514694And what in your estimation separates them exactly? Tell me you can't read the following and call it gold.>"After all," said the inspector, "if he had been rich, he would not have>been here." So the matter ended for the Abbe Faria. He remained in his>cell, and this visit only increased the belief in his insanity.>Caligula or Nero, those treasure-seekers, those desirers of the>impossible, would have accorded to the poor wretch, in exchange for>his wealth, the liberty he so earnestly prayed for. But the kings of>modern times, restrained by the limits of mere probability, have neither>courage nor desire. They fear the ear that hears their orders, and the>eye that scrutinizes their actions. Formerly they believed themselves>sprung from Jupiter, and shielded by their birth; but nowadays they are>not inviolable.
>>22506911>author was blackhis grampa raped one of his slaves
>>22516862What the fuck is wrong with Balzac?
>>22521755Kind of amusing despite this Dumas has Monte Cristo own slaves, particularly one he constantly remarks upon being exceptionally dark and ugly. Just what the hell did he mean by this?
>>22506911>Is this really worth reading?It's incel-isekai wish fulfillment before there was ever such a thing. The story is almost embarrassing to see unfold, and you can tell some demented man wrote it who happily abandons Mercedez aged and poor and destitute because she only waited 5 years instead of 15 for Edmond while thinking him lost to the world. I've no idea why it's so celebrated, the actual revenges aren't even that great.
>>22522679There's not a single man who would choose Mercedez over Haydee in the same circumstances.
>>22522956Oh right, I forgot that instead of the older woman whose life he destroyed because she didn't kill herself out of devotion to his ghost, he also retires to marry and fuck his teenage princess bride. Truly the heights of the western canon.
>>22507397Completely wrong, everything with Morel is agonizingly lame and for some reason this is how Dumas decided to end the book. He doesn't even kill Danglars, the chief cause of his suffering, the absolute fuck.
>>22509814why did I enjoy reading thisam I retarded now
>>22522679>happily abandons Mercedez aged and poor and destitute because she only waited 5 years instead of 15She uses their old love for eachother to significantly soften his drive for vengeance which leads to the bigger thing that brings him back to humilityThe only reason he "abandons" her is because she's a used up 40 year old and he's got a sexy 20 year old slave on his dick
>>22517309>r. But then you have the beauty of all the ways the Count repays his friendsBy leaving Mercedese destitute and her son an enlisted grunt in African wars he is unlikely to survive? Interesting take.
what does his race have to do if anything?
>>22524153>having to work for a living and make a name for yourself is... le bad
>>22524190>just enlist in the wars bro>t. guy who found billions in shiny rocks :)
>>22524218But seriously, to stop speaking in memes, I thought it was pretty clear that it was what Albert wanted, and kinda implicit that he would've refused any offer of money from The Count since he wanted to start totally fresh with a new name and no connection to his father's ill-gotten gains. And fundamentally it just would've been corny and gay if Albert's and his mom's conclusion was "and then The Count set them up for life with a big comfy house and a generous income". That's some Harry Potter-tier shit, really. The point is that revenge is going to be destructive, no matter how justified and/or necessary it is.
>>22524379The Count could have just kidnapped Villefort and Fernand and Danglars and held them in a rape dungeon for the rest of their lives, there was zero need for any of the intrigues.
>>22514694Are you actually this stupid?
