The Abbreviated Monte Cristo

TL:DNR? The Best of Monte Cristo (no spoilers!) Okay, so maybe one is too busy to read this ENTIRE website to get my recommendations. True, it's a lot to sift through. So, in the interests of serving people who lack the spare time to leisurely read a 5-volume version of The Count of Monte Cristo in antiquated English, and who simply want me to cut to the chase and recommend something, I bring you: The Best of Monte Cristo ! Best Unabridged Edition (of 2 total) The Count of Monte Cristo , 1276 pgs. Translated by Robin Buss. 1996, pub: Penguin Classics There is absolutely no doubt about this. Any reader who wants the complete, unabridged Monte Cristo experience should read the Penguin Classics Robin Buss translation. Not only did Buss re-translate the book into truly Modern English,...

The Winners and Losers of Monte Cristo: A "What If" Scenario This article came about while I was musing about "What If" scenarios. The Count of Monte Cristo is a long book, and most of the characters came through it irrevocably changed, some for better, some for worse. But "What If" the events in the book did not happen?  Suppose Dantes was arrested, imprisoned, escaped and found the treasure, but chose to forego any revenge, and settled in London, or Florence, or Vienna with his windfall, leaving the chips to fall where they may in Marseilles and Paris? Interestingly enough, some fates were inevitable. There were characters who already had the means to execute their own schemes and plans, regardless of the existence of the Count! Let's take a closer look! Character Notes on canonical ending What if book's events did not happen? ...

 The Abbreviated Monte Cristo Everything you've ever wanted to know about Abridged editions, Children's editions, Comics and Manga and Movie versions of The Count of Monte Cristo It's an age-old question, "I've heard of/someone recommended to me/I've seen the movie The Count of Monte Cristo , and I want to read the book now! There's so many different ones floating around! Which one should I get?" The answer is not exactly easy or obvious. Different audiences have different needs, expectations and desires. The actual Alexandre Dumas novel was written in 1844 in French, and was quickly translated into English. The most famous unabridged English edition was done in 1846, and published by Chapman-Hall and is in public domain and is available for free on the Internet . Alternatively, there is a revised, re-translated unabridged edition by R...

Section Three: Monte Cristo in Comics and Manga "A picture is worth a thousand words". I like comics. If I wish to discover great literature, I am not ashamed at all to head for a copy "Classics Illustrated" to get the general gist of a story. If I like it, I could read the actual book. If I hated it, then maybe one hour is "lost" and not several days of reading through tomes of dense text, only to be sorely upset and disappointed at the ending, Comics are a very visual medium, and The Count of Monte Cristo has little physical action but a lot of psychological warfare. Comics publishers understandably try to make the story appear "more exciting" so they add pages of sword fighting or knife fighting, at the cost of plot-essential developments ("Jumbo Comics", "Dell Four Color" #794, "Marvel Classics Comics"). The "what's disposable" and "what's essential...