I’m an avid reader and I always laughed at the idea of having a “favorite” book.. until I found mine. I loved the book so much, I resolved to learn French (et je l’ai fait!) just so I could someday read it in the original French.
I remember your comment from four years ago (!) [0] and it really stuck with me. However, I could never find the thread, so when I saw this thread, I simply had to check if you wrote a comment again; and here we are! I recently began reading it and is really enjoying it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Also, the only book I have found close/equal to Count of Monte Cristo is Les Miserables. The book is amazing, no idea about the musical. There are so many parts of the book (Waterloo) that just blow my mind. Also served as a motivation to learn French.
Enjoy!
(Also, thanks for the link to the earlier comment. I had forgotten about the unabridged bit!)
Something that really stood out for me was the description of the finances of the characters. It's like back then everyone understood that the goal was to live off investments, and that working for a living was an unfortunate, hopefully temporary condition. Seems like nowadays it's such a central part of everyone's default life philosophy (at least that of mere plebs like me) that few people question it.
Out of curiosity, did you watch the 2002 movie? If so, what did you think? That's how I discovered the story in the first place.
I’d say it’s a pendulum that’s swung too far in correction, imho. It’s a good thing to make money off of honest hard work (a lesson TCMC does not skimp on) as compared to inheriting your riches via the aristocracy, but it definitely isn’t the end goal.
I’ve learned long ago not to watch movies of books I love, it’s far too painfully disappointing and takes away from the world-building a great author triggers in your mind’s eye. (I’ve only ever watched one movie rendition of a classic and found it not only adequate but even superior to a book, and that was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, probably because the book was intentionally incoherently written to reflect the works as seen through Chief’s delusional eyes.)
I'd recommend reading "Les 3 mousquetaires", where the Lady is one of the most interesting characters I've ever met. The book was a huge success, and is still famous in France nowadays, like its main character, D'Artagnan. The two sequences are okay, "Vingt ans après" and "Le vicomte de Bragelonne".
Other good historical novels by Dumas are "La reine Margot", "Joseph Balsamo", "Le collier de la reine". For the fans, there are dozens of lesser novels, like "La tulipe noire" (which I know I've read, but can't remember at all).
I ask only because you owe it to yourself to read the real deal, just in case the Chinese translation you read was one of the much more common shorter versions.
Les Misérables is probably my second favorite but that took me so many times longer to make my way through, probably because of Victor Hugo’s unfortunate tendency to go so off track, interjecting with two hundred page history lessons describing his favorite scenes from Waterloo.