The Count of Monte Cristo is probably the worst "popular" classic I've ever read. It was trash. So repetitive. It's clearly a product of its time and not a proper "novel". It's a series of newspaper serials aggregated into a book where Dumas was paid by the word. And he used as many words as he could to say as little as possible. One of the rare examples of where many video adaptations are better than the original written version. My favorite part of the movies was him learning to be the Count and that part is basically non-existent in the books. It just skips over to him being a master of everything.