Last night I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I can't decide if I like the movie or the book better, which is unusual because a book is almost always better than the movie. I like the storyline of the movie better, but I think the ending of the book is more the way it should be. I just always want a happy ending.
Quick synopsis: Edmond Dantes is about to become the captain of a ship, and the night before he is to be married to his love Mercedes he is arrested for no reason that he can understand. He has been betrayed by three selfish men who better their own interests by having Edmond thrown into prison. After 14 years he escapes, obtains a hidden treasure, and returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to the people he used to know to seek his revenge.
What I like about the movie is that he gets Mercedes back, whereas in the book it's not such a pretty picture. Mercedes had married his rival, and in his attempts to seek revenge on her husband, he causes a lot of suffering for Mercedes and her son. Also, in seeking revenge on the magistrate who imprisoned him, he causes pain to the family of the one true friend he really had, the shipowner who was going to make him captain. The shipowner's son is in love with the magistrate's daughter, and she almost dies because Monte Cristo hinted to her stepmother how to effectively poison those in her way of her son's inheritance.
Monte Cristo is a really cool character - self confident, bold, smart, handsome, and of course extremely rich. Everyone admires him, and he gets his fingers into everyone's lives without them knowing he is ruining them until right at their breaking point. I think the gist that I got out of the book was that even though he accomplished his great revenge, he caused himself and even those he loved a lot of pain in the process. In the end he realizes that one should not place himself as an equal to God by seeking to exact another's punishment. I think I would have liked it more if I hadn't seen the movie first. It was a really long book and I always expected him to get the girl and have her son really be his. I guess there wouldn't have been a moral to the story if he got his revenge and his life turned out right, too.
2 comments:
I've never read the book but I loved the movie. That is one of Karoline's choices for classic reading. I've heard the book is a lot different then the movie. I agree on your assessment of the endings. That is the point of classics...thinking about what is important in life. Was it more important that he got his way, or more important that he learned that revenge resolve past hurts. Can't wait to read it myself.
It was a good read. I'm still upset about Mercedes, though. He didn't even try to win her back even after her husband was gone. I guess it couldn't have worked after so many years and obstacles, but they still both loved each other. I'm just a hopeless romantic.
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