Books: The Count of Monte Cristo

My dessert challenge of pumpkin bars for this week is underway, but since they have to cool before I can add the frosting, I doubt I'll be able to taste them until tomorrow. I sense a sugary, pumpkin-y breakfast coming on! I will post my results tomorrow, if I'm not comatose from eating the whole pan...I love pumpkin-flavored anything.

In the meantime, I've picked up one of my favorite all-time books to read, since I haven't read it in probably 2 or 3 years: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It is a huge book and incredibly intimidating at first sight, but absolutely worth it. It has to be that big because it is, quite literally, epic. And no, you can't substitute watching the movie for this one; both have good stories, but the stories are almost completely different.

It's difficult for me to summarize this book, simply because it covers so much territory. It follows the life of Edmond Dantes, who is arrested on the cusp of gaining his perfect life and is left to rot in prison for 14 years before finally escaping, and the story of how he lives after escaping and discovering a huge amount of treasure. It also takes in the lives of the people who he affects either through his gratitude or revenge and touches on politics and history in the time of Napoleon. All in all, it is probably the best story of both revenge and altruistic gratitude that I have ever read.

The Count of Monte Cristo takes patience to finish. Alexandre Dumas was extremely popular in his time (he also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask) and he didn't have to compete for the attention of people who today would just watch the movie instead; he had the luxury to take his time to show you every little details of Dantes' life and transformation from an idealistic boy into a man who focuses his life on revenge on the people who betrayed him. For the most part, Dantes is a character who you cannot help but identify with even as you feel a little horrified at his capacity for cruelty in pursuit of "justice." And in spite of that, it still has a relatively happy ending.

In short...find one of those weeks when your life is going to be slow; I used to read this book over Christmas vacation at my parents' house, when I was still too wired from college to feel comfortable with just relaxing. And read it. It's good, I promise.