Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

By Monica Bean

When I first read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas in high school, I recognized a brilliant work, even if I initially failed to understand its connection to my life. The Count of Monte Cristo is a powerful, compelling story about a man named Edmond Dantes who is betrayed by men following their own selfish motives. He is thrown into the Chateau d’If, trapped by prison bars and the surrounding seas, until he manages to escape 14 years later. During his time in this jail, Dantes transforms from a young man who has the world handed to him through his upcoming marriage to Mercedes and his recent promotion to Captain of The Pharaon into a man hardened by the realities of his situation and driven by the single-minded desire for revenge that he follows upon his escape and the discovery of treasure on the Isle of Monte Cristo.

When I went through The Count of Monte Cristo a second time while in college, I recognized its parallels to modern life. One of the greatest quests that everyone faces in the world is figuring out how to live their lives. As Mary Schmich once said in a now famous, mock graduation speech she wrote for a newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, “Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.” As a college student stuck at a crossroads in my life with many possible directions to take, I experienced my first dose of the real world, and my first desire to pursue my passion for writing. The reason The Count of Monte Cristo is so captivating is because the author focuses on Dantes’s clash with reality in the society of the 1800s and how it transforms him from a man who follows his heart to a man who follows revenge.

Everyone develops their own personal quests in life. Our quests are formed and shaped by society, by our parents and friends, by our interests and goals, by our dreams and fears and experiences. The personal quest of Edmond Dantes reflects the modern desire for a life’s purpose within the pages of an exciting novel set in the 1800s that will have readers questioning motive, love, revenge, and their own passions in life.