Yarkina Svetlana 45 gr. The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas

Edmond Dantès, a handsome, promising young sailor, skillfully docks the three-masted French ship in Marseilles after its captain died en route home. As a reward, Dantès is promised a captainship, but before he can claim his new post and be married to his fiancée, Mercédès, a conspiracy of four jealous and unsavory men arrange for him to be seized and secretly imprisoned in solitary confinement in the infamous Chateau d'If, a prison from which no one has ever escaped. The four men responsible are Fernand Mondego, who is jealous of Mercédès love for Dantès; Danglars, the purser of the Pharaon, who covets Dantès promised captainship; Caderousse, an unprincipled neighbor; and Villefort, a prosecutor who knows that Dantès is carrying a letter addressed to Villefort's father; the old man is a Bonapartist who would probably be imprisoned by the present royalist regime were it not for his son's, Villefort's, influence. For many years, Dantès barely exists in his tiny, isolated cell; he almost loses his mind and his will to live until one day he hears a fellow prisoner burrowing nearby. He too begins digging, and soon he meets an old Abbé who knows about a fortune, one that used to belong to a wealthy Italian family. From the Abbé, Dantès learns history, literature, science, and languages, but when at last they are almost free, the Abbé dies. Dantès hides his body, then sews himself in the Abbé's burial sack. The guards arrive, carry the sack outside, and heave the body far out to sea. Dantès manages to escape and is picked up by a shipful of smugglers, whom he joins until he can locate the island where the treasure is hidden. When he finally discovers it, he is staggered by the immensity of its wealth. And when he emerges into society again, he is the very rich and very handsome Count of Monte Cristo. Monte Cristo has two goals — to reward those who were kind to him and his aging father, and to punish those responsible for his imprisonment. For the latter, he plans slow and painful punishment. As Monte Cristo, Dantès ingeniously manages to be introduced to the cream of Parisian society, among whom he goes unrecognized. But Monte Cristo, in contrast, recognizes all of his enemies — all now wealthy and influential men. Fernand has married Mercédès and is now known as Count de Morcerf. Monte Cristo releases information to the press that proves that Morcerf is a traitor, and Morcerf is ruined socially. Then Monte Cristo destroys Morcerf's relationship with his family, whom he adores. When they leave him, he is so distraught that he shoots himself. To revenge himself on Danglars, who loves money more than anything else, Monte Cristo ruins him financially. To revenge himself on Caderousse, Monte Cristo easily traps Caderousse because of his insatiable greed, then watches as one of Caderousse's cohorts murders him. To revenge himself on Villefort, Monte Cristo slowly reveals to Villefort that he knows about a love affair that Villefort had long ago with the present Madame Danglars. He also reveals to him, by hints, that he knows about an illegitimate child whom he fathered, a child whom Villefort believed that he buried alive. The child lived, however, and is now engaged to Danglars' daughter, who is the illegitimate young man's half-sister. Ironically, Villefort's wife proves to be even more villainous than her husband, for she poisons the parents of Villefort's first wife; then she believes that she has successfully poisoned her husband's daughter by his first marriage. With those people dead, her own son is in line for an enormous inheritance. Villefort, however, discovers his wife's plottings and threatens her, and so she poisons herself and their son. At this point, Dantès is half-fearful that his revenge has been too thorough, but because he is able to unite two young people who are very much in love and unite them on the Isle of Monte Cristo, he sails away, happy and satisfied, never to be seen again. The writing style is third person mode of narration is used. The count of Monte Cristo being a romantic historical novel focuses on adventure, action, heroism and love. From my point of view, The Count of Monte Cristo is an intriguing adventure novel. It is also a story about jealousy, betrayal, endurance, revenge and hope. The story gets us hooked as we come to know Dantes’s ultimate plan and keeps us wondering how exactly he will get justice. Each and every character of the book is well described and captures the attention of the reader. The introduction of some characters in the beginning of the story might seem unimportant, but as we read on, we find they are integral to the plot. The story ends with the moral that good always triumphs over evil. A plot consisting of fourteen years of long imprisonment, a miraculous escape from the prison and the carefully planned revenge makes this novel a well crafted work. An enjoyable read for children and adults alike. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great story that helps you to realize how far the reaches of vengeance can really go. When the Count is going around ruining people it seems like he is more of a machine than a person. It seems like he has no emotions and can’t forgive the people who hurt him. Although some people might argue that the people who wronged the Count truly had what was coming to them, some of the Count’s actions could be seen as unnecessary. In the end everyone will be punished or rewarded by God and you shouldn’t be worried about what other people do or say as much as you are worried about yourself.