O Conde de Monte-Cristo

“All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope”
Having loved the movie, I was so excited to pick this up! But this is one of the rare cases I prefere the adaptation to the original source. I did enjoy the novel, overall, especially the beginning - with Dantés previous life, how he ended up in prison, Abbey Faria and the escape - and the ending, when the actual vengeance commenced. But I had some issues along the way, especially with how much it dragged in the middle - lots of recounts of daily stuff, boring characters and irritating plotlines (Valentine and Morrel' romance was one of those, as much as I love Morrel). Sometimes the writing style also grated on me a bit, although it was an easier, more fluid read than Le Mis or War & Peace, for exemple, but some situations and the way the characters reacted to stuff were kind of overdramatic and with so much flare that it seemed cartoonish at times.

I also coudn't get attached to most of the characters, with the exception of Dantes, the Morrels, Noirtier and Abbey Faria. Other than that, I just wanted them all gone, which means I couldn't care much about what would happen to them, and that is a problem, because you're expected to root for and care about certain characters, but they were so meh to me I couldn't care less.

Honestly, the movie did a better job at condesing some plots, making me care more about the characters and having more action and a more dynamic story. Still, it was a good read and I like the overall story a lot. It's a classic for a reason and another chunky book out of my TBR.