The Count of Monte Cristo (Part I)

This is a book review (part I) of "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.

I have forgotten how many times I've read and re-read this book since childhood. In this reading, I have decided to concentrate on the characters. It is probably my all-time favorite novel. And it is a very long book, so I've decided to write this book review in parts.

This part of the review covers the setting. It is important to note that this story is set in the time of Napoleon's second coming and the rule of Louis XVIII. One was either a Bonapartist or a Royalist. The story starts in Marseilles with the arrival of the Pharaoan.

The main character is Edmond Dantes who loves his father and about to marry Mercedes. His friends are M. Morrel (one of the ship's owners) and Calderousse (a tailor living below Edmond's father). His enemies are M. Danglar (supercargo of the Pharaoan), Fernand (Edmond's rival for Mercedes' love), and M. de Villefort (an ambitious assistant procureur.)

It is very important to note every single event related in the novel because of its later significance.

This part of the review ends with Edmond's imprisonment in the Chateau d'If. How he ends up here is beautifully set up by Alexandre Dumas.

Every one, from the highest to the lowest degree, has his place on the social ladder, and is beset by stormy passions and conflicting interests, as in Descartes' theory of pressure and impulsion. But these forces increase as we go higher, so that we have a spiral which in defiance of reason rests upon the apex and not on the base.

Read this novel if you haven't, and again if you already have.