The Count of Monte Cristo

It's been quite a long time since I last posted. The Count of Monte Cristo is a very long book and I really struggled to wade my way through it. However, with the assistance of time waiting in airports and on planes I have finally reached the end - hooray! This mainly makes me happy because I can now read something else without guilt (bearing in mind that I have read at least 2 quick reads - with guilt! - as light relief whilst struggling through to the end of this). This is quite a difficult work to write about because I can see that it is a masterpiece - the ideas, construction, depth of imagination and sheer quality of writing make it so. However, it's densely plotted with complicated twists and turns, and the mid-section (about 250 pages !) was so long and apparently unrelated that by the time I got to the end section (about 350 pages...) I had entirely forgotten the cast of characters from the beginning. Given that this is a revenge saga, and only makes sense in the context of what happened at the beginning, I think this contributed to my lack of enjoyment. I would be tempted to read it again to see if I could gain a better overall picture, but it's so long and there are so many other books in the world to read! I found it ultimately unsatisfying and hollow - this is probably the intention, as it is built around the Count's determination to revenge himself on three individuals who did him a significant wrong, and he finds that revenge is not as sweet as expected....therefore there isn't a resolution that is pleasing to the reader despite an attempt at a vaguely happy ending. This can be appreciated from the literary point of view but not necessarily enjoyed as such! Definitely worth a read if you have a lot of time on your hands, and a good memory for characters through a long, twisting, turning plot. I have neither, but I'm glad I made it to the end! On another note, someone recently suggested to me that I diversify into blogging about parenthood...obviously not quite yet as I'd be writing about parenting a cat, but from later in the year. I'm undecided...writing about books is easy for me, and unthreatening as I can write in the personal but without actually mentioning anything personal; parenthood would be a whole different thing. We'll see - might come back to having time on my hands, and learning to type with one hand only!