The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and I’m still reeling.

This took me forever to read through. It’s a big book. And, at times the prose is a bit exhausting at times, you have to remember when it was written. Attention spans were longer back then. Lol. There were stretches where I felt like I was crawling through it. But the story itself? So good that I just kept pushing forward. And I’m really glad I did.

What gets me the most is that this was written by one person. The level of detail, the insane plotting, the dialogue, the way it jumps between cultures and places, and the sheer number of characters, it honestly kind of boggles the mind. The scale of this thing is massive, and somehow it all holds together.

And at the center of it all is a story that’s actually… really human. You’ve got this broken man who basically sets out to become something godlike—judge, jury, executioner—and in doing that, he slowly finds his humanity again. It’s revenge, but it’s also something way deeper than that. Forgiveness. Acceptance. Justification. And then some.

I feel a little overwhelmed trying to write this. I usually have more to say, but this one kinda left me staring at a wall for a bit.

All I can really say is: I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of those stories that feels like it captures something fundamental about being human.

A story that sums up the essence of all human wisdom into two words: Wait and Hope.