The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Links may lead to spoilers
The story of The Count of Monte Cristo is a marvelous adventure that likely rates with Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Edmond Dantès is Dumas's protagonist. There are a number of antagonists and contagonists. Indeed, the number of significant characters in this volume challenges my ever more feeble memory.
Dantes is a young and talented sailor, but ignorant of politics. His primary concern is his aged father and his soon to be fiance, Mercedes. Nothing is of much importance to him beyond father, fiance, and perhaps the possibility that M. Morrel may promote him to Captain of the Pharaon, which would greatly enhance his future prospects for providing for his father and future wife. Unfortunately young is often naive. Additionally, happiness and success too often produce enemies unknown. Such as Dangler's, the supercargo on the ship Pharaon, which Dante's sails home to Marseilles after her Captain Leclere unexpectedly dies on their voyage to Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.
