Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

There's a reason this book is a classic.

I first read The Count of Monte Cristo when I was sixteen. It was about revenge, sneaky revenge! My poor, put-upon teenage American soul latched onto that with the fervor of a remora.

When I was in my twenties, the Count shifted from revenge to... seduction. Smooth, smooth seduction that led to very satisfactory comeuppance. Dantes knew how to give each of the four men enough rope for them to willingly take, and it became enough to hang them.

In my thirties, the Count accompanied many a night with a nursing baby or toddler. The Count became a study of justice, of a man who had a dream come true and uses it for truth, justice and the AmericanFrench way. When little voices cried "it's not fair, Mommy" all day long, The Count couldn't fail to reflect that unwanted programming in my brain.

For some birthday in my forties, I asked for the huge Oxford edition. 1095 pages of the Count, I thought, would surely be complete. I was wrong - one key chapter was missing. I went back to the version I'd read in high school and reread it and realized that the true message of The Count of Monte Cristo is about the task of being the hand of God.

I'll be fifty this year. When I read the book now, I understood it's not about revenge, or being used by God, but about repentance.

How's that for one book? Over some thirty years, this book and I have changed together. There aren't many that could survive rereading and reinterpretation again and again.

Almost everyone knows the story (if only from the incredibly badly-mangled movies.) Edmond Dantes is young and about to achieve all his dreams: the captaincy of a ship, a beautiful wife, enough for his father to live comfortably the rest of his life. However, his rise flushes out two envious men who, with a drunken third who doesn't try to stop them, manage to get Dantes arrested at his own engagement party. When the circumstances of Dantes' arrest are made clear to the prosecutor, he's ready to dismiss the charge until he finds that Dantes unknowingly has proof of the prosecutor's father's treasonable action. Instead of freeing the innocent Dantes, the prosecutor throws Dantes into prison and arranges for his life-long incarceration. While there, Dantes meets another prisoner who not only educates him, but tells him of an ancient buried treasure. When Dantes escapes the prison, he acquires the treasure and uses it to fund his revenge.

The book is a rip-roaring, non-stop read. Dumas, a descendant of an African-Caribbean slave, wrote several of his best known works as serials, being paid per word, and he delivered. Every chapter delivers a sufficeint amount of action and intrigue that would keep readers coming back week by week. Twists, turns, unlikely coincidences, and outright improbabilities riddle the book. By the time the final revenge is extracted, the reader has been given everything a good novel promises to deliver: the satisfying ending with a hopeful coda.

Do not think that the movies (any version) tell the whole story. Most of them get caught up in the romantic story and twist the ending to a resolution that Dantes' characters never dreamed of happening. Don't look for the sword fight; there isn't one. The romantic ending isn't what you'd expect, but what you get is perfectly right.

There's the reason this book is a classic.