I finally finished The Count of Monte Cristo, the 1,061-page translation that isn’t easy to read. There’s a version I recently acquired that has been translated into contemporary English, which is the version most people read. However, I discovered that there were different translations only after I was already deep into this one. I couldn’t turn back because, when I previously attempted to read this book, I got to page 365 (a number that will be remembered in infamy for me), and I couldn’t just stop again.
I did find two errors in this big book (I’m showing only one here). They can put out a book with maybe a million words in it, get all but two of them right, and I’m the smart guy who’ll point those two out to the world.
To be quite spoiled, I now have three versions of this book: the Barnes & Noble edition that I just finished, which is a mass-produced, quality volume; the Easton Press copy, which is of even better quality; and the standard Penguin Classics edition, which is the most readable but doesn’t come in a quality format like the other two.
It was a good thing to read, beyond the story itself, because this book was an actual challenge. Most books I read cover topics I find interesting or tell stories that flow easily, but this one was tough. Not bad, just tough. It didn’t flow as easily as a Brad Thor or Vince Flynn book. People simply talked differently almost two centuries ago, and the societal customs, currency, and other details always made the reading more challenging. But I’m ready to get back to other things now.
I was going to jump into War & Peace (the Easton Press copy), but I’m going to take a break from that kind of massive challenge. It’s hard enough just to get through regular books, much less something like that. I’m not exactly a speed-reader!
This is the third 1,000-plus-page book I’ve read in the last few years. The other two were John Toland’s biography of Hitler and Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler—or at least the first half of Kershaw’s, anyway.
