Before I read it, I had seen numerous mentions of its "eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" messaging, but now after having read it, I don't think that could be further from the truth. This story is just about as pro revenge as they get. Any opportunity to challenge the reader on that is avoided, by having all the characters that end up in the crossfire be unlikable, and any likable character that would've been killed, be miraculously saved.
There's a single tiny asterisk to that, and that's the little kid that dies, but throughout the entire book there is clear intention to make him as unlikable as possible to soften the blow, and despite that, his death is purely accidental and shakes Monte Cristo to the core, so much so, that he has to retrace his past to figure out that, indeed, his mission was justified and even this little kid had it coming.
As for the book itself, I was satisfied with it and don't regret reading it. I really enjoyed the first 3rd as a story, and the rest was at least a cool window into this time period (it's interesting just how unrelatable the characters were and how aliens some of the decisions made were), and it's clear that Dumas was a very involved person and had a lot of knowledge, and we're lucky that he was a writer.
I do wish though that it hadn't been so fucking long, as it doesn't justify it in any way, with so many bloated passages and flowery dialogue, and the story constantly getting sidetracked by some random short story that isn't all that interesting.
by thebigscorp1