(Note: Book Club is Today! Join us on the discussion post or in the CBR Facebook group. Also see #CannonBookClub discussion topics – MsWas)
Are you ready to read a classic? We have chosen The Count of Monte Cristo as our next book club on December 1st.
I look forward to reading and chatting with all of you about this book, its not something I’ve read yet. The two runners up, in case you were wondering, were The Age of Innocence and Jane Eyre, so I’m hoping to see reviews of those along the way as well. I’ll be posting a Discussion Topics post two weeks before our discussion, to get everyone’s brains clicking and commenting here on the group blog or in our Facebook Cannonball Read Book Chat group.
The Count of Monte Cristo is quite long, as many of you pointed out on our voting post. Due to its length, I’m suggesting reading the abridged version if you’re concerned about finishing in time. Or perhaps an audio version? That’s likely the route I’m going. Whatever you choose, I sincerely hope you’ll join us back here to discuss this Classic and its screen adaptations!
As a reminder, here’s a synopsis of The Count of Monte Cristo:
- Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a hugely popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.
- Movie versions: Jim Caviezel & Guy Pearce 2002, Richard Chamberlain & Louis Jourdan 1975 television movie, Robert Donat & Louis Calhern 1934.
Seriously, who are all you people who voted for the LONGEST book of all? Some of us have piles and piles of correction work and would like to be able to read something else in the next month apart from this. With the audio books being between 47 and 53 hours long (after a quick glance at Audible), that really doesn’t help things. Audio books are WAY slower than my regular reading speed, even speeded up to x1. 5. Besides, I have to read the damn book in Norwegian, because that is the copy I own. Sit in a corner and think about what you’ve done, majority.
All I could do was thank goodness that I’ve already read this one. It’s a b*tch and a half to get through. Excellent, but long as all get out. Good luck on trying to power through!
I haven’t read it since I was a teenager, when I still believed that the longer the book, the better. I read my Mum’s three volume version Les Miserables in about four days while visiting my grandmother. When trying to re-read that a few years ago, I could barely make it through the first third. I am going to read the book, though, as I’ve wanted to for ages. I just resent how much time it’s likely to take away from other reading, now that I have so little spare time to do it.
You read Les Miserables in four days?
….
I can’t even fathom being able to read that fast. The closest I’ve ever come, I think, was when I read Crime and Punishment in 4-5 days as a teenager.
I was fourteen or fifteen and stuck at my grandmother’s, on the Norwegian West coast, in what I suspect was fairly bad weather (because that is more often than not what the weather is like there). It was also in a time long before internet access or mobile phones, so what else was I supposed to do, when the only one my own age was my cousin, who loathed me as much as I did him? He was a bully, and I was a big geek. We had nothing in common. I doubt I did much more than read for those days, happy as a pig in mud. I know I couldn’t do it now, but as a teenager, I was pre-disposed to adore any book more than 600 pages long.
I’m right there with you. I read David Copperfield, Crime and Punishment, Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and every other 1,000+ page book I could get my little hands on.
I just wasn’t as fast as you, lol.
Oh man, the Herman Wouk novels! I loved them! I normally didn’t read books quite that fast, I just remember that I barely did nothing but read, eat and sleep for those few days, because I was so engrossed in the story (and there was nothing else to do). From what I’ve heard, a lot of people struggle with Les Miserables in English, because at least one of the translations is badly done. My husband certainly hasn’t ever managed to finish it, and he was an even more omnivorous reader than me and adores the musical. It’s also why I’m going to read The Count of Monte Cristo in Norwegian, I remember that translation being good.
I voted for Age of Innocence! Don’t hate me!
(But I will also admit I was secretly hoping we would pick this one, instead. So maybe hate me after all.)
So did I. *grumble*
I came here to say exactly this. Down to the massive stack of grading. :(