The Count of Monte Cristo

   Anyone reading my blog knows that I love book clubs.  I have belonged to many over the years.  Some of them don't last very long.
  

Well, I have belonged to one particular book club for 17 years.  This book club reads a classic novel every other month.  Since we meet 12 times a year, I have read over one hundred classics with this book club.
  Our choice this month: "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.  This picture shows the library copy- 1,272 pages with no pictures and small print.

But, I am in luck!  I found this edited version with only 140 pages!  Excellent!
It is very easy to read because it is written for those readers who are new to the English language.  The introduction adds: "it will be suitable, in fact, for anyone who finds the original book too long or too difficult".

And so, I read the edited version in very short order.  And I got the gist of the story.  However, I was not satisfied that I had really read the book.  In fact, it whetted my appetite for the real thing.  With 117 chapters, I figured that it would take between 20 and 30 hours to read the original novel.  And so I began.....




And then I remembered that I had a kobo that I hadn't used for years, and it was loaded with 100 classics when I bought it.  Sure enough, it includes "The Count of Monte Cristo"!  Yeah!
   
So, please don't disturb me.  I am busy reading about Edmond Dantes who was unjustly put in prison for aiding Napoleon Bonapart in 1815.  I am at 11 percent of the book, and Dantes is digging a tunnel in the wall of the prison, meeting with another prisoner.  I love the flavour of the actual writing of Alexandre Dumas, and plan to continue until.....