Most ebooks that sell for $0.53 to $9.67 are no better than what you’d get for free and quite possibly worse. TAMC recommends the Lowell Bair abridgement. The Abbreviated Monte Cristo has a ton of info on abridgements and children’s, comics, and manga adaptations. Maybe that’s rationalization and maybe that’s logic, but either way, perhaps you’d be better served by a shorter version of this classic story. Moreover, serialized stories had to remind readers of what had already happened. Dumas was paid by the word, and was therefore motivated to include words that were not, strictly speaking, necessary to the story. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, I get where you’re coming from. The Count of Monte Cristo: Abridged Translations Keep reading to learn how to choose one that’s right for you. Still, there are a TON of versions out there. 1990 – Anonymous, revised by David CowardĪpart from Robin Buss, I don’t know of any translator who re-did the whole thing from scratch.1846 – Anonymous, published by Chapman and Hall.There have been… three? It’s actually more complicated than that, but… according to Wikipedia, editions before the anonymous 1846 translation were abridged, and pretty much every edition after the anonymous 1846 translation was based on it, Bair and Buss being the exceptions. If you’re not too concerned with the details, jump down to the conclusion. That’s sorted, then.Īs soon as you visit the library or bookshop or click over to Amazon, you realize there are a host of publishers offering a myriad of paperback and hardcover editions and dozens of digital versions. You’ll find a copy in any decent library or bookstore, and if you like reading ebooks, you can download the novel for free because it’s not under copyright. This massive novel has been available in English since the 1840s. So you want to read Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure, The Count of Monte Cristo. AND I found it on DVD so I can watch it over and over.Which translation or edition of The Count of Monte Cristo should I read? Watching this made-for-television series was one of them. The ending, as several other comments express, is a bit too up-beat, but so what? Life is full of wonderful and unexpected joys. Unlike some adaptations of Dumas' novels, this one had very little swash and even less buckle, being more character driven and fueled by last minute escapes and near fatal outcomes. I found myself an eight year old all over again. Dumas' story is so sturdy that any injury visited upon it would be only superficial. Although many liberties are taken, as usual with movie producers and directors, it still is an exciting and involving tale. I have seen almost every film adaptation of The Count, going back to the 1934 version with Robert Donat to the last one with Guy Pierce. Then on to Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand, and others, all recommended by those lovely ladies in the local library. I learned that Dumas was French and had written many other books. That experience changed my life from a casual reader to a dedicated and life-long lover of books. I was a bit over- come, but began to read this book right then and there, sitting in a bay window overlooking the little river that flowed past the library's huge windows. I had never actually read a "novel" of that size. Presenting mine to the local librarians, they suggested a novel by Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. At the end of the school year we were given the usual Summer Reading List. The two librarians in my little home town in Louisiana always pushed me to read books that were at least two grades ahead. This wonderful series, starring the great Gerard Depardieu, pulled me back to my childhood at about eight years old. One could say I am an old coot, geezer, at the age of 71.
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