The Count of Monte Cristo; Volume 1

This edition is in French and it is NOT abridged. Exactly what I was looking for!

Despite what one of the reviewers above claims, this IS the original, unabridged French classic novel. It is over 1500 pages long (not the mere 150 pages claimed). It is a beautiful, classic story, with the gorgeous prose and intricate plots which Dumas is renowned for. One of my absolute favorite books. Of course, this particular ISBN is written in French.

Twenty-five years ago, I was in freshman college French class, and could read plays and short stories by the great French authors. A recent visit by a French exchange student showed me how much I'd forgotten, so I decided to try reading French again. This great tale by Alexandre Dumas was the perfect way to start: it's the familiar story of false imprisonment and exceedingly complex revenge in the early 19th century. This is the unabridged version with each of 2 volumes running to 750 pages, so it became my bedtime companion for months. Dumas is a wonderful story-teller, almost always amusing or exciting. It's light reading; my old vocabulary wouldn't have been up to metaphors or symbolism. The only draw-back is a lack of footnotes: much of the action takes place in Italy and the text is sprinkled with some Italian terms that I couldn't translate. The Oxford English translations of Dumas' works offer little tidbits of historical and geographic information that are very helpful in understanding context; none of that is available here. Overall though, I heartily recommend this edition for the reader who wants to wade into the original works of a great French novelist.