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Rating: 
Summary: Cliffnotes in French?
Review: It's a pity that Amazon's description of this item isn't more complete--I never would have ordered it. This item is NOT a novel! It is not the original French version of Alexandre Dumas' classic adventure. The closest I can come to describing this book is that it must be the French equivalent of Cliffnotes!The book itself is only about a 130 pages long. The story contained in it is a pathetic paraphrasing of the actual novel, condensed and simplified to make an interesting study guide for the student. I'm not sure how the author hoped to accomplish this, though--the entire story is changed. This book might be of value to someone who only wanted to read something in French. It has notes in the margins to explain words that might be unfamiliar, and is rather easy reading. But if you're looking for anything more than that, you'd be better off taking a trip to Paris yourself and picking up your own copy.
Rating: 
Summary: The Count of Monte Cristo in the original French
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Count of Monte Cristo in the original French
Review: 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.
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