I recommend everyone who can get their hands on the book to read it.
Imagine yourself walking through the harbour of Marseille, a bright future ahead, to be captain of the Pharaon, unbeknown to you that your close ones are plotting your downfall and that you have years of terror and torture ahead. This is the exact feeling Edmond Dantes had, happy as possibly can be, the way to meet his fiancée, Mercedes. The previous captain of the ship, M. Leclere, passed in agony during the voyage of the Pharaon due to brain fever. Naturally, being the first mate, Dantes takes control of the ship. The poor 19-year-old just wanted to fulfil the last wishes of late Captain Leclere and stopped at the Island of Elba (Napoleon Bonaparte’s retreat) to receive a packet, whose contents were unknown to him, and deliver it to a Bonapartist, Noirtier. Dantes’ crewmate, Danglars, was jealous of his role as captaincy at such a young age. Together, he and Fernand, Merecedes’ cousin who is in love with her although Mercedes doesn’t return his love, plot the downfall of Dantes by reporting the package to the authorities. A few days later, Dantes is on the verge of marriage as the police force of Marseille arrests him on the pretext of Bonapartism. Here, it is revealed that Noirtier’s son, Villefort, is resolving the case. Knowing that the letter would destroy his career if it were to be known that his father is a Bonapartist, he destroys the letter. He then proceeds to sentence Dantes to imprisonment for life in the infamous Chateau d’If. Six years of persecution pass slowly enough, even slower if you are innocent and know you have been cheated. The book is overall a great novel and I recommend everyone who can get their hands on the book to read it. The book truly teaches life lessons and is the perfect mix of love, betrayal, hatred, revenge, joy, despair, torture, and suffering. The last words of the book still ring in my head “All of human knowledge is summed up in two words – wait and hope.”