Is a 1,100+ page book worth the commitment?

I finally found out.

I’d loved the early-2000s movie adaptation of *The Count of Monte Cristo*, so I was curious to see whether Alexandre Dumas’s original adventure would live up to the version I already knew.

There were some slow stretches. A LOT of characters. More geographical detail than I strictly needed.

But somewhere along the way, I realized I was reading something much more interesting than a revenge story.

Come find out why I think *The Count of Monte Cristo* is worth the time, what didn’t quite work for me, and why this classic left me thinking about justice, vengeance, inequality, and who gets to decide when punishment has gone too far.