More about airplane books

As if 950 pages of carryon reading (see previous post) didn't convince me to look for something a little more portable, I succumbed to the lure of a previously un-read classic and bought a paperback copy of The Count of Monte Cristo the day before leaving for Las Vegas.

At 1452 pages, the book weighed down my purse, but it was worth the trouble - I read about 250 pages during the flight, and got through another couple of hundred during the weekend, without being rude or anti-social. (My sensible sister-in-law was reading a truly pocket-sized book. My brother rolled his eyes when I brought out the Count.)

I don't know how I had missed reading the book all this time, because Dumas' other best-known classic, The Three Musketeers, was my favorite read and re-read in junior high and high school.

Having at last encountered Edmond Dantès, I recommend him to everyone. In spite of the Victorian English of the translation, the book is, as they say, a "ripping yarn." Lorenzo Carcaterra, who contributed an excellent introduction to the Modern Library paperback, describes the book as the ultimate revenge fantasy, but Edmond is driven as much by his desire to right the wrongs done to his friends as by a thirst for vengeance.

Because Dumas wrote for serialization, he could take time to describe, to develop character, to set the scene. The book is cinematic - no wonder it has been filmed many times.

And if the story sometimes requires too much suspension of disbelief, remember that it's a fantasy, peopled with scheming villains of both sexes, a mysterious mute Nubian servant, a beautiful Greek slave, lovers parted by dreadful circumstances, illegitimate children who discover their true parentage in improbable ways - and a hero who overcomes every obstacle that comes his way, no matter how formidable.

And its most stirring underlying theme is the power of education to enlarge the world and mitigate desperate situations. Edmond survives 14 years in the Chateau d'If not only because of his dreams of revenge but also because of knowledge imparted by his fellow prisoner, the Abbé Faria.

I just wish I had discovered the book before visiting Marseilles. Now I have to go back, to see the landmarks that remain.