Howdy Otterites, Francis here again for another wonderful Francis Friday!
Once again I have a question to pose, and this time I’ll keep it simple. If you could pick ONE . . . and ONLY ONE . . . what would be your favorite work of all time of Classic Literature?
Three small provisos, as Robin William’s genie in Aladdin said. First, it can be from any culture, but has to be universally recognized as a true classic and this should not be an arguable point. (Should there be a disagreement on this issue, the majority of our threesome shall decide the matter. Hopefully neither of my amigos will ‘dance along the edge of the Neutral Zone’ on this matter.) Second it must have been written before the Hemingway Era, say 1950. (If you insist on “The Old Man and the Sea” from 1951 I’ll make that single exception but that’s it.) And finally (and most importantly) . . . you have to have actually read the darn thing (in an English translation if need be, of course.)
All square? Now for mine.
For me, surprisingly it’s NOT Hemingway, although The Sun Also Rises almost took the prize. If I could have only one, however, it would have to be Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo first published (in serial form actually) from 1844 to 1846.
If you haven’t read it (and by all means you should) it is considered a historical adventure novel and takes place both during and just after the time of Bonaparte. Its tale of revenge against horrible injustice rings true and powerful every time I read it and I’ve done so at least half-a-dozen times and counting.
It’s perennially in my eBook’s “Now Reading’ space and its dauntingly dense 1,276 pages (depending on your printing) actually makes it easy for me to pick up on at various points along the way constantly.
The novel is really too dense to adapt fully to the screen, although there have been well over 50 film and television versions to date, with no doubt more to come eventually. Most people today probably remember Jim Caviezel’s 2002 movie version, which was good, although took way more story liberties than I liked. (Cut things, of course, but rewrite Dumas? Heaven forbid.)
The one that got me started was the 1974 TV version with Richard Chamberlain, which although only 90 minutes was excellent, if hugely condensed. Perhaps the best film version so far is the four-part 1998 French TV mini-series starring Gerard Depardieu, who gives a great performance not only as both Edmund Dantes and the Count, but also as his various often-omitted aliases. (Yes, I know they’re all the same person, but if you have to ask the question, you’ve not understood one of the major themes of the novel.) Depardieu’s version ran nearly seven hours total, which for once gave Dumas’ text the room to properly breathe.
I throw the ball over to my other two compadres to hear their picks. (We’ll probably do this again to hear some of our other favorites, but for now PICK ONLY ONE!)
And for my requisite video, I offer the rare TV trailer for the version that started it all for me:
