THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Nearly everyone is familiar with the titles of 'The Three Musketeers', 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and 'The Count of Monte Cristo.' Fewer will know that they were written by the prolific French author Alexandre Dumas in the mid-nineteenth century. Fewer still will have actually read them, although they may be familiar with various abridgements and screen adaptations.

Before a friend suggested I read 'The Count of Monte Cristo' last month, I too was only vaguely familiar with the work, believing it to be a children's story, a common misconception Robin Buss notes in his introduction to the new(ish) and excellent Penguin translation.

The reality is, this twelve hundred and fifty-page doorstopper is a well-constructed complex tale of a slow and meticulous revenge. The action begins in the Mediterranean, post-Waterloo, and then spans two decades, shifting to Rome before moving to Paris for the majority of the book.

Don't be put off by the length, which is about the same as 'War and Peace' : this is a page-turner which I was able to read in eleven days. There are many abridged versions out there, and many older bowdlerised translations, but the complete Buss translation is the version to get.

And, far from being a child's tale, the novel contains candid descriptions of drug-taking, executions, and the hint of lesbianism and cross-dressing. Moreover, the nature of the revenge which is at the centre of the story is brutal and unrelenting in the extreme.

Highly recommended.