The Count of Monte Cristo
$2.99
Price checked Oct 28. Prices change often, so confirm on Amazon before you buy.
The original revenge epic: framed and imprisoned for fourteen years, Edmond Dantès escapes, finds a hidden fortune, and returns under a new name to ruin the men who betrayed him.
Our take
The original revenge epic, still the best
A young sailor is framed on his wedding day, buried in an island fortress, and comes out years later rich, patient and very, very angry. Over a million Goodreads readers rate it among the most satisfying stories ever told: the prison chapters with the Abbé Faria, the slow tightening of Dantès's traps, the disguises and reveals. The Paris middle stretch is where readers stall, and the cast gets big. We'd hand this to anyone who thinks classics are homework; this one is pure plot, and the ending repays every page.
4.6 out of 5 from 12,617 Amazon ratings