Review: Manga Classics: The Count of Monte Cristo
Author: Alexandre Dumas
Artist:
Adaptation Publisher: Udon Entertainment
This manga interpretation of the Count of Monte Cristo is beautiful. This manga is printed in the traditional Japanese way of backwards to American standards and this is explained with instructions, at the front and back of the book.
The retelling of the tragedy that befalls Edmond Dantes has been slightly softened for a middle grade audience as a teaching tool. It only skims the surface of the darkness of the original book and condenses the length for this audience. It is still a large book of about 400 pages which is easier to handle as a graphic novel.
If parents are concerned about seeing the mistreatment of Edmond in Chateau D’Lf, no worries, that’s all skimmed over. It feels like what happened in Chateau D’Lf is too abbreviated and new readers might not fully understand why it was so bad there. This trimming is addressed in the adaptation notes and it is understandable, this is a huge, complicated novel and certain things had to be smoothed out.
Overall, this is a great adaptation that would allow my son and other younger readers like him get into one of my favorite classic novels!
Thank you to NetGallery for providing me a copy of this manga.
4 of 5
