Book · 1844
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas
A framed sailor rots in an island prison for fourteen years, escapes with a fortune, and spends the rest of the book collecting on every debt of vengeance.
What does Reddit think of The Count of Monte Cristo?
r/suggestmeabook drives this one: 974 of the book's 1,164 tracked mentions sit there, mostly as one-line recommendations rather than debate. r/printSF contributes 125, r/Fantasy another 64, and in both cases it lands as a comparison pick. The top r/Fantasy comment (↑224) suggests it to someone who already finished The Three Musketeers, treating Dumas as a package rather than pitching Monte Cristo as genre fiction. Where the praise gets specific, it's consistent: the ↑684 comment names the scale, how side plots resolve even when Dantès is offstage, and the adventure that keeps bleeding through the revenge plot. A lot of the rest is just the title, posted and upvoted with no elaboration, which says more about consensus than argument. The comment section's real recurring subplot is procrastination. One ↑205 reply admits finally cracking it open after years on the to-be-read pile. Across three subreddits and 1,010 separate commenters, nobody in the sample argues against finishing it.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · revenge paid out in full
- · epic scale and patience
- · recommended across genres, not native to any
- · the to-be-read backlog joke
Common praise
- + The ↑684 top comment praises how side plots resolve even when Dantès isn't on stage, calling out the book's scale directly.
- + r/Fantasy readers recommend it off the back of The Three Musketeers, treating it as the natural next step rather than a chore.
- + Multiple comments over ↑300 in r/suggestmeabook just drop the title with no caveats, which reads as an unqualified yes rather than a lukewarm nod.
Common criticism
- − Most of the top-voted comments in r/suggestmeabook are one line, just the title with nothing else, so you're trusting volume rather than argument.
- − The ↑205 comment admits sitting on it for years before starting, which suggests the length intimidates more readers than the plot ever will.
- − It shows up in r/printSF and r/Fantasy as a comparison title rather than as core reading in either genre, which says more about crossover appeal than about genre fit.
Who it's for
Start here if you already read The Three Musketeers and want the follow-up r/Fantasy keeps pointing people toward. If The Count of Monte Cristo has sat on your to-be-read pile for years, the ↑205 commenter got there eventually too, so there's no shame in the delay. Want plot that pays off slowly rather than instantly? This rewards patience over hooks. If you need a comment section to argue you into a book, look elsewhere — most of r/suggestmeabook just posts the title and moves on, so you'll have to trust the volume instead of the reasoning.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Count of Monte Cristo?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“*The Count of Monte Cristo* The epic scale of the whole thing. It's not just the size of the book, but how all the pieces fall into place even when the main character isn't even on stage. I also love that there's a bit of adventure bleeding through the revenge
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“I know this is the fantasy subreddit but I see that you read The Three Musketeers, so I'm going to suggest The Count of Monte Cristo.
“The Count of Monte Cristo.
“The Count of Monte Cristo. However, I *finally* started it last week after years on my tbr 😂
Convinced? Pick up The Count of Monte Cristo
Readers also mention
All books like The Count of Monte Cristo →Books that share discussion threads with The Count of Monte Cristo — counted from the comments, not curated.
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A father is murdered, three sons are suspects, and the real defendant is whether God exists.
The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie
Nine-Fingers the barbarian just wants to survive one more winter, but a torturer's investigation and a prince's war have other plans.
Neuromancer
William Gibson
A burned-out hacker banned from cyberspace takes one last job to breach the AI that might already own a piece of him.
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry
Two aging Texas Rangers drive a stolen cattle herd a thousand miles north, hauling four decades of friendship and regret with them.
Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes
A man with a low IQ undergoes surgery that turns him into a genius, and has to watch the intelligence, and everyone's honesty, fade back out.
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro
An aging butler drives across England to see an old colleague, insisting the whole way that he has no regrets about the life, or love, he didn't choose.
The Count of Monte Cristo — frequently asked
Is The Count of Monte Cristo worth the time commitment?+
Yes, on volume alone: it's racked up 1,164 mentions across r/suggestmeabook, r/printSF, and r/Fantasy over seven years, and nobody in the top-voted comments argues against finishing it. The ↑684 comment specifically praises the scale, how minor plotlines resolve even when Dantès is offstage. The recurring complaint isn't quality, it's procrastination: one ↑205 reply admits starting it only after years of putting it off.
Why does r/Fantasy recommend The Count of Monte Cristo if it's not fantasy?+
Because it functions as a gateway from adjacent classics, not because the sub treats it as genre fiction. The top r/Fantasy comment (↑224) suggests it specifically to someone who'd already read The Three Musketeers, treating Dumas as a package deal rather than pitching Monte Cristo on its own fantastical merits. It's a comparison pick, one of only 64 mentions in that sub against 974 in r/suggestmeabook.
Is The Count of Monte Cristo more revenge story or adventure story?+
Both, and Reddit's top comment says so directly. The ↑684 reply in r/suggestmeabook credits 'a bit of adventure bleeding through the revenge' as part of what makes the scale work. Nobody in the sampled quotes treats it as a pure revenge tragedy; the adventure elements get cited as a feature, not a distraction.
Do people actually finish The Count of Monte Cristo once they start it?+
The data suggests yes, eventually. The ↑205 comment describes finally starting it 'last week after years on my tbr,' which is the closest thing to a complaint in the sample. People stall on the length, not the story, and the delay gets treated as a running joke rather than a real objection. Once started, no top comment across r/suggestmeabook, r/printSF, or r/Fantasy reports quitting partway through.