I loved this.
I was a little leery at first because The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite novels, I wasn't sure how safe it'd be in the manga edition. It's a fairly big book with a lot going on, and I know the story would have to be abridged to make it into this but suffice to say I wasn't disappointed at all. I loved it. The most important bits were here, the art was beautiful and helped give an extra depth to the story and it was immensely enjoyable.

I am delighted to say that is yet another wonderful rendition of a classic book by Udon Entertainment. They have made it possible for me to enjoy so many classics by turning them into graphic novels. I can only guess at how massive of an undertaking it is to do this. I have not read many of the classics over the years, but I am so enthralled with this method of enjoying them, I can’t get enough.  I also get a kick out of how the books are read backwards. (Start at the last page instead of the first.) 

There are so many reasons why I think graphic novels are a wonderful way to enjoy a book:  the pictures make it easier to understand the characters emotions and what is going on in the scene without a lot of extra words, and children enjoy reading them.  This is a book, I’m sure would not get a lot of attention in a library in typical novel form, but with the addition of a colorful cover and stunning artwork throughout, this becomes a book with a very large audience.

I highly recommend these Manga books.

Manga Classics: The Count of Monte Cristo (Paperback) 
by Crystal S. Chan
A beautifully rendered edition of the story, taking a dynamic story and bringing it to the modern era. The idea that the historical aspects of the story influenced the artwork makes it more beautiful and a masterpiece.

Book – The Count of Monte Christo
Author – Alexandre Dumas
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 409 (pdf)
Cover – Gorgeous!
Would I read it again? – Yes!
Genre – Comic, Classic, Historical, Manga


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


This was beautiful. Full of gorgeous, detailed illustrations, it remained as true as it could be to the original story, still able to exude mystery and intrigue, while showing the growth of characters such as Dante and those he had once known and loved. Though the story is obviously condensed for the comic, there is still a lot of original detail and plot, allowing us to follow the process without missing too many of the important plot twists and intrigue.

I also have to admit that I love the additional information at the back (front?) of the book, where it details the research process, discusses and introduces the characters and even included an explanation of how they managed to condense the book into a manga.

Overall, it was a great collector's item and someone who adores Alexandre Dumas' work will love the dedication and attention that went into recreating one of his greatest works.

I received a copy of Manga Classics: The Count of Monte Cristo from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

	When I saw that Manga Classics had done a version of the Count of Monte Cristo, I knew right away I had to read it. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite classic novels, so I was very curious to see how well it would handle being adapted into a manga version. I’ve read classics that have been converted into manga by Crystal S. Chan before, so I had no worries about her competence in this case. Though I’ll admit when I was reading her notes on the back I was incredibly impressed (and a little jealous) to see that she had actually done research on location in some cases.
I love the amount of research and effort that is put into the manga classics. There are little details that were included that I also greatly appreciated – such as the family tree of characters at the back, which neatly explained whom was connected to whom and why.
The Count of Monte Cristo is by no means a small novel, coming in at nine hundred and twenty-eight pages (depending on which print version you buy, of course). It must have been no small feat to condense it into a mere four hundred pages. It is understandable that after cutting out five hundred-odd pages from the novel that the pace would change dramatically. Traditionally the Count of Monte Cristo is a slow building story, with actions that don’t fully make sense until the reasoning is revealed towards the end. In the manga version the pace is sped up a bit, so the reasoning is explained in more rapid succession. I still greatly enjoyed reading the manga version – just be aware that it is a different experience to be had.
The artwork for the Count of Monte Cristo is phenomenal. There are so many characters to have to create designs for, and to then have them all be distinct and immediately identifiable. I’m sure it was a challenge, but one that Nokman Poon met with great success. I actually believe that this cover may be my favorite out of all of them – if a print of it was available I can assure you I’d be tempted to buy it and hang it up someplace (again, Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite novels).

The Count of Monte Cristo, manga style. I never thought I would find something like this, basically because I always thought mangas where some Japanese comics you read from backward to forward, which an inconvenience from my point of view. Mangas never brought my attention but this one did. I had The Count of Monte Cristo novel with me for years but I was always unable to start it, scared of its size (around a thousand pages in Spanish, my native language), its author, its plot with a huge historical background, unfamiliar to me, even the writing, so old fashioned. So, I started reading the abbreviated manga version with medium expectations. I immediately liked the cover with Edmond on the front with broken chains and a determined look on his face, dressed in rich garments. Following the instructions on how to read a manga, I started. I immediately loved the story, the initial setting, the characters…the drawings (if I can call them that) were absolutely fantastic, the faces so dreamy...even in black and white (in a 4D high definition world) you could feel the strengths and flaws of each one, the intentions behind their faces, the love and regret, the sorrow and pain…as the story develops and more and more people appear, I started to realize the huge work it must have been to compress an average of a thousand pages of a full story with complicated twists and several parallel plot lines converging into a single manga of four hundred pages. Somehow, they made the story come to life. They made possible to feel the first encounter of Edmond with Mercedes long after his imprisonment, the nervousness, the regret, the unspoken words…that was the moment I decided two things: to read the whole story in one sitting (going to bed at three in the morning, having to work the next day) and after that, to start the novel that was sitting on my selves, waiting. 

I only felt a bit difficult to follow the story trying to recognise the faces of the character which, in black and white, they look very similar sometimes in a complicated story like this one. Really, not to be missed and I would recommend this to manga and classic stories lovers

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2148326035?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I am so grateful for this manga. The Conte of Monte Cristo starts off easy to understand and provocative. But as the mange gets into the plot of the book, it take tangents that take forever to understand in relation to the main story and gets boring. In fact, in the back of the book, the adapter has said that she has streamlined the story for manga format. If that is the case I have no desire to read the full novel. 
As always I enjoyed the art, but unlike other entries in this series, I feel like many of the scenes were dragged out and the character development was sacrificed. That may be because the original work is so complex.  But in the end, I was glad I read this version; I would probably get bored with the original and at least I can discuss the plot with my other literary friends.

After reading this I realized that manga is not for me. But i love the Idea.

first of all; to Fernand Mondego: ew. she is your cousin. incest is wincest.  dont do that. besides Edmond is a lot cuter…
on the side notes: its a brilliant idea to include explanations why a crime was as heavy as it was at that time when Edmond was lynched. as always manga classics staff always picks good works with morals to teach even younger audience of the pasts remnants.  and the forever true thing that money can buy you rank power and people crawling under your feet, as long as you have it…
I liked the story as it was written so i could understand it and the visuals made it really fast to get through. I gave it 5/5 stars because  the art was on point and the extra notes made the story even better.

I was really excited when I saw that there was a manga version of the Count of Monte Christo but also really apprehensive as it is one of my all time favourite books. A book about getting revenge on people who have wronged you - I mean what's not to love! The manga version is only 400 pages which is definitely a whole lot less than the original version but it definitely does not skimp on any major plot points or characters. In fact I did not feel like anything was missing when I read this. I think I even enjoyed it a little bit more than the original because I could read the whole book in one sitting. The story flowed seamlessly, there were no boring bits and the artwork was incredibly beautiful. Can you fall in love with artwork because wow! Each character had their own distinct look so that you can tell who is who just by a glance at the page. I would recommend this version for anyone that is interested in reading a dramatic tale of Revenge whether they have read the original or not!

This was brilliant! I haven’t read the original Count of Monte Christo, but this manga makes me want to! The illustrations were brilliant and the plot moved quickly. They’ve obviously had to cut down on content to fit the novel into a 400 page manga, but it all made sense and it flowed. I really enjoyed it.

Very we'll done book. Illustrations are convincing and we'll detailed. The story moves along at a brisk pace without sacrificing context and content. I like it.

I really enjoyed this book.

This is my second attempt to read Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. In the first attempt, I enjoyed the writing, but began feelking everything bad is about to happen to Edmond Dantes, and I didn't want to read a depressing book at the time. I put it away.

The cover of this book caught my eye, and I was interested in seeing the story adapted as a manga.

This book was great. The art was a nice manga style, and the story was excellent.  Yes, bad things happened to Dantes, but about 50 pages in, we see him walk through the woods with leaves falling and the wind blowing his coat, the dialog bubbles saying

"Farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude. I have been heaven's substitute to reward the good. Now the God of Vengeance yields to me the power to punish the wicked!"

I'm hooked.

Beautifully illustrated and brings new life to an old favourite of mine would definitely recommend buying this for people who have never read The Count of Monte Christo as it might encourage them to buy and read a classical version of it.

I think this is the best Manga Classic adaptation yet. It helps that the original novel is a highly dramatic and very cool story, so there's something nice and meaty to work with. This is, I think, where The Jungle Book fell down for me: not enough interesting happens. With The Count of Monte Cristo, there's betrayals and blackmails and murder on almost every page. It's awesome. There's obviously been a fair bit trimmed. This is about 400 pages, and an unabridged English translation of the original is more like 1200. But it felt, to me, like the script did a great job of leaving the most important things intact, keeping the story not just comprehensible but honestly riveting. The art is some of the best I've seen in this line, too. There's a lot of characters, and their designs are unique enough that I know who is who at a glance, which is not always the case in comics. I just wish the Les Miserables adaptation had been this good, though I'd probably be pickier if I loved The Count of Monte Cristo the way I love Les Mis.

Condensing such an extensive plot as the epic Count of Montecristo to render it in a manga comic was certainly a mammoth task, ,but it has been more than successfully accomplished in this fast paced, true-to-original work. The artist has also managed to picture the charatcers over the span of 25 years that sees the Count's revenge unfold in a way that makes the passing of time tangible and consistant. While I do recommend that you read the original novel, this manga will make you want to do it after giving you a few hours fun mixed with thrill.