By now we all know our main character is unjustly imprisoned. Once released the Count is driven by the injustices he endured, he thrives on knowing more than anyone else and by exhibiting the same level of hypocrisy that his accusers did.

I read the Penguin Classics edition, its enhanced the reading experience because of the notes explaining important historical facts. 

One of our main villains, Villefort, is frequently compared to the acting king of Babylon. Villefort himself compares his sins coming to light to “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin suddenly appearing in bloody letters on the wall", a quote from Daniel 5 letting King Balthazar know that his days as king are numbered. At the height if Villeforts destruction his wife commits suicide and takes their son with her. When Dantes reveals himself at no point does Villefort express remorse for what he did to Dantes, he never even acknowledges that his misfortunes would have been avoided had he acted with humanity towards Dante’s instead of using him as a stepping stone for his benefit while Dantes rotted away. When Villefort shows his wife and sons corpses to the Count and asks indignantly if he’s satisfied being avenged now, the Count similarly could’ve referenced his fathers dying from starvation and asked if he was satisfied now that he was on his “throne”. 

For much of the novel Dantes is insufferable. He's conniving and has no purpose but to flaunt his wealth and make those who wronged him suffer. As much as I know I shouldn't like him I can't quite do so. I like him, I feel for him and empathize. I think the rancor that has been brewing inside him all these years is justified. The humiliation he feels at recalling the people he trusted and the life that was stolen from him, and by extension, his father. When I think of it that way I don't see a pompous man but a deeply wounded man trying to find a way to heal his wounds.

Not a big fan of how the novel wrapped up with the Count falling for Haydee when she could be his daughter, very typical turn of events for a novel written by a man. Likewise, Mercedes being described as having lost her beauty while Dantes still shone with youth. Very typical of male author to make the woman into an old hag while the man stays young and fit and goes off happily ever after with a girl young enough to be his daughter.

On a more positive note; I'm a hopeless romantic and enjoyed a small subplot of two souls growing up together, my favorite quote of them being:

"Despite this, the two young people had never declared their love to one another. They had grown up side by side like two trees, the roots of which mingle beneath the earth, as their branches above it and their scents in the air. Yet their desire to see one another was the same: this desire had become a need, and they could understand death better than a single day's separation.”

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