Honestly this is my first Manga novel and I’m in love. The Count of Monte Cristo is a classic thats been on my list forever, I have never read it. So when I saw this graphic novel in Netgalley, I had to get it. The illustrations are extraordinary and the story flow is kept well. The reactions of every character is amazing it helps with the tone, while reading. A+ work by Stacy King!! I’ll watch out for more Mangas in future! Consider me a fan.

Thank you Udon Entertainment & Netgalley for the arc. This is my own honest opinion.

Amazing visual adaptation of a classic piece of literature!

It has been a long time since I have read the original masterpiece by Alexandre Dumas. What I do remember is that it was a very long read, a great one but a long one. How can such an extensive epic adventure be condensed enough to fit in a single manga volume? Better than I expected, apparently.

Manga Classics and Crystal S. Chan deliver a near-perfect condensed version of the Count’s story. I did miss some scenes from the original that were either summarized on a single page with narrative boxes or cut out altogether. However, the focus was kept on the major theme: Revenge. For this reason, I believe it does justice to the original.

The art by Nokman Poon makes for a beautiful visual adventure. It gives a good manga vibe while staying faithful to the story setting of 19th century France.

All in all, this is the first manga I have read from the “Manga Classics” series, but it inspires me to seek out some of the other stories! I wish they could have done multiple volumes to delve deep in the original story of Monte Cristo but this abridged version was probably the best it could be for a single tome.

The first of the Manga Classics I've read where it was clear that they had cut material (they had to - the penguin edition of the book is over 1200 pages!), but they captured the essence of the melodrama, riches, revenge, machinations, and ultimate redemption story. The art didn't wok for me as much here - something about the characters was lifeless and generic. But overall a fun manga read.

I really enjoyed this! The art is lovely and the facial expressions capture the emotions of the characters very well. It felt like a complete story, which was nice. I also was able to read it in one sitting which is something I definitely would not have been able to do with the original novel.

It's been a number of years since I've read the Count of Monte Cristo, but I feel like this manga captured the story beautifully. It might have been a bit confusing if I hadn't read the Count of Monte Cristo before, but I think even without the background information the story would mostly make sense, since it's been 18 years since I read the novel.

I'd like to preface this by saying I've never read any manga and the only Count of Monte Cristo I have experience is the 2002 film.

However, I really loved this! I thought there was some additional drama and love angles than the movie and I thought the whole story was super easy to read and enjoy,

I really like anime style art and the facial expressions and style lent drama to some scenes.

Really fun and I'm definitely going to try some more classics like this.

Interesting and innovative take of the well-known classic. As a fan of the original version of the book, I appreciate they have tried to take a quite lengthy book (which can often be intimidating to young readers) and modernize it for a new audience, bring new fans of the manga version who could potentially read the classic version after. It is visible how much effort has gone into this version, it is drawn beautifully and has been well summarized to be a 400 page manga. I still prefer the original, as it's the book that made me a fan of reading as a child.

On the day of his wedding, merchant sailor Edmond Dantes is falsely imprisoned and sent to rot in a secluded prison. He manages to escape and makes his way back to the men who imprisoned him as a reinvented man with a large fortune. Since no one recognizes him, he’s able to slither his way into their lives and enact the revenge he’s been plotting throughout the years he spent in prison.

What made the manga version of this book so appealing was the format of it. It condensed the plot in such a way that all the major elements and characters were present and didn’t waste time on less important matters. It was engaging that you could feel the tension in each plot line because you could see the emotions on the characters’ faces, something that only a graphic novel could give you. Another really cool element is at the end of the book, the artist mentions that visits were made to the infamous scenes in the story in order to get the most accurate images.

The story itself is, of course, absolutely enthralling and delightful as you watch the brilliance with which the Count exacts his revenge. He’s cunning, resourceful, and kind to those he cares about so it’s easy to side with him and empathize as the story unfolds. If you haven’t read any manga classics or are a fan of the original novel I highly recommend reading this one!

Thank you Udon Entertainment for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A visual re-telling of one of the best books in literature. Very exciting and very well done!

I still recommend you read the original, but this one is a lot of fun.

A story of hope. One that teaches the reader the power of perseverance.
Despite the manner in which many of the characters end up, it says that justice will be served either from the hand of man or providence.

Okay first off-- unrelated to the quality of this book-- I read this through the netgalley app, and about a quarter of the way in when I was thinking this story made no sense at all, I realized I was reading it backwards. As a warning for others who might be reading it the same way... you'll have to scroll all the way to the bottom of this very long book to get to the start! Since I read this over the course of a few weeks and it's pretty dense, my initial foray didn't spoil much for me.

I'm usually not much of a fan of Manga Classics because the combination of the art style with the original ye olde dialogue of a classic is jarring and a little confusing. But the more I read, the more interested I was and I was able to adjust to the style of storytelling. Admittedly, keeping every character straight in my head was difficult because there are so many players but if I'd had a physical copy, I'd easily be able to flip to the pedigree chart that helpfully illustrated the connections (although it also acts to give key elements of the story away).

But I still found it straight forward enough-- boy meets girl, boy is about to marry girl, boy gets falsely accused of treason and is sent to prison for a decade and a half and vows revenge, boy (now man) enacts carefully planned revenge scheme over the course of 350 pages or so.

I appreciated the attention to detail of the period costumes, the scenery, and the distinct character drawings. There are some alterations to the original character designs from the book, but they are done for good reason as visual media has certain limitations. There were moments when my blood ran cold by what I read, which tells me this adaptation succeeded in capturing the original's mood and message. Well done!

Edmond Dantès gets the exciting news that he will become captain of the ship he has been working on. When his adversaries find out, they make sure he will not be captain, and put him in jail. After being in prison for years, Edmond becomes friends with a fellow prisoner who gives Edmond his personal fortune. With this newfound wealth, Edmond reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. It takes a few years, but the Count devises a plan to bring justice down on all of the men who made him suffer.

I found it funny that the characters didn’t recognize Edmond as the Count. It had been years since they saw him and they assumed he had died, but I still think they would have recognized him. This created some dramatic irony, since the reader knows that he is Edmond, but most of the characters don’t recognize him.

I liked the illustrations in this manga. I find that sometimes the characters end up looking alike in some manga comics. Each character had a distinct style and looked different, so it was easy to tell them apart. I also found the story very easy to follow with the illustrations. The Count of Monte Cristo is a long novel that I’ve never read, but I could understand the story, and read it much quicker, in this format.

This is a great manga adaptation!

Thank you Udon Entertainment for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really interesting take on the classic. The whole manga edition was a great addition to the classic oeuvre. the size for the original book had always intimidated me and as such, I never got the courage to pick it up. But this manga edition was great because apart from the fact that the drawings made the story much more captivating, the condensation also brought down the overall size of this humongous classic. The illustrator has done justice to the story and the fact that he did his due research going to France etc, only reflected wonderfully in his sketch renderings of the story. Overall, I really recommend this to anybody who is afraid of picking up the actual classic. Reading this marvelous union of a French story narrated in an originally Japanese art form, was a super delight for my reader's heart as well as the manga fan inside me. Pick it up!

This has always been one of my favorite classics. I was a bit nervous going in to this read, because I figured that much of the story and plot would be cut or oversimplified. I was wrong. The writing was great, the illustrations amazing. I think they managed to keep the heart of this story while at the same time, giving it a fresh presentation that new generations will enjoy.

What a wonderful introduction to classic literature!
The graphic novel format allows the reader to learn the main story. If they’re hooked, they can check out the novel to get all the subplots.
The illustrations are terrific.
I loved it!
It won’t be my last classic graphic novel!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for my honest review.

What a fun way to read this classic! Though I was familiar with the story, I haven’t read the original so I can’t comment much on the way it was narrated. I do appreciate how the story was told.I loved the artwork!! Overall, It was a joy to read!

Really enjoyed the Manga Classic. Pretty faithful to the original . Makes this classic very accessible. I loved the illustrations . They were gorgeous . One of my favourites so far

I’ve always wanted to try Manga so I thought these Manga versions of classics would be the perfect place to start. I really enjoyed reading this. I love a good graphic novel and a good classic so this is was great. It took some getting used to reading “backwards” but after a few pages you get a good flow. I need to check out more of these classics.

Such a great manga of this classic! The artwork was beautiful and the emotion that came thru was wonderful! Loved it!

I really liked the idea of a comic book styled after a Classic novel. I really like classics but sometimes they are so hard to get through and can take me a really long time. Not to mention I am a visual learner so when I found out there were Manga Classics I just HAD to read one. I had never read the Count of Monte Cristo before but because I enjoyed this Manga so much, I will definitely be reading the real thing very soon! I would highly recommend this book for a bit of a change from everyday reading especially if you enjoy classics.

I had never read a Manga and so I was super excited to read one of my favourite works in this format. It must have been a Herculean task to condense the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo into a comic and I must congratulate everyone involved with this particular book on doing an excellent job. I would not go into commenting on the story of this great work but just share a couple of lines about my experience reading t as a Manga, so please bear with me.

Initially it did feel a bit jarring to read the story in this particular format owing to the fact that we are soused to conceiving the characters as Europeans but the transition is made easy by the detailed notes from the creator on how the characters were conceived and sketched. As you might know that the locations where the various events happen actually exist so it was yet again very interesting thing to imagine the effort that has been put in to bringing alive these places and locations.

Reading a Manga was a unique experience for me and I thoroughly loved it!