I read this for my AP European History class, but it is genuinely one of the best classics I've read. Despite never having heard of either Dumas fils or this book before being assigned it, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. The translation was beautiful -- the prose was so layered and dramatic that I felt I could drown in it. I found myself highlighting nearly every line because everything was so well-written. 

I typically don't love books with frame narrators who just listen while some other person yaps for two hundred pages, but I found myself really enjoying this. The narrator did a good job of setting up the context and the plot, but Armand's storytelling was the true highlight; it was so densely, richly romantic and beautiful. I normally find myself getting weighed down about halfway through a classic, especially one of this era, but I found the style of writing and storytelling made this a light, relatively easy read. 

This was a great book to kick off the year with (although I technically started it last year), even if it was required reading. 4.5/5 stars. 

"We must have done something very wicked before we were born, or else we must be going to be very happy indeed when we are dead, for God to let this life have all the tortures of expiation and all the sorrows of an ordeal.”