<p>"Began to read 'Monte Cristo' at six one morning and never stopped till eleven at night." ?William Makepeace Thackeray<br>"Alexandre Dumas is more than French, he is European; he's more than European, he is universal." ?Victor Hugo<br>"No novelist since Dumas has been more irreverent of the conventions of well-made fiction or any more determined to tell stories without identifiable centers." ?Terrence Rafferty<br><br>Set against the turbulent ...