Let's take another book as an example. If I were discussing, say, Doctor Zhivago, I'd mention the following points:

1. The novel is an indictment of utopian thinking. Various different communities in the revolution are presented as examples of how utopias go wrong. In essence, it's a realist version of 1984 or We. Fourier's Christian socialism is evident in Meluzeevo, Plato's Republic in the brothers of the forest.

2. Zhivago's three women exemplify the three periods of Russian history covered by the book. Zhivago's first wife is Imperial Russia, Lara is the Revolution and his second wife is Soviet Russia.

3. The poetry of Zhivago is appended to a book that is essentially poetry in prose form. The language used to describe things has a dreamlike quality, a parallel with Impressionism in art and the sense that you need to read it aloud. Many names are mistakenly heard and repeated to change their meanings to the ideas or emotions they evoke in the reader.

4. The book continues the Christian dialogue of Dostoevsky. The essential problem Pasternak has with the Bolshevik Revolution is its destruction of the individual. He writes how the destruction of the Church is taking mankind back to the days of god-kings and worship of the rulers from Eastern despotisms (which of course is what happened with the cult of Stalin). Essentially, the most important thing that Christianity did was emphasize the value of each individual person - man, woman, free, slave, etc. - and the redemptive power of compassion and forgiveness.

5. Picking up on the Christian dialogue, the Revolution is presented in apocalyptic terms, which fits well with the anti-utopian message of the book. Yuriatin, the city in the Urals (based on Yekaterinburg), has as its root "Yuri", which is a Russian form of "Georgiy" or George. Yuri is also Zhivago's first name, and the motif of St. George slaying the dragon is a recurring one.

I could go on and pick up on other interesting points, avenues for discussion or simple tangents (one further example - is Zhivago's daughter encountered during World War II in the epilogue meant to give the reader hope or a commentary on the degeneration of a high culture? ).

Monte Cristo has none of that. Too many of the characters are two-dimensional, too much is left unsaid. It's not character-based, it's just plot-based. In fact, the author who comes to mind most when I'm reading Dumas is DAN BROWN. It's a fun adventure story and an easy read. There's no depth or substance to it, though.