From "Intertextual Irony and Levels of Reading", in On Literature, translated from the Italian by Martin McLaughlin:

"... We should beware of... this distinction of levels as though on one side there were an easily satisfied reader, only interested in the story, and on the other a reader with an extremely refined palate, concerned above all with language. If that were so, we would have to read The Count of Monte Cristo on the first level, becoming totally enthralled by it, and maybe even shedding hot tears at every turn, and then on the second level we would have to realise, as is only right, that from a stylistic point of view it is very badly written, and to conclude therefore that it is a terrible novel. Instead, the miracle of works like The Count of Monte Cristo is that, while being very badly written, they are still masterpieces of fiction. Consequently the second -level reader is not only he who recognises that the novel is badly written but also the one who is aware that, despite this, its narrative structure is perfect, the archetypes are all in the right place, the coups-de-scene judged to perfection, its breadth (though at times stretched to breaking point) almost Homeric in scope - so much so that to criticise The Count of Monte Cristo because of its language would be like criticising Verdi's operas because his librettists, Francesco Maria Piave and Salvatore Cammarano, were not poets like Leopardi. The second-level reader is then also the person who realises how the work manages to function brilliantly at the first level."