Tales of adventure are often fun reads. Settling into stories that pull us into new and exciting situations and take us to exotic locations is a true pleasure. Alexandre Dumas created two stories that are very fun, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Jack London wrote many adenture stories, including The Call of the Wild. For a modern adventure, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi provides an escape from reality.

The Count of Monte Cristo. Although this book touches on important issues of love and betrayal and revenge, it’s really a great ride by focusing on a young man who is smart (though not well educated) and a good soul. Set in the early 1800s in Italy, France and Spain, Edmond Dantes is a sailor who at 19 years old is set to become the captain of a merchant ship and marry the beautiful young woman he loves. Jealousy and greed interfere as three men conspire against him and a fourth condemns him to save his own reputation. He is thrown into prison – a dungeon – after being framed as a Bonapartist after the fall of Napoleon.

One of the things I loved about the book was the relationship between Dantes and a fellow inmate, an old man whom everyone believes is insane because he says he has a fortune. Actually, he does. This old Italian priest is both wise and knowledgeable – he becomes Dantes’ teacher. What I love about their relationship is that it focuses on the importance of learning, even when Dantes is never certain that he will be released. Abbe Faria, who is dying, tells Dantes where the treasure is buried (the island of Monte Cristo). Dantes manages to escape and begins to plot his revenge.

I’m not much for revenge in real life – preferring to hope karma steps in to balance things out – but it’s great to read about revenge! His elaborate plot to take down those who betrayed him, who have become rich and powerful, is beautiful. I smiled with glee as he set the plan in motion! The one challenging thing was challenging that, given it was about 20 years later in the lives of these people, there were spouses and children that became “collateral damage” in the course of the plot. The spouses were really not nice people either, so not so bad that they got their comeuppance, but the children gave me twinges of guilt for reveling in the suffering of their parents! Even Dantes (now the Count of Monte Cristo) was a little squeamish after a while. Anyway, there is gossip, intrigue and all kinds of fun stuff here.

The Three Musketeers was a very fun book, too – a great summer read and rollicking good time. I had seen movie versions of the story (which are also very fun) so at first was inclined to pass on the book. So glad I ended up reading this one! The story follows a 19-year old guy who dreams of being a Musketeer. He is smart and is sharp tempered and seems to challenge practically everyone he meets to a duel! He meets up with three Musketeers, who essentially adopt him.

The four undertake a series of adventures, mostly to save the queen’s virtue or to take a poke at the Cardinal’s men. Other than always scamming money from someone, the four are honest and true. The story has romance, adultery, international intrigue, murder and mayhem. There are characters that the reader loves and others they love to hate. There is also an interesting psychopath – Milady de Winter – and by the end of the story she has (sometimes secretly) scared the hell out of all the men in the book, gotta love it when that happens! Dumas knows how to tell a story and I would definitely read more.

The Call of the Wild. Since reading the book when I was a child, I had forgotten how brutal this story was. Men beating dogs, dogs fighting with each other, and dogs sometimes starving were all part of Buck’s life after he was kidnapped from his home in California. He was a big dog who was sold by and to disreputable men and shuttled off to Alaska at the time of the gold rush. Poor Buck was whipped and clubbed (literally and figuratively) into submission. Fortunately he did find happiness, both with a man (and his friends and other dogs) and then with a wolf pack.

The book anthropomorphized its depiction of Buck, attributing an almost human quality to him. He was smart, loyal, friendly and hard-working … unless you crossed him. He could also be vicious and vengeful. Although I loved the “humanness” when I read this the first time, this time I felt it went a little too far. I certainly believe that animals can (and do) feel all of those things but Buck was almost superhuman-esque! He could do anything, achieve anything – he was better, smarter, faster than anyone or anything.

It is a good story, though was hard to read. The treatment of the dogs by some of the men was just terrible. I’m not a violent person, but there was a team of husband, wife and her brother who bought 14 dogs, had no idea what they were doing, overfed the dogs and ran out of food halfway through the journey, didn’t seem to realize that dogs needed to rest – they beat the dogs mercilessly. More than half of the dogs died of hunger and fatigue. The few left, including Buck, could barely move. Buck was saved when someone on the trail intervened on his behalf, but the three people and the remaining dogs pushed on when they shouldn’t have – they fell through the ice. I grieved for the poor half-dead dogs who drowned but cheered that those hideous people died! Perhaps another good things about books … allowing us to express emotions we wouldn’t ordinarily express! Anyway, London’s writing is really beautiful – I could see and feel the story. I enjoyed it and, of course, the end is fun and Buck is amazing.

Life of Pi. I really liked the majority of Life of Pi – it is clever and adventure-filled. It is a wonderful story of a boy who is forced to deal with life-threatening situations. He bravely faces many threats – including the need to survive after a shipwreck leaves him stranded. The story can be read in two ways: the animals who are also castaways from the shipwreck are on the small boat with him or the animals represent people from his life who are sharing the boat. The former interpretation is more charming but unrealistic – it requires suspension of disbelief or the faith that the animals would not harm the boy. He must try to find food, water and fend for himself – and do this without being killed by the tiger or other animals.

This is the scenario described in the main story of the book and is presented by Pi as the truth. The latter interpretation is more realistic but also more disconcerting and (in some ways) frightening. The boy is forced during his time on the small boat to stave off the animals and protect himself – given that some of the animals died (some violently) suggests that perhaps the more fanciful story was the way in which the boy protected himself in the face of trauma. The latter version is presented to those at the hospital after the boy is rescued as the only plausible solution. Which is real? Which do we as readers and as readers/adults want to believe?