Between the pages

I just finished reading "The Count of Monte Christo" and I am once again reminded why I enjoy reading the classics more then modern novels.

There is just something on each of those pages that has been forgotten in our time, something that is so rare to find among the pages of todays books.

I have found upon researching the novel, that while each story is different, they follow the same pattern. In a romantic novel, two strangers meet and they fall in love. Something will threaten that love and test their relationship but in the end, most of the time anyway, they live happily ever after. The same is true for each genre, in horror or fantasy, etc, you can undoubtedly find a pattern. Eventually it becomes boring.

However, when I delve into the classics, into a time before there was 'structure' to writing, I find that every page leaves me guessing what will happen next. I cannot even guess because most times I am totally wrong. By the time I finish, I completely in awe of these former masterminds. How could they have weaved such a tale so deeply?

Every page of Monte Christo left me holding my breath and I flew through each page wanting to know how he would seek his revenge and how each person life had ultimately interwoven with the next. It wasn't until the last page, that I took that breath and closed the back flap with the sense of awe that always fills me.

Some laugh at the classics, thinking they are a thing of the past, something that is long forgotten. Yet, they would be wrong. The classics should be read every day, if not to remind us of our history but to give us a learning experience like no other.