One of my all time favourite books is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. I have a confession to make. The only reason I bought it, was because I had a gift card for a book and I wanted to buy the biggest book I could find for the money! When I bought it I was 20 and in my first job as an office junior at a insurance brokers. If I’m honest it wasn’t the most exciting job and during my lunch break I would read my book, as I read further it became the highlight of my day! I started to hide the book in the top drawer of my desk! I would sneakily read a few sentences whenever it was quiet.

Since that first time reading it, I’ve read it through several times. I’ve read it aloud to Sean and have listened to the audiobook a couple of times. There aren’t many stories that have as many layers and surprises throughout. We visited some friends recently who had a beautiful copy of the book on display. I pointed it out and said how much I loved it. We laughed that even though one of them read it, the main reason for buying it was similar to mine! It did look good on their bookshelf!

As with a lot of novels the ending has a huge impact on the flavour of the book. The last lines of the Count are what turn it, from a story about revenge, to a story about holding on to hope.

Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—’Wait and hope’.

Having just finished it again, I have to marvel at Dumas’ skill in story telling, of holding a secret and tying things together. I can’t imagine the amount of planning and thought it took to put the story together and I hope that I would have the patience to write something so masterful.

Maybe those are the words you need to hear over the dreams you hold – Wait and Hope!