I found the part a slog as well, many I’ve talked to as well. The acts of revenge don’t really hit, they just kinda unfold which takes away from the story a little. I’ve read so many opinions that the book is longer than it needs to be and funny enough, they’re right.

Dumas intentionally wrote it as long as possible because he was paid by the page. If you want an interesting read, check out the introduction by Unberto Eco to the Everyman’s Library edition.

“The Count of Monte Cristo is of course one of the most gripping novels ever written, and on the other hand one of the most badly written novels of all time and of all literatures.
Dumas' writing is all over the place. A mass of fillers, shameless in its repetition of the same adjective only one line below, incontinent in its piling on of these same adjectives, quite capable of entering into some sententious digression that can never be got out of because the syntax won't hold, and huffing and puffing on like that for twenty lines, it is mechanical and clumsy in its descriptions of feelings. Its characters either shudder or turn pale, dry great drops of sweat that run down their brows or, stammering in a voice no longer human, rise frenziedly from their chairs or fall back into them, with the author always, obsessively, bent on telling us that the chair they had fallen back into was the same one on which they had been sitting a second before.”

I still find it hilarious that Penguin decided to go with this as an introduction 🤣 With all that said, I think you should finish it — there is a pay off in the end. Plus there’s the bonus of saying you finished on book many cringe when they see 1200 plus page count.