The Count of Monte Cristo was on again last night. That was one of my favorites as a child. I love plotting and revenge. I remember reading a comic book and watching a cartoon as a child. I read through most of the book once nut something happened and I never finished the book. A few years ago, when the movie came out in theatres, I made my wife go with me. She was surprised, normally I don’t go in for period pieces. At the end of the movie, I’m all of a sudden saying, “What! what, that is so wrong!” I really thought Edmund’s dreams should have come true and he should have lived happily ever after. I don’t know how I missed that every other time I read and saw this book movie.
Cyrano de Bergerac. He should have gotten the girl.
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Rocky should have been given the opportunity to succeed.
The Bible - New Testament - Jesus should have been allowed to hang around long enough to put his foot in it.
djm
No matter how many times I read this I just can’t get it to make sense. Plus, the choice of ‘hang around’ may be a bit unfortunate.
[insert M. Night Shyamalan title here] needs a new ending. 
I was very disappointed with the ending of the Narnia books. The first couple of books are marvelous fun, but then you start realizing you are getting preached to, and by the time you get to the ending you find yourself knocked completely out of the story, unable to find anyone’s eyes that you can see through.
I also didn’t care for the ending of the “His Dark Materials” books. To have had such a strong beginning and middle, the ending felt like a weak echo of what it should have been.
–James
I had the same problem with “His Dark Materials”, James. A let-down.
Lesley
The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Talk about conflicted…The book, a tragedy; the film, a triumph and described as “poor baseball and worse Malamud”. Let’s face it, most Americans prefer Capra over Bergman.
At the risk of throwing this into the other forum, I’m a big RHPS fan, maybe add a chapter, have the two meet.
I agree re Narnia. I think the thing which really ruined the ending for me was the brief mention of how Susan was excluded from returning to Narnia because…I don’t remember how it was put…something like she lost interest, preferring things of her other world.
Even if I could have appreciated the parallels to Xtianity at some level, that one thing tied the narrative to an exclusionary version of the religion which hugely turned me off.
I was ok with how the Pullman trilogy turned out. Kind of sad, and wistful, but that was the point I think. I don’t think there was a way for Will and Lyra to be together that wouldn’t have betrayed the structure of the story in some way. And there is truth in that even after something monumental and lifechanging happening in your life, life goes on…and doesn’t usually stay at that level of exciting.
I would argue that almost any version of Les Miserables which has been put on film has, in some way, screwed up the ending if not some other major feature of the novel. Remarkably, the musical version is probably the truest to the novel’s spirit.
The movie Stripes. The ending was completely stupid…it was like they saw they needed another half hour after the “graduation” scene, so they just pulled something out of their ear.
Everything Iain Banks has written.
Get with the program, DJM! Have you not read the stories? I don’t mean all those rumours spread by Paul. Yer man lit out to Persia. Kept on teaching, got married, raised a family. His tomb is still there. And the Muslims still have a lot of his (later) teachings. For some reasons the Christian church ignores them…
Sounds sensible to me. If he’d stayed around in Judea, the Jewish Authorities would have put another contract on him.
Pretty Woman. She should have given him herpes. Or vice versa.
You should read the book, Mutepointe. I have it in my bookself. It’s a big doorstep of a book. I checked a minute ago, and The Count of Monte Christo is 1243 pages long, in English translation, and War and Peace is 1263 pages long, if you ignore Tolstoy’s second Epilogue (which I would, because it’s sermon, and not story).
This is a whopper of a book to try to condense into a film of two hours long (or less).
Considering the detail - and what detail - that Dumas goes into to fulfil his vengeance, his disappearance at the end is only appropriate. No film can do it justice. It would take a dozen films. The medium is just not suited. Seriously. It’s a great read, too. Nice and light. Think “Three Musketeers” but political, sexual, and sadistically intricate. (Yes, that’s light to me. Sad, isn’t it. 
)
Dumas doesn’t omit the possibility that he does live happily ever after. Just not with anyone involved in the vengeance. In fact, it’s an open ending, worthy of a TV series angling for another season.
How somebody thought “The Count of Monte Christo” was suitable for a children’s book is mind-boggling. It must have been a case of “oh, that’s the guy who wrote the Three Musketeers - the kids will like that.”
Maybe didn’t read the “Hashish” chapter, then…
Other inappropriate Children’s Books:
Gulliver’s Travels - Political and Social Satire. There’s not even a story.
Aesop’s Fables - More Political Satire. I’d love to know the circumstances relating to each story, and the actual people involved. If Aesop were alive today, he would be a political cartoonist. Or working as a scriptwriter on Saturday Night Live or its equivalent.
I thought he went to the south of France and started the Merovingians.
That’s what they would like you to think… 
I read 2 of his books and I have to agree there. They were really frustrating because the books themselves were really good and then there were these weird endings. That said, I liked Consider Phlebas anyway.
I love his early stuff, but I find it really hard to read his books now.
Exactly! All his books seem to have really rushed, “out there” endings. I don’t get it. They also seem to end too abruptly, like if in a movie they do the big reveal then it just cuts to the credits. Every. Single. Time. They lack epilogues.
It’s a real shame because like you I really enjoy the books up to that point.