Bienvenue à Marseille | 2025 The Count of Monte Christo, read-a-long

Just skipped 8 pages to see where everyone else is!

Thanks @AgualusasLover for the overview. I am on a train journey and going to try and catch up to The Dapple Greys chapter today. No idea how far behind I am 🤣

Not loads of idea what's going on in the book either. I still can't quite the reason for the time jump!

So confusing isn’t it as Dumas Père is the one we’re reading, son of M Dumas le general, and Dumas Fils went on to write La Dame au Camellias later in the 19thC (which became the basis for the opera La Traviata). A very interesting grandfather, father and son!

In the French version I’m reading, some of the footnotes explain the references and there are a few made to other books Dumas wrote (being so prolific), some of which were “true crime” (his “Crimes célèbres”) - I guess both he and the paying public had a taste for the sensational and he knew what sold!

I'm agreeing with everyone regarding The Count's treatment of Ali. I'm struggling to like him to be honest. It's off-putting.

Thank you for the background information on Dumas Senior, Janina.
Very interesting.

And thanks for the schedule, @AgualusasLover !

That’s interesting context @JaninaDuszejko - I knew but had forgotten about Dumas’ parentage. Really hoping that what the Count tells people about Ali is not true and he’s actually much nicer than he makes out…we shall see…

However, there were still dissenting voices at the time. The woman writer George Sand wrote feminist novels like Indiana and Lelia that predate The Count of Monte Cristo.

And in the modern day we have The Handmaids Tale and Fifty Shades of Grey. Dumas was no angel when it came to women, his famous son was illegitimate and removed from his mother to be live with Dumas and be educated.

The racism and orientalism in the book is interesting, as someone said above his father was mixed race and born into slavery in Saint-Domingue. He was taken to France by his father to be educated and rose higher in the military than any black man previously, he was General-in-Chief of the French Army of the Alps. However he publically criticised Napoleon during the campaign in Egypt and then was imprisoned in Naples for several years. Napoleon reinstated slavery in 1802 (it had been abolished by France in 1794) and Dumas (general) died 4 years later when Dumas (novelist) was just a child so Dumas (novelist) presumably grew up very aware of the impact of race.

@AgualusasLover Thanks for the schedule. I am now somehow a day behind after being ahead for weeks. Finding this page-turner makes it hard to stay on schedule!

On the melodrama… it came out in instalments didn’t it? It’s a bit penny-dreadful/ soapy in places but I guess that was to build “ratings” or sales… no different to something like Game of Thrones today I guess.
Yes, it is far more sensationalist than I expected but I am still enjoying it. So glad for the updates though as I keep on forgetting key pieces of the puzzle.

As an aside, Benedetto means "blessed" in Italian which I guess is ironic?! Maybe he will turn out to be a blessing in the future.

And thanks for the schedule @AgualusasLover !

I found that scene with Ali in today’s chapter just awful and can’t imagine someone who has been through what Dantes has speaking of another human as such. I can only hope that it was a ruse for his disloyal valet. And who is he connected to?

Posted before I read your comment, interesting we both thought of Penny Dreadfuls and GoT!

Also love David Copperfield - definitely my favourite Dickens and a regular re-read.

Janet! Donkeys!

Thats great @AgualusasLover . Now I know how/why I ended up reading ahead.

Thank you.

I personally don’t find it helpful (to me) to look at older literature through a 21st century lens. And I guess if I look at the world as a whole - and even the U.K. - it’s not as if misogyny and violence against women and girls has gone anywhere, has it? 😔

Exactly this, they are meant to be horrific and cruel events in the story. People liked to read Penny Dreadfuls at this time, about gruesome murders. Today people like true crime programmes, there is something compelling about brutal crimes and I think it shows human nature hasn't changed that much.

Same with the slave element, people love Game of Thrones and other fantasy/historical shows involving cruelty and slavery, although the modern take tends to give the enslaved characters a bit more agency than poor Ali I guess I will be

I think Dumas almost describes Edmond's character in an alchemical way, having gone through some sort of change as having been forged by hardship and travel.mHowever, I love the way that he's having a high old time making a strong first impression on Parisian high society!

Thanks @AgualusasLover . Very helpful.

Thanks Agualusaslover! Very helpful indeed.

Every year at the start of March there is a French film festival close to where I live. The closing film this year will be 'The Count...' 2024 version. It's so tempting to go and see it, but I won't because it will spoil the book. I'll see something else instead.

Thanks @AgualusasLover that's really helpful

I suspect we won’t be able to pass judgement on his character until the end; we don’t know how much of a role he is playing, how much he is dissembling.

On the melodrama… it came out in instalments didn’t it? It’s a bit penny-dreadful/ soapy in places but I guess that was to build “ratings” or sales… no different to something like Game of Thrones today I guess.

I also don’t like the racism and sexism, but meh, we can’t go back and change it… Dickens is similar - quite a lot of melodrama and cliched female characters, very few fully realised female human beings (except Aunt Betsy in David Copperfield whom I will love forever).

I'm up to The Dapple Greys, could be wrong!

I’ve just got to the point where Danglars rocks up to see the Count, and stopped listening for the day. What chapter is everyone on? Am I caught up? 🤔

The way it played out in my head was that Caderousse’s wife stabbed the jeweller in his sleep, but he managed to shoot her before becoming too weak. I don’t think Caderousse wanted any part in the murder, but is a weak man who’s a bad judge of character - surrounding himself with the wrong people.

I can’t get too upset about the depiction of anything potentially triggering. The worst I thought was the gang-rape scenarios, although thankfully we were spared details. I personally don’t find it helpful (to me) to look at older literature through a 21st century lens. And I guess if I look at the world as a whole - and even the U.K. - it’s not as if misogyny and violence against women and girls has gone anywhere, has it? 😔

I'm also not sure which chapter we're up to!

Thanks to all for the comments. I had to go back and verify that the Count and the Abbe Busoni really were one and the same person; it's confusing!

I suppose a modern reading could be that Benedetto suffered brain damage during birth (or possible FAS during his pregnancy?) and suffered neglect during his time in the childrens home to such an extent that he was incapable of forming social bonds which is why he behaved so badly towards the only caregiver he ever knew.

That's a very interesting reading, @JaninaDuszejko ; thanks for that. I wasn't sure what to make of Benedetto's evil nature. I did think of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin, ha.

About trigger warnings, a previous bit I found very disturbing was the story of the shepherd who killed his girlfriend in order to save her from being gang-raped. Ugh. I can see that he thought the gang-rape would be a fate worse than death, but on the other hand, I felt there were misogynistic undertones of 'once a woman has been sexually defiled, she is better off dead'. And the man will make that decision for her, that death is better than rape...

The genre of melodrama is clearly designed for maximum page-turning (I also keep reading ahead!) but not so much for nuance.

@AgualusasLover said, I don’t feel that Dumas does nuance though. There seems to be good and there is bad, but no real get space. On one level I agree. That said, the Count himself seems to me to be a nuanced character. He started out as a moral agent and now he is decidedly dodgy in some ways. I cringe at the depiction of his relationship with Ali: he calls Ali a slave and a dog and Ali is perfectly content with that. (I may be a chapter or so ahead here.) That depiction is quite racist.

Janina, you make a good point as well about how French law at the time of the novel's composition was still quite racist and sexist. However, there were still dissenting voices at the time. The woman writer George Sand wrote feminist novels like Indiana and Lelia that predate The Count of Monte Cristo.

I'm either way ahead or way behind you all. The length of some of the chapters has thrown me off. But tonight is my night to get back on track and catch up on the thread. Really I'm just here to say how much I am enjoying this - it's a proper adventure story and I'm here for every twisty turn of it.

The pistols belonged to the jeweller. When Caderousse and his wife ask him if he'll be safe on the road he shows them his set of two pistols.

Hard to tell. Not sure how the jeweller would have got his hands on a pistol? I wonder if she stabbed the jeweller and then Caderrouse shot her and ran away?

Also not sure who Benedetto’s mother is. Not Renée who we learn died, but not why… but this can’t be a legitimate birth otherwise there would be people in attendance or he would have sought help. (It sounded as though the cord was around the baby’s neck).