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

I loved the close of this chapter :')

Loving this, the relationship between Edmond and Faria. For those still invested in the French, they address each other as Vous the whole time, even after years and years of confinement together, indicating, particularly on the Abbé’s part who is speaking to someone younger, a touching respect for one another.

Me too @Buttalapasta ! And I’ve just read all about Alexandre VI and the Borgias! They were a rum lot weren’t they!

I haven’t commented so far as I never seem to be in synch - even now I couldn’t resist reading ahead. 🤐Really enjoying the plot and the history (which I realised I knew NOTHING about) and even went down a rabbit hole about optical telegraphs after wondering why the telegraph was mentioned as a way of communicating with Paris. I had no idea!

Well well well, this is getting good isn't it!

I'm loving the historical links and really enjoyed the story of the hidden will and treasure!

So glad I started this, this is not a book I would ever have picked up otherwise.

I genuinely didn’t think I was going to enjoy this as much as I am. The abbé is great, with his secret compartments, homemade knives, pens, ladders and lamps 😃 While there’s a fair few passages about various character’s despair, and suicidal thoughts, I think the more unrealistic elements provide a bit more levity.

Chapter 18

The Treasure

• The next day, Edmond returns to Faria's cell. He finds the abbé sitting up in bed, clutching a piece of paper.
• The paper, he tells Edmond, is his treasure, and his treasure is now to be split with Edmond.
• Edmond is still a little skeptical of Faria's claim – he thinks, maybe, that the sickness has driven him closer to madness.
• Faria allows Edmond to read the paper, which represents half of a note:

This treasure which may amount to two
Roman écus in the furthest cor
Of the second opening, which
To him in full benefice as
Itor
April 25, 149

• Edmond doesn't know what to make of this, and their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the jailer. Edmond is a little weirded out by the whole thing, so he puts off visiting Faria.
• Faria apparently can't wait, as he climbs through the tunnel; he has a story to tell Edmond, a story that he learned from his former patron, Cardinal Spada.
• The particulars of the story aren't so important. Let it suffice to say that, a few centuries earlier, an ancestor of Spada was invited to dine with Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI; Spada died under mysterious circumstances; the Pope and Cesare set about looking for Spada's large inheritance, but could find nothing. From then on the Spada family lived relatively modestly – no sign of their great fortune appeared. After Faria's patron died, Faria got to looking through his papers. Just about a month before he was arrested in 1807, something big happened. While lighting a candle with a stray piece of paper, Faria realized that it contained a very important message written in…wait for it…invisible ink.
• To make a long story short, he now had his hands on some valuable fragments of paper, which, when put together, read:

This day, April 25, 1498, hav…ing been invited to dinner by His Holiness Alexander VI, and fearing that, not…content with making me pay for my cardinal's hat he might wish to inherit my wealth and…deign for me the fate of Cardinals Crapara and Betivoglio, fatally poisoned,…I declare to my nephew Guido Spada, my sole legatee, that I have con…cealed in a place that he knows, having visited it with me, that is…in the grottoes of the little Isle of Monte Cristo, all that I o…wned in gold bars, gold coin, precious stones, diamonds, jewels, that I al…one know of the existence of this treasure which may amount to nearly two mill…ion Roman écus, and that he will
find, on lifting the twentieth…rock starting from the little creek eastwards in a straight line. Two…openings have been made in these grottoes: the treasure is in the furthest corner away from the second, which treasure I bequeath and endow…to him in full benifice as my sole heir.
April 25, 1498 CES…ARE SPADA

• Edmond is blown away. He can't believe Faria was able to figure all of this out.
• Faria explains that he was arrested before he could get the treasure. If we get out of prison, he tells Edmond, half of it is yours, and if I should die, you can take it all.
• Edmond asks if there's someone else out there who deserves the treasure more. Faria assures him there's not. The only reason I kept the secret from you so long, says Faria, was to test you and to surprise you.
• Edmond, still incredulous, tries to reject Faria's offer; he's not his son, and so he doesn't feel he should be his heir.
• Faria tells him that he's wrong, that he is like a son to him. Overcome, Edmond lays his head on Faria's chest and begins to weep.

Another fan of the abbé here, I love the relationship between him and Edmond. Hopefully he's going to reward Edmond's selflessness in staying with him with a big treasure chest! I'm now fully convinced this treasure actually exists.

He really is! I’m loving the abbé.

I loved this chapter, the Abbé is a fabulous character. But where is his money?

It’s probably Lupus, in that case 😄

It's quite difficult to keep track of the time passing, and in fact it is for Edmond too, it's part of the plot. I think it's over 10 years in total that he spends in prison. Dumas does do a good job by conveying the slow time passing without it being boring. The moods of the two prisoners fluctuates, sometimes they get desperate, then they find a way to reconcile themselves and settle again.

The passing years also help Edmond, as well as the excellent education he is receiving. It will be to his advantage to be unrecognisable when he emerges to exact his revenge. Can't wait!

It sounds like the abbé is suffering the effects of a stroke. His influence on Dantès is immense. He will be the making of him.

I was wondering that! (Have been watching House in the evenings with the family so there was a strange mash-up going on in my head!) Hard to know whether it was based on something real or something Dumas made up to be useful for the plot.

The abbé is an incredibly useful neighbour for Dantès to have! Especially convenient that he knew Noirtier. I did like the Q&A session though - finally Dantès discovers why he’s been chucked in a dungeon! And now his transformation begins…

Time does pass very quickly in this book - Dantès must be nearly 30 by now!

Also interested to know if the abbé’s illness (a stroke? Epilepsy?) and (particularly) the potion are realistic or just an invention.

I've been trying to research what Faria's illness is but I very quickly realised that I'm reading spoilers so I've stopped doing that. I wonder what the liquid is that Dantes administers to Faria?

Chapter 17

The Abbé's Cell

• You can think of this chapter as a sort of twisted, nineteenth-century take on MTV Cribs; this is Abbé Faria's chance to shine, to show off all the cool stuff he's made since he got thrown in prison. Such cool stuff includes:
• An extremely accurate sundial drawn on the wall.
• In one secret compartment:
• His masterwork (Treatise on the Prospects…)
• The pens he used to write his work.
• His penknife. (Yes, penknives were actually once used to sharpen the ends of pens.)
• His ink.
• His lamp, which is fueled by the fat from the meat he is given to eat every day.
• His flint, which he uses to light the lamp.
• Once Edmond has seen all this, the abbé opens up another secret compartment containing:
• 25-30 feet of rope ladder, made from bedsheets.
• A sewing needle.
• Edmond is amazed by all of this; he becomes aware of the depths of his ignorance.
• Before he learns anything, however, he wants to tell Faria his life story.
• He gets right to the point and starts discussing the circumstances of his arrest almost immediately.
• Faria, like Villefort before him, quickly concludes that there is only one explanation for his imprisonment: someone was jealous of Edmond and sought to ruin him. "If you wish to find the guilty party," he says, "first discover whose interests the crime serves! Whose interests might be served by your disappearance?" (17.57).
• Edmond can come up with no answers, and so Faria interrogates him. After much questioning, Dantès finally sees the light: Danglars and Fernand were behind it! One wanted his job, the other his lover.
• Still, Edmond can't understand why the crown prosecutor, who seemed so kind, didn't help him.
• As it happens, Faria remembers the name Noirtier and, despite knowing little more than Edmond, can make the connection: Noirtier, the former revolutionary, was Villefort's father; Villefort destroyed the letter to protect himself.
• We already know all this, but it's news to Edmond. He runs back to his cell and laments his terrible fate.
• After the jailer makes his dinner rounds, Faria comes back and invites Edmond to dinner. Being mad – and entertainingly mad at that – Faria receives some special treatment, including wine for Sunday dinner, so he and Edmond make a good time of their meal.
• Faria apologizes to Edmond: he realizes that he's probably planted the desire for revenge in his heart. Edmond only smiles ominously in return and asks him to change the subject.
• And so Faria talks on and on about all sorts of interesting stuff.
• When Edmond asks him if he could teach him some of what he knows, the abbé tells him he could learn it all in only two years' time.
• Faria draws up a syllabus that night. Edmond's education begins the next day, and he proves to be a quick study. He no longer talks of escape, and in a year he finds himself greatly changed.
• The abbé, however, is plagued with bouts of depression.
• At one point, the abbé admits that he has become obsessed with the thought of escaping. Edmond proposes, again, that they could kill the guard and escape, but he'll have nothing of it.
• A few months pass.
• The abbé asks Edmond if he's ready to go forward with the escape plan, provided that they only kill the sentry as a last resort. Edmond says yes.
• The abbé takes out a detailed drawing of his escape plans; Edmond is overjoyed.
• They spend more than a year working tirelessly on their plan; in fifteen months it's completed. In that time, Edmond learns to adopt the abbé's aristocratic bearing and manners.
• One night, he hears the abbé cry out. He finds him standing in the middle of his – Edmond's – cell, pale and scared.
• Faria tells Edmond that he is about have a seizure, and that, in order to save him, he must run and get a bottle of red liquid from one of the secret compartments. When Edmonds comes back with the bottle, Faria tells him that, once he goes into a fit and then seems to relax, he – Edmond – must pour eight to ten drops in his mouth.
• Edmond does as he's told, and over an hour later the abbé shows signs of life.
• Once he recovers, Faria tells Edmond that he must undertake the escape alone, as he will have another, much stronger fit soon, a fit that will almost certainly kill him. He has been told as much by the doctor who originally treated him and concocted the potion.
• Edmond tells him that he simply will not try to escape without the abbé. As such, Faria tells him he must cover up the passage they've carved as best he can. Edmond sets to work immediately.

@JaninaDuszejko haha yes, he's clearly not a 50 booker!

I'm exhausted just thinking about everything the Abbé has done. Love the idea that all human knowledge is in just 150 books.

Blimey the Abbé has been a very busy man!

Yes Agua I was thinking the same 😄* *

Perhaps the Abbe is quite mad after all!

Another good chapter.

It is good to see Dantes' renewed vigour upon meeting the older man, in spite of the latter's resignation that escape is now impossible.