Bienvenue à Paris - The Count of Monte Christo, thread 2

@AgualusasLover May I join the KL thread when it gets going please? It’s been on my list for a while.

Glad you're over the finish line @Goodbyeimgoinghome 🌟
I agree that it was a satisfying conclusion.

Am I the last, limping over the finish line after everyone else has gone home! I lost my way a bit but have been lurking despite knowing I’d never catch up. I loved the last section as everything came together.

I have no sympathy for Villefort as he was a sanctimonious murdering adulterous hypocrite. Very surprised Danglars got off so lightly

Its interesting because IMO Danglars was the one character who absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. After the Villefort tragedy I thought that maybe it was meant to show that the Count's thirst for revenge had been quenched.

Re the Edmond/Haydee age gap, in fact the Valentine/Morel age gap is quite big too - she's 17 or 18 I think while he's 30. I guess it just wasn't such a big deal in those days.

My copy of Kristin has just arrived, I need to put it away somewhere so I don't get tempted...

Good to see you at the finish line Agua!
I agree with you on everything. It wasn't quite everything I was expecting which is good. I liked it a lot. I think the first part, his incarceration, was brilliant. I liked how he underwent a change towards the end. Sometimes he seemed a bit wooden to me. It was a very enjoyable readalong. Thanks again 🌺

Well done @AgualusasLover . It was a great readalong. Thank you

I have finished!!!!

I have to say those last few chapters were wonderful. I feel like in the end Danglars was the only real baddie and agree he got off rather lightly but I think the Count was ready to accept that he no longer needed absolute destruction.

I actually think it was quite realistic not to reconcile with Mercedes, too much water under the bridge, too much had happened, but I also don’t love the whole Haydee love story. Before I even consider the age and enslaved dynamic, she wasn’t really a big enough character, we didn’t see their relationship develop for it to be believable.

This was a reread for me, I absolutely loved it the first time and was less enamoured this time, though I still really enjoyed it.

For those who have enjoyed the mad, slightly crazy dering do of Dumas, might enjoy The Three Musketeers. Books one and two were page turners but the third book I’ve been reading forever and a day.

Hoping to get a hard copy of KL in a day or two.

thank you all for the company, insight and fun.

So I'm really late finishing! But I got there, thanks for the read-a-long. I'd never have read it otherwise.

I don't know what I expected before i started. But it wasn't that.

Like others I wasn't desperately comfortable with the Haydee ending.

I've just ordered the book for July. I'm enjoying reading outside my comfort zone and reading everyone's reactions/ observations.

Hi Agua. I hhope you get some time to rest up soon (and finish the Count!).

I'm looking forward to starting the Lavransdattar in July. It will be something different! * *

Thanks Agualusa, looking forward to it.

I still have two hours left but have been on an exhausting work trip and keep just falling asleep and can’t seem to get through.

There has been no more discussion on the next book, so I propose that I start a sign up thread for Kristin Lavransdatter in the next couple of days and reading commences 1 July.

Hurrah, I have belatedly finished and caught up on the thread. Thank you v much to @AgualusasLover for leading and everyone else for their insights and ensuring i kept going.

It was so different from my preconceptions - much less worthy and a real rollercoaster of a plot.

i agree that Mercedes was treated badly but was some of that self-inflicted? She could have taken some of their fortune so she was not destitute but seemed to want to punish herself (even though she did nothing wrong as she thought Edmond was dead).

I have no sympathy for Villefort as he was a sanctimonious murdering adulterous hypocrite. Very surprised Danglars got off so lightly.

I think the Count and Haydee would have been viewed very differently at the time but agree it's difficult to stomach now and I can see why adaptations have changed the ending.

Can't wait for the next readalong even though I have never heard of the Norwegian front runner!

KL is on my TBR pile and would be more than happy to read it in the company of all of you!

@JaninaDuszejko Given your new detail about Scotland and Norway I think this could be a really interesting new read.

It does sound like there is a significant difference in translations, more so than many of our other reads, so perhaps best we try and read the same, but can iron out the details.

Do you fancy leading this one @JaninaDuszejko given you have some really good insight already? No pressure if not.

Yeah, the second book follows on from the first book almost immediately, can't remember if there's much of a gap between the second and third books. But, like Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet, they were conceived as a trilogy and the three books were published in consecutive years.

I have rather raved about it, I hope you all enjoy it. I'm from the north of Scotland which was still part of Norway in the 14th century and culturally is still very close so I'm not sure if you will read it all the way I read it. Think one of the 50 bookers read the contemporary Charles Archer and J.S. Scott translation and didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the modern Tiina Nunnally translation.

I’d be keen on Kristin Lavransdatter too - I actually bought a copy a while ago after Janina’s recommendations on here.

Let’s wait for a few more opinions, but Kristin appears popular.

I had never heard of it and I’ve never read anything Norwegian - Ibsen is the only Norwegian writer I can even think of.

Now that @JaninaDuszejko has broken it down it feels a bit more like the trilogy is a whole in comparison to the other things we’ve read.

The Leopard is the Burt Lancaster movie

I am also up for Les Mis in January.

And quite fancy Kristen - at least trying the first book. Would a chapter every two days work? Also happy to try some of the other suggestions.

Is The Leopard the Italian one which was adapted into a movie with Burt Lancaster? Think I watched it donkeys ago and loved it

Definitely in for Les Mis in January.

For the next one. The Leopard would be short and sweet and we could watch the new Netflix.

But I’m also intrigued by Kristin. I had never heard of it before, so just went off and read the Wiki page on it. It sounds fascinating and I would be up for that. I’d never read it otherwise - this is the advantage of group reads, to be more adventurous and unusual than you would on your own.

The second book, The Wife, is 400 pages long, also split into 3 parts: The Fruit of Sin, Husaby, Erlend Nikulaussøn, which have 6, 8, and 7 chapters so longer chapters averaging 19 pages.

The the third book, The Cross, is 421 pages, again split into three parts, Honour Among Kin, Debtors and The Cross, which have 6, 8, and 7 chapters so 20 pages per chapter.

Kristin Lavransdatter, 1000 pages, chapters not clear
i don’t know if we would want to commit to the first book or the trilogy

I've checked my copies of the modern Nunnally translation (there's also the contemporary Charles Archer and J.S. Scott translation that has some excisions and has more archaic English in it, whether that is appropriate for a 20th century novel set in the 14th century is debatable). The first book in the trilogy, The Wreath, is 294 pages long in my edition and is split into 3 parts: Jørundgaard, The Wreath and Lavrans Bjørgulfsøn. They have 7, 8 and 8 chapter respectively. So approximately 12 pages a chapter.

I'm happy to go along with any of those three options and would be delighted/grateful/relieved if you would lead the readalong Agua. July is fine too.

Here is a summary of our books to date;

War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Madame Bovary
Ruth
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
The Count of Monte-Cristo.