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

[AgualusasLover]

Following the success of the continuing Dickensalongs, Fallen Women and various other classics, please join The Count of Monte Christo read-a-long, kicking off on 1 January 2025.

The ultimate tale of revenge, with swashbuckling, chicanery and bare faced lies - The Count of Monte Christo has it all.

Editions: most important point is an unabridged version, coming in at just over 1,200 pages. This thread discusses the various translations – the Penguin Classics, trans by Robin Buss is very popular and the one I am reading but what you have already is likely fine and the nuances of translation are always fun to discuss.

What’s the best translation of The Count of Monte Cristo? • We Love Translations

I’ve been thinking about the best way to read-a-long. There have been red-alongs by the day, in chunks and every which way.

I think we have two options:

There are 118 chapter and my proposal is we do one a day, starting on 1 January, 2025. (W&P and all the Fallen Women books worked well this way)

We could also convene weekly e.g. no spoilers until Sunday and read it as it was released, in 18 parts c.65 pages per week. (I remember The Woman in White worked well this way and so do the Dickensalongs)

For now, I have assumed a chapter a day as it has served us well so far, if the majority strongly object, I have put placeholders in my copy breaking it down and can update in readiness for January.

Schmoop very handily has chapter by chapter breakdowns. Here is the Intro https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/count-of-monte-cristo/

MN meet up in Marseille 2025!

Yes, I think so.

A lot seemed to happen here The Great Escape was just part of it. I really want to read on now.

I thought it was interesting how he talked about how Edmund remembered the prayers his mother had taught him. Terry Waite, who had been a chorister when young, said he recited the psalms when he was kidnapped because they gave him hope.

And yes, the Abbé is no 27, in the previous chapter we're told he's in cell 27 and then at the end that they are named after their cells.

Even though I have read this before, I am totally floored by the pace.

@Orland0 thank you for posting the summaries. Work has just gone beyond crazy.

4 years just flashes by and you can totally see how someone would go crazy in this situation.

@AgualusasLover No worries, I’m glad to see you pop up, I was hoping you were just busy but still with us 😊

Chapter 16

An Italian Scholar

• Edmond hugs his new friend. The man is short, with thick eyebrows and a thick black beard. His clothes are in tatters. He appears to be around 65 years old.
• Before they do anything else, the man sets about cleaning up the cell.
• He picks up the stone Edmond removed and asks why it was cut so crudely; he's surprised that he doesn't have any tools. Edmond is surprised to find that the man does have tools – and what tools he has: a well-crafted file, chisel, pliers, and level.
• He's used the file, he tells Edmond, to dig fifty feet. Still, he's not encouraged by what he sees in Edmond's cell: his only window looks out over a courtyard patrolled by soldiers; he fears that all is lost.
• Edmond asks Number 27 to introduce himself.
• Abbé Faria tells him that he has been imprisoned since 1808 for plotting to unite Italy – the particulars are insanely complicated, so don't worry about them.
• All of Faria's talk of Italy and popes and plots begins to make Edmond think that maybe the abbé is insane after all. He asks the abbé if he has really, after all this planning, abandoned the idea of escaping.
• The abbé tells Edmond that he simply can't go on – not after reaching what he thought was the end of his journey, only to find a whole new challenge.
• Seeing that the abbé had put his heart into his escape attempt, Edmond is inspired: if this man, he thinks, could devote himself to such a task, surely I could too.
• Edmond has an idea. Why don't they dig another tunnel leading under the path in the courtyard, kill the guard, and escape from there?
• The abbé reminds him that such an act would make him guilty of a crime, whereas now he is innocent; Edmond can't argue with this reasoning. Why else hadn't he simply killed his jailer? They must be more patient, he continues, if they want to succeed.
• Edmond asks the abbé how he could have waited so long and so patiently. "I wrote or I studied," he tells Edmond (16.85). Edmond is amazed. Where, he wonders, could you have gotten pens, paper, and ink?
• The abbé tells him that he's made them, and he promises to show them – along with his Treatise on the Prospects for a General Monarchy in Italy – to Edmond when they visit the abbé's cell.
• The abbé goes on to tell him that he once owned thousands of books, that he speaks five living languages, and that he is teaching himself modern Greek using his knowledge of Ancient Greek.
• Edmond is eager to see the abbé's work as soon as possible and, so, they leave immediately for his cell.

Great chapter. Am finding it quite hard to resist reading on but I know I will miss things without the summaries and tĥe chat (I missed the bit that Dantès senior had died.)

Enjoyed hearing about how the abbé has been spending his time. Gosh!

Dante described the abbe as a savant. Given the abbe's intellectual abilities, I'd say that would be a perfect fit. Dante is so mesmerized by him that the relationship between the two will be nice to see unfold.

Pardon the spelling of 'abbe'. I am unsure how to get the accent above the 'e'.

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.

Perhaps the Abbe is quite mad after all!

Another good chapter.

Finally a little bit of schmoop humour. We are precisely the group who will now look up the Abbe who inspired Dumas and go down an Italian unification rabbit hole.

• Abbé Faria tells him that he has been imprisoned since 1808 for plotting to unite Italy – the particulars are insanely complicated, so don't worry about them.

Yes Agua I was thinking the same 😄* *

Blimey the Abbé has been a very busy man!

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

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

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.

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?

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 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.

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.

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’s probably Lupus, in that case 😄

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

He really is! I’m loving the abbé.