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!

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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

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.

I loved the close of this chapter :')

I am all caught up (in fact read ch 20 too).

I love the relationship that the abbe and Dantes have been able to forge against all odds. Reading this periodically as it appeared must have been torture, constantly needing to know what happened next. I loved all the detail about Italy, and mine had a footnote about how the French were rather enraptured by it. It’s really interesting to see the abbe talking about unification in 1807 and even when Dumas is writing and his readers reading it still wasn’t unified, which blows my mind slightly. It’s sort of like spy books set against the backdrop of the Cold War but still in the Cold War.

Hello, would you mind if I belatedly join you? I saw this thread last week and thought I’d see if I could catch up, which I’ve finally done so. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I have to say I’m loving it and also realising I know basically none of the history. Trying to rectify that as we go!

Welcome @MonOncle and good work on catching up.

I'm really enjoying this so far, and although I'm tempted to read ahead I'm quite enjoying being forced to read at a more leisurely pace, and having time to think about each chapter before moving on.

Loving the Abbé and his relationship with Edmond but not laying good odds on them getting that treasure together - sob.

@MamaNewtNewt The next chapter's title makes it sound like Edmond will be on that adventure on his own, sadly.

They're a great pair. The abbe and Edmond are more like Father and Son rather than teacher and student or two jailbirds.

When I used to see books from this period and/or this thickness I never imagined the language to be as accessible as this with such a gripping storyline. Needless to say, I have avoided many great books over the years. This thread and the 50 bookers are teaching me to venture where I have never before. I have never taken part in a read a long before. This is teaching me to be patient and not race ahead so I can see what happens next and it's killing me.

I can't wait for the next chapter

Yes, me too @LuckyMauveReader It's so readable and engrossing. And packed with action. I've read that the 1956 TV series had 39 episodes and I can see why! I'm not sure how many episodes the current TV series has planned.

It's hard for me to judge how accurate the translation is, as my limit in French tends to be Maigret stories or Marcel Pagnol novels, but it certainly reads very smoothly without any clunky passages; I'm impressed.

The Pagnol translations are famously terrible, as it happens.

These prison chapters have been fabulous. Love that the treasure is buried on the isle of Monte Cristo as well. This island is really very significant.

I was a little bit naughty and read today's chapter at midnight. Very emotional as you might guess from the chapter title.

I think we tend to think of these classic books as 'literature' - therefore harder to read. But they were written as entertainment. It's a cracking story, and I'm loving reading it. It was such a dull afternoon yesterday that I read todays chapter as well.

When Edmond talks about Mercedes I love the way people refer to her as his mistress (even the abbé!) and he always corrects them, 'No, she's my fiancée!'

That's interesting, how could they mess them up? Only read them in French but the writing is so unfussy, maybe it's difficult to convey the simplicity.

I think we tend to think of these classic books as 'literature' - therefore harder to read. But they were written as entertainment.

There wasn't a distinction historically between literature and genre writing the way there is now. But I agree the greek myths, Shakespeare and Dickens are all now seen as intellectual rather than the popular entertainment they were when first written.

Pagnol was translated by a beginner translator whose French wasn't up to the job, basically. There are loads of misunderstandings of pretty basic stuff.

Poor Abbe and Dantes, I'm just wondering how and when Dantes is going to get out. I'd half thought they might leave the door to the Abbes cell unlocked, given that he's dead. But that would be too easy!

Chapter 19

The Third Seizure

• As it turns out, Edmond already knows the isle of Monte Cristo from his sailor days.
• Faria talks constantly about the treasure, and forces Edmond to memorize the entire letter.
• Times passes.
• One night, he hears a cry come from Faria's cell. Edmond heads over and finds Faria in the throes of his third seizure. The abbé tells Edmond that there's nothing he can do, but Edmond tries to revive him with the red potion nonetheless.
• He fails. The abbé's last words are: "Monte Cristo! Do not forget Monte Cristo!"
• Soon enough, the jailer discovers Faria's body. Since he's a churchman, they decide that he deserves to be buried in a sack. Before they can get to burying him, the governor insists they make sure he's dead by poking him with a hot iron.
• He's definitely dead.
• The governor and jailers leave Faria in the cell, covered in the sack; they will bury him in the morning.

(Orland0’s addition: R.I.P abbé Faria 😔)

@lifeturnsonadime Just you wait!!!!! I’m slightly envious of those reading for the first time.

Haven't been commenting, but reading along with you all and enjoying the books and the chat immensely. I do think it's ideal reading these books over time much as people would have done originally (though obviously our waiting time per installment is rather less!).
I always think of the Dumas novels as more the YA lit of their day, rather than A Classic, perhaps because I read a number of them as a young teenager, and they're so fast moving and dramatic.

Ooh you are making me want to read them now - if I can manage Monte Cristo do you think Pagnol is fairly readable?

I also thought the last few chapters were great. It's a bit implausible maybe that Dantes could become educated in such a short time. But Faria is a great character and the relationship between him and Dantes is very moving. It's a reminder of the power of human connection. Dumas portrays very well the awfulness of Dantes' isolation, and shows how a deep connection with just one fellow human being can make life worth living.

It's quite exciting the way Faria helps Dantes search his own memory to work out the identity of the villains responsible for his wrongful imprisonment.

And we learn that Dantes really is a good guy (if we didn't know that already), because he sacrifices his own chance of escape in order to be with the disabled abbe.

@Sadik I like your point about YA lit. I didn't expect this book to be so gripping and fast-paced.

@MotherOfCatBoy I haven't read the Pagnol novels in many years, but I recall the French as being not-too-difficult. The Jean de Florette books were some of the first novels I ever read in French on my own, after seeing the films.