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!

Thank you for all the help with the chapter summaries, I am being a very bad host. Work is driving demented.

I suppose Dantes has to operate on the side of caution, he has trusted before and look what happened. I can’t really blame him.

I’ve read the book before and remembered a reasonable amount of the prison. I only remember one very tiny bit of revenge, which is minuscule and I look forward to mentioning it when the time comes. I literally cannot remember much at all about the rest.

I do remember my lunch breaks reading it, thoroughly enjoying myself.

I agree that Edmond was not covering himself in glory today, I'm hoping that pride is not going to come before a fall here. However I did think that his smile when Jocopo offered to stay with him meant he was touched, and will hopefully reward him with a big treasury present.

I got the sense that not wanting to share the treasure was a big part of why Dantes did not want him there.

Is our hero as perfect as we thought?

Does no one else think - he just spent 14 years in prison because he trusted and was generous? I mean Dumas has given us no reason to suppose that Edmond does have trust issues, that’s my projection. He has known these sailors for a short period of time and has learnt the hard way about who you trust. I feel like I’d be ‘of you go, I have things to do, bye,’ if I’d been through what he has.

Chapter 24

The Secret Cave

• The dudes being gone and out of Edmond's hair, he begins to search the island for the Faria's treasure.
• Voila! Edmond discovers the treasure in a cave, and it is like whoa.
• Edmond thanks the heavens for this discovery and does a little dance – his luck seems really to be taking a turn for the best.

😂

And they are crooks! They have been sharing their ill gotten gains with him as well.

I may have accidentally read ahead 😳. Only one chapter mind.

I liked how worried Edmund was that there might be someone else on the island when he was looking for the treasure. And when the goat went over! I did wonder how easy it would have actually been to tell what had been done 400 years previously to hide the cave but I'm not thinking that realism is a theme in this book 😀.

Agreed, Janina. Also, faking that kind of serious injury and deceiving the smugglers...hmm.

I enjoyed the suspense in today's chapter and was delighted for Edmond. I liked the line about comparing the treasure to all the stars in the sky. I'm guilty of skim reading the next chapter.

The goat was very funny. I bet Edmond crapped himself- oh, it’s a goat.

I 'accidentally' read ahead until Edmond found the treasure last weekend. Looking forward to reading again from tomorrow!

If I’d known about the amazing restorative powers of rum, I’d have incorporated it into my diet at some point. I might buy a bottle tomorrow…

I'm loving how readable this book is, especially compared to Dickens who can be a bit of a slog at times. I'm also listening to Dumas' Three Musketeers on audio at the moment but the Count is way more gripping!

Oh that's reminded me, I bought a bottle of rum in Whitby last year when I was up there for the first time having always wanted to go on the basis of Dracula!

I might join you and have a tipple! I think mine was a flavoured one, dark fruits, purchased from the Whitby Abbey gift shop!

I am "accidentally" ten chapters ahead now. 😣I blame insomnia and having TCOMC on Kindle! Waiting patiently to get back into synch....

Yum to rum! I broke into a bottle of cognac during Storm Éowyn.

My BIL lived in Jamaica for a while and gave us single estate rum which is very expensive and very delicious, particularly with orange juice. We always have a bottle of good rum in the house now.

Feeling left out with my cup of tea.

@InTheCludgie I actually love The Three Musketeers. I’m on book 3 but have been stuck here for some time.

I'm surprised I'm managing to stick to a chapter per day as I'm finding the book really enjoyable and I'm well known for staying up late to carry on reading when I'm really enjoying a book.

It doesn't really explain how he managed to be "covered in blood" after his fake accident 🤔 as you say I guess we have to suspend disbelief a little!

So he's now being generous to the crew who've helped him, which is good.

But is paying way over the odds for your family home, being surprisingly generous to the young couple there and also to the fisherman in the village, so that everyone in the area is talking about you, a wise move?

I thought that - it’s so conspicuous, particularly if anyone added up the two people he asked after, and thought he looked about the right age… but I think we are meant to bank on everyone he knew no longer being there…

I wondered the same thing and then decided it might something to do with the goat he shot. The one he gave them for dinner. I figured he did something involving smearing.

It's been so long I guess people just assume he is dead.

I really felt for him returning to his homestead and his town. That was tough.

The Unknown

Edmond leaves the treasure where it is, pocketing only a few precious jewels.
The sailors return a week later to pick Edmond up, and they sail back to Leghorn.
Edmond sells some diamonds and buys a ship for Jacopo to thank him for having his back all the time.
Edmond asks Jacopo to sail to Marseilles and look for a man named Louis Dantès and a lady named Mercédès.
Meanwhile, Edmond buys his own sweet ship with a secret room perfect for, oh, say, a BURIED TREASURE. Edmond packs up his loot and is a happy camper.
That is, until Jacopo returns with news that Louis Dantès is dead as a doornail, and the lady Mercédès is gone (not a trace of her in sight). Ruh-roh.

Isit just me or does this summary miss out half the chapter? I wonder which translation it's based on?