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!

That's interesting, @CornishLizard , because I just noticed that my print edition has just gone out of sync with Shmoop. Shmoop divides the 'Roman Bandits' chapter (Ch 33 in my edition and mega-long) into two chapters, 33 and 34. That's why you thought Shmoop was taking shortcuts on Ch 33, @FuzzyCaoraDhubh ! Though in fact Shmoop still leaves a lot out (eg the horrific story of the bandit Carlini and his girlfriend).

I wonder if this is another discrepancy stemming from the fact that the novel was published in slightly different versions at different times.

Ch 34 in my edition is called 'Apparition' and ends with the words 'Monte Cristo', if that helps.

Sorry I crossposted with you @Orland0 ! 😂

Gosh! Thanks @cassandre sorry Shmoop 😄 I'm very quick to judge!
Yes. I have the same as you described.

So are we reading to the end of the Robin Buss Chapter 34 Apparition ending with 'Monte Cristo' or to the end of Chapter 35 'La Mazzolata'.

Shmoop calls their chapter 35 'La Mazzolata' but that's equivalent to chapter 34 in Robin Buss. I didn't know what mazzolata meant so looked it up. According to Wikipedia it's an Italian term that refers to a method of capital punishment involving the use of a mace, mallet, or club-like weapon to inflict head trauma. Lovely.

That’s grim Janina - can see why the various editions all seem to agree to keep that in Italian!

I think we’re saying the 2 long chapters (so 3 in some editions) to take us to the beginning of Mazzolata for the weekend?

according to my French edition on kindle the start of La Mazzolata, chapter 35, is 75% of the way through volume 2!

Even better, my French edition has extra footnotes that have variations of the text when it was drafted - several pages long - haven’t tackled them yet. (Written in the first person from Franz’ point of view, I think.) Does yours, @TonTonMacoute ?

(I mean even better in the same way as, here comes another Tolstoy history lecture in W&P… )

I've read the first of the 2 chapters in one go in the end as I got into it, happy to have a few extra days for the next one!

I read them both yesterday because I have a cold and went to bed early. Might get round to reading another novel this week!

@MotherOfCatBoy

Aucunes notes, rien de tout...thank goodness. I would have got really bogged down with it all otherwise.

I'm reading it on my iPad so it's quick and easy to check vocabulary than on my old kindle. I might look out for a good French edition in book form next time I'm in France though.

I’ve got the Folio Classique.. am using an online dictionary with it.

Thanks for the explanations, I was getting rather lost since the 'drugs in the cave with various new people' chapter.

My version is also different and my chapters have been out of sync before. When you had the chapter called 'the third fit' it was called 'death of the Abbe' in mine, which was rather spoilery!

DH has read this and he did say there's a slower bit in the middle but stick with it so perhaps that's where we are.

How many volumes are there?

I’ve just finished the “Apparition” chapter, and it’s gone all gothic - very different tone from the first chunk of the book. The bandit chapter and Franz’s weird druggy trip to the island now fit into the narrative and make more sense - it took a while though and I really wasn’t enjoying the 10-years-later story until today’s chapter!

Yeah, I enjoyed Apparition whereas the drug taking on the island was interesting purely because of the hidden house. I did wonder who the Captain of the boat was and of it was someone we had met before, I don't think so but it must have been someone paid by Edmund to get Franz to the island.

I’m up to date I think, the Roman Bandits section took some focus, it was one chapter in the Audible version I’m listening to. Story-within-a-story to give the background on Vampa I guess: the hotelier’s narrative put me in mind of when Caderousse went off on his long narrative to Edmond (in his Abbé disguise). The carrying off of young women was a bit grim, and didn’t help my mood today.

The Colosseum (or ‘Apparition’) chapter was better, I’m following the story now. There’s a lot of Italian names, street names, etc, which I’m hearing - that mean absolutely nothing to me - but I’m tuning them out now and taking in the important info. The narrator’s excellent pronunciation is lost on me 😂

Albert seems like a clueless, vapid wannabe playboy. Franz is the much more switched on, although what I initially thought might be coincidence, I’m thinking is by design now. Franz on the island, over-hearing the conversation at the Colosseum, the whole time being in an apartment next to the Count… hmmm.

Oh it's definitely by design.

Yeah, I’m getting there now 😳 I thought the initial meeting on the island was coincidence, but it seems there’s been Machiavellian string-pulling in this whole sequence. In my defence, I was so focused on keeping the facts I was hearing straight (and filtering out Italian words) I didn’t have much chance to think about what might be going on behind the scenes. I’m going to let it percolate in my brain for a couple of days now before I attempt the next chapter! 🤭

i had fallen behind so was avoiding the thread in case of spoilers so am now on track having come via the druggy cave to Rome and am at the end of La Mazzolata.

Dantes appears to have had a personality transplant. Not loving these chapters as much as the earlier ones.

Completely missed 10 year jump and significance of who Albert is too…

It seems we've entered a part where everything happens for a reason (orchestrated by Edmond, with his aliases, and aided by various characters it seems - although nothing is as it seems?)!
Brilliantly crafted. I can't figure out what Edmond's plan is for Franz and Albert?

Dantes appears to have had a personality transplant. Not loving these chapters as much as the earlier ones.

Well it's not surprising that he is a bitter and twisted man after what he went through.

I think that more or less everyone knows that the Count of Monte Cristo was locked away in the Château d'If but no one I've spoken to has read it or knows anything about what happens afterwards, other than the vaguest details - and that includes me.

These later chapters are certainly very dark, and it's surprised me how long Edmond has taken to plan his revenge, and what lengths he has gone to. I'm continuing reading and have two chapters to go, I promise no spoilers though. 🙂

I've just had to switch versions as the version I bought only seems to do volumes 1 and 2, and they don't seem to coincide exactly with other versions. So it's very confusing!

@TonTonMacoute have you finished the novel already? 😯