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!

We are around halfway through! Apart from getting mightily confused during the Rome bits and how everyone fits (massive thanks to this thread) I'm really enjoying it so much more than I expected.
Agree though the misogyny, racism and slavery is a difficult read. But I have to remember how old it is - not excusing it of course!

Yes it was Bertuccio’s SIL I was referring to - must have got mixed up about which chapter it was in (I got a bit ahead and read several chapters in one go). Very horrible. I’m looking forward to Benedetto getting h what he deserves (although I have to say, I also feel a bit uncomfortable with the trope of a child that is born evil just because his dad is a self-interested, scheming shit).

I suppose a modern reading could be that Benedetto suffered brain damage during birth (or possible FAS during his pregnancy?) and suffered neglect during his time in the childrens home to such an extent that he was incapable of forming social bonds which is why he behaved so badly towards the only caregiver he ever knew.

That’s possible I think. I don’t feel that Dumas does nuance though. There seems to be good and there is bad, but no real get space.

I thought I knew what happened at the Inn, but now I'm not sure any more. I thought Caderousse's wife was urging Caderousse to kill the jeweler. I assumed he did and then shot her to be rid of her and run away with the haul. Am I completely wrong? I realise that we only have Bertuccio's account and he didn't see it.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh I got the feeling that maybe Caderousse was against killing the jeweller. His wife seemed to be the manipulator, although I'm not saying Caderousse is by any means a good man.

I felt his reluctance @LuckyMauveReader definitely.
I wondered if he followed her instructions.

Incidentally, my understanding of that part of Bertuccio’s story is that Caderousse stood by without doing anything (as when Fernand and Danglars screwed Edmond over) while his wife stabbed the jeweller (who then shot her in self-defence). Is that right?

That's how I read it too. He then gets the heck out.

Perhaps, because he was cowardly?
I thought she might not have had the strength to kill the man so got Caderousse to do it.

Hard to tell. Not sure how the jeweller would have got his hands on a pistol? I wonder if she stabbed the jeweller and then Caderrouse shot her and ran away?

Also not sure who Benedetto’s mother is. Not Renée who we learn died, but not why… but this can’t be a legitimate birth otherwise there would be people in attendance or he would have sought help. (It sounded as though the cord was around the baby’s neck).

The pistols belonged to the jeweller. When Caderousse and his wife ask him if he'll be safe on the road he shows them his set of two pistols.

I'm either way ahead or way behind you all. The length of some of the chapters has thrown me off. But tonight is my night to get back on track and catch up on the thread. Really I'm just here to say how much I am enjoying this - it's a proper adventure story and I'm here for every twisty turn of it.

Thanks to all for the comments. I had to go back and verify that the Count and the Abbe Busoni really were one and the same person; it's confusing!

I suppose a modern reading could be that Benedetto suffered brain damage during birth (or possible FAS during his pregnancy?) and suffered neglect during his time in the childrens home to such an extent that he was incapable of forming social bonds which is why he behaved so badly towards the only caregiver he ever knew.

That's a very interesting reading, @JaninaDuszejko ; thanks for that. I wasn't sure what to make of Benedetto's evil nature. I did think of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin, ha.

About trigger warnings, a previous bit I found very disturbing was the story of the shepherd who killed his girlfriend in order to save her from being gang-raped. Ugh. I can see that he thought the gang-rape would be a fate worse than death, but on the other hand, I felt there were misogynistic undertones of 'once a woman has been sexually defiled, she is better off dead'. And the man will make that decision for her, that death is better than rape...

The genre of melodrama is clearly designed for maximum page-turning (I also keep reading ahead!) but not so much for nuance.

@AgualusasLover said, I don’t feel that Dumas does nuance though. There seems to be good and there is bad, but no real get space. On one level I agree. That said, the Count himself seems to me to be a nuanced character. He started out as a moral agent and now he is decidedly dodgy in some ways. I cringe at the depiction of his relationship with Ali: he calls Ali a slave and a dog and Ali is perfectly content with that. (I may be a chapter or so ahead here.) That depiction is quite racist.

Janina, you make a good point as well about how French law at the time of the novel's composition was still quite racist and sexist. However, there were still dissenting voices at the time. The woman writer George Sand wrote feminist novels like Indiana and Lelia that predate The Count of Monte Cristo.

I'm also not sure which chapter we're up to!

I’ve just got to the point where Danglars rocks up to see the Count, and stopped listening for the day. What chapter is everyone on? Am I caught up? 🤔

The way it played out in my head was that Caderousse’s wife stabbed the jeweller in his sleep, but he managed to shoot her before becoming too weak. I don’t think Caderousse wanted any part in the murder, but is a weak man who’s a bad judge of character - surrounding himself with the wrong people.

I can’t get too upset about the depiction of anything potentially triggering. The worst I thought was the gang-rape scenarios, although thankfully we were spared details. I personally don’t find it helpful (to me) to look at older literature through a 21st century lens. And I guess if I look at the world as a whole - and even the U.K. - it’s not as if misogyny and violence against women and girls has gone anywhere, has it? 😔

I'm up to The Dapple Greys, could be wrong!

I agree to an extent. I still consider myself a historian and have a very high tolerance for ‘of its time’. I did find the SIL on fire quite disturbing. I think because rape and indeed gang rape of that nature in various places was a thing but setting people on fire was/is less common.

I also think race was thought about differently (not a justification). Orientalism was a fad, fashion and style as well as a set of opinions about the Middle East. Dumas or Dumas Pere perhaps was mixed race but still able to talk about Ali the way that he did. Maybe that’s part of giving readers what they might want, I’m not sure.

On reflection, I see what you mean @cassandre about Dantes having variations of good and bad, but so far he is really the only one granted this, but even with him, I question his motives a great deal of the time. He feels more ‘bad’ than I want him to be and I keep making excuses for his behaviour. Perhaps it’s a tale of revenge but also redemption?!

I suspect we won’t be able to pass judgement on his character until the end; we don’t know how much of a role he is playing, how much he is dissembling.

On the melodrama… it came out in instalments didn’t it? It’s a bit penny-dreadful/ soapy in places but I guess that was to build “ratings” or sales… no different to something like Game of Thrones today I guess.

I also don’t like the racism and sexism, but meh, we can’t go back and change it… Dickens is similar - quite a lot of melodrama and cliched female characters, very few fully realised female human beings (except Aunt Betsy in David Copperfield whom I will love forever).

In the interest of getting things a bit clearer and ‘leading’ the readalong as I promised 😀

Friday, 21 February
The Dapple Greys - begins ‘Followed by the count, the baron led the way…’

Saturday, 22 February
Idealogy - begins ‘If the Count of Monte Christo had live longer in Parisian society…’

Sunday, 23 February - Day Off

Monday, 24 February
Haydee - begins ‘The reader will remember the new - or, rather, the old…’

Tuesday, 25 February
The Morrels - begins ‘In a few minutes the count reached …’

Wednesday, 26 February
Pyramus & Thisbe - begins ‘Two-thirds of the way down the …’

Thursday, 27 February
Toxicology - begins ‘It really was the Count of Monte Christo…’

Friday, 28 February
Robert Le Diable - begins ‘The excuse of the opera had been all the more appropriate…’

Saturday, 1 March
Rise & Fall - begins ‘A few days after this encounter …’

then Sunday rest day

I’ve included the first few words, hopefully spoiler free since some editions are numbered differently and some have slightly differing chapter names. Hopefully the translations will say words to the same effect as above.

I’ll try and do this weekly on a Sunday if people think it might help.

Thanks @AgualusasLover that's really helpful

Thanks Agualusaslover! Very helpful indeed.

Every year at the start of March there is a French film festival close to where I live. The closing film this year will be 'The Count...' 2024 version. It's so tempting to go and see it, but I won't because it will spoil the book. I'll see something else instead.

Thanks @AgualusasLover . Very helpful.

I personally don’t find it helpful (to me) to look at older literature through a 21st century lens. And I guess if I look at the world as a whole - and even the U.K. - it’s not as if misogyny and violence against women and girls has gone anywhere, has it? 😔

Exactly this, they are meant to be horrific and cruel events in the story. People liked to read Penny Dreadfuls at this time, about gruesome murders. Today people like true crime programmes, there is something compelling about brutal crimes and I think it shows human nature hasn't changed that much.

Same with the slave element, people love Game of Thrones and other fantasy/historical shows involving cruelty and slavery, although the modern take tends to give the enslaved characters a bit more agency than poor Ali I guess I will be

I think Dumas almost describes Edmond's character in an alchemical way, having gone through some sort of change as having been forged by hardship and travel.mHowever, I love the way that he's having a high old time making a strong first impression on Parisian high society!

Thats great @AgualusasLover . Now I know how/why I ended up reading ahead.

Thank you.

Posted before I read your comment, interesting we both thought of Penny Dreadfuls and GoT!

Also love David Copperfield - definitely my favourite Dickens and a regular re-read.

Janet! Donkeys!