Bienvenue à Paris - The Count of Monte Christo, thread 2

[LeylaOfCircassia]

Welcome back - we now find ourselves in Paris, where we have discovered:

• the Count has unlimited resources
• apparently unlimited patience
• is being rather harsh on Mercedes
• has unmasked adultery and a rather tragic act and reunited father, mother and son, but with an incestuous twist, everyone remains in innocent ignorance
• grandparents have died, there may have been foul play
• a couple of women don't want to marry a couple of men, who in turn, also don;t want to marry them

If you are new and joining us - God Speed.

Previous thread here

Next week, from 31st
Monday - Lemonade
Tuesday - The Accusation
Wednesday - The Retired Baker’s Room
Thursday - Breaking and Entering
Friday - The Hand of God
Saturday - Beauchamp
Sunday - rest

I don’t see how Morrel could forgive him for putting him through this grief.

I know! It's a bit much. I would have expected him to tell him after the funeral.
It seems unnecessary to prolong it.

I am back on track and enjoying all the recent shenanigans. It's obviously very quick to buy a house in those days. I would have died if shock if TCOMC had appeared in my bedroom (or from mortification as to what he had seen whilst watching me!).

I wonder whether Villefort had his dalliance with Mme Danglars after his first wife died (who I think he loved) and before he married the second wife (as she is quite young).

Is it only me wondering how on earth Benedetto managed to get up and down the chimneys (and still apparently have fine clothing in prison rather than soot covered clothing!)?

Definitely up for another readalong. I have Portrait of a Lady sitting unread on my shelf but not sure if that would be suitable. Definitely on for Les Mis next year.

Benedetto saying 'Kill myself?! I have friends you know!' still makes me smile.
The arrogance of him! Notions! I think we're going to check in with him soon.

Benedetto has no problems with self esteem that’s for sure!

I think I worked out Villefort had his affair after Renée was dead, but Mme Danglars was still married to her first husband, there’s something in an earlier chapter about the affair driving him to his death… after Benedetto was born, a little while later she married Danglars.

Yes, that’s what I think happened too @MotherOfCatBoy

Im hoping to read the chapters tomorrow as have a busy weekend coming up.

I'm starting to feel sorry for Villeforte! He really is going through the wringer.

His wife has been very easily manipulated to cause all this trouble. And The Count only stepped in to (hopefully) save Valentine when he knew Morrell loved her. Otherwise she would just be collateral damage and he wouldn't bat an eyelid.

I too felt sorry for Villefort… he sort of has a moral compass so he knows when he’s doing wrong, which makes him suffer more I think than Morcerf and Danglars.

It seems Mme de Villefort had been expecting to get away with it but there will be justice on Villefort's terms. It was a very chilling close to the chapter. I think I ended up feeling sorry for the child.

I think it's a combination of things. He's getting the worst, most extended punishment because he condemned Dantes without knowing him at all. But also, Danglers is a self-made man who has more self-knowledge than Villefort, he never claimed to be something he wasn't, he knows his wife is also a schemer and will be OK without him, and he no doubt thinks he can disappear off and start making money again (not sure the Count will let him though, Danglers still doesn't know TCOMC is Edmund whereas he told Caderousse and Morcerf before they died). I assume Danglers and Villefort will also know who is responsible for their downfall and be dead by the end of the book.

That's helpful about the timing of Villefort's affair, @MotherOfCatBoy. I didn't think about it much and just kind of assumed everyone was sleeping together at roughly the same time 😂

I agree that the Romeo and Juliet / Friar Lawrence vibes are strong! I also think it's rather sadistic of the Count not to have told Morrel that Valentine is alive. It reminds me of how the Count also waited to rescue Morrel's father until the very last minute. As a modern reader I find his behaviour disturbing, but I guess Dumas is trying to raise the suspense to a maximum height, like a cliffhanger in a film or something.

I just don't have it in me to feel sorry for Villefort. Even in his conversation with his wife, he's still harping on about his reputation. I agree with you @JaninaDuszejko about him being the worst villain, but for me it's also about the fact that he is an official representative of justice who's willing to pervert the cause of justice. He also sided with the murderers of Bertuccio's brother, rather than trying to bring them to justice. Which reminds me of MotherofCatBoy's point that the villains of the story continue to make the same mistakes in later life.

Surely Benedetto is older than Valentine? She's only 18/19 he is early 20s. Villefort must therefore have cheated on his first wife with Mme Danglars.

The Count is testing Maximilian, it looks very harsh, but he has his reasons - it also adds greatly to the story! 😀

Yes I think Villefort must have cheated on his first wife, adding to his shittiness! I absolutely don’t feel sorry for him, he’s the worst of them all and I am looking forward to his complete downfall. I did think the bit where he drank the hot chocolate was funny, amongst all the melodrama 😄

Looki forward to next week’s chapters, there’s a lot still to be resolved! Do we finish it this week?

I also thought he was taking a heck of a chance drinking the hot chocolate!

I enjoyed today's gossipy chapter. Are they all blind with regard to Mme de Villefort?!
It's very tempting to read ahead now, but I'm staying resolute!

Wow, just read yesterday’s chapter - dramatic! Very satisfying 😄 And the last line was amusing 😊

Yeah, it's really ramping up. Not looking any better for Villefort today either.

I caved!

I've read to the end. Very interested in what everyone's final analysis might be.

I do still think Villefort was very heavily punished for his part in locking up Edmund. On the other hand, I have no such concerns for Danglers. Not sure if that says something about me or it's how the characters and revenge are written.

I think someone else already said this, but I'd read a follow up book of Danglers daughter and her friend/lover gallivanting round Europe being penniless artists.

I ran out of time this morning! Just caught up - yes indeed, Villefort’s chickens are really coming home to roost now! Hard to feel sorry for him given he not only destroyed an innocent man to protect himself, but also buried his own baby alive…

I'm speechless after reading 'Expiation'.
He has lost it all and even the Count is wondering if he went too far.

Yes, very upsetting chapter today! Even the Count is abashed as you say, Fuzzy.

I felt as though there were elements of ancient Greek tragedy, with Villefort as tragic hero. Villefort's moments of tragic recognition: finding out the true identity of Benedetto, but then also admitting to himself that he's a murderer. Then him getting home and finding his wife and son dead. And finally going mad, like Orestes being taken over by the Furies.

In short it was all a bit much! And to me the Count's revelation to Villefort that he was Edmond Dantes seemed a little anticlimactic. Villefort is so shaken by all the trauma he's just experienced that it barely seems to matter that someone he wronged a long time ago is the source of the trauma. He doesn't even seem to remember Edmond Dantes very well.

Maybe that's part of the point, that you can pour so much emotion and energy into pursuing revenge, and then the revenge when it finally happens is strangely unsatisfying.

On a different topic, I found it a little comical (because implausible?) that Benedetto so cheerfully describes himself to the court in the previous chapter as a bad egg. His aplomb is a wonderful thing to see 😁. Essentially he says, I could have been virtuous like my adoptive parents, but no, I became a villain! Hey, at least he's embraced his own nefarious personality.

It really is a novel where the characters are either angels or villains, generally speaking.

And even though the Count is upset to realise that he has indirectly caused the death of a child, the child has been set up as a dreadful little brat (villain in-the-making) and so his death doesn't seem as awful as it might have seemed otherwise.

Yes to angels and villains - the count clearly didn’t mean harm to come to Edward, but the ground was prepared so we thoroughly disliked him!

In ‘The Black Count’, Tom Reiss’ biography of the author Dumas’ military general father, a lot is said about memory. Our Dumas prided himself on his memory and treasured his own memories of his father (who died when he was 4). Earlier, Haydée recounted events from her early childhood that she remembers with great clarity. Mercèdes is the only one who has recognised Dantès.

The villains that the Count is revenging himself on have forgotten Dantès, their own actions in condemning him haven’t haunted them. Perhaps the failure to remember is part of their moral failure?

That’s interesting @CornishLizard - is the
biography a good read? His family history is wild!

Yes, cassandre! I think so. It was way over the top. Very Greek tragedy. I think the death of the child was upsetting. He was an awful little shit monster but he was innocent in all of this. The themes of predestiny, blood lines and the sins of the father were to the fore again.

Villefort losing his reason was upsetting too. He lost his reputation, his family and his mind. I think the Count came across as a bit of a meddler. Villefort thought it was the hand of God up to the final moment which reinforced the Count as God persona, but I think he fell off his pedestal. He got it wrong or did he over achieve? He's too good at it now. Did I read it right that he wants to go and save Danglars now?