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

Very interesting post Cornish!

I’ve finished the book now - looking forward to discussing it once everyone has read to the end!

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

I agree, I think this is exactly the point Dumas is making. He gets his revenge, but then what? Does it bring any real satisfaction?

A bit of relief from all the revenging today but more of the impact on the people the Count views as innocent.

On the children's inheritence it's mixed. Valentine is considered good like her mother, and Alfred is good like his mother. But Edouard and Benedetto are bad like their parents. Eugénie is by far the most interesting child though, she's more lively and interesting than Valentine. I wonder what the French thought of her in the 19th century, in the contemporary English translation her lesbianism was excised and only restored in the 1990s.

@MotherOfCatBoy Black Count was really interesting especially alongside TCOMC, as the superhuman CoMC bears a strong resemblance to the author’s father. I didn’t race through it and the middle military history section was a bit of a slog, but it was really interesting. The liberation of Haydée is particularly poignant knowing that one side of the family were enslaved a couple of generations previously. Before joining the army, the father also lived the high life in Paris on credit for a time, reminiscent of Albert and Franz earlier on in the book. So a really interesting companion piece but it’s perhaps left me less critical of the fictional Count than I would otherwise have been!

Hmm @CornishLizard sounds good!

I see there is a new TV series coming out - French, lots of original plot left in - apparently they say they want to develop « strong female characters » - but they have left out Eugénie! Bloody typical. All words, they won’t really have strong women. 🙄

I couldn't stop myself from reading ahead, and I wasn't disappointed. I anticipated that it would end differently, but I can understand this finale, and it is rather fitting.

Finishing TCOMC has allowed me to enjoy reading a heavier book. Taking part in this read along has been beneficial for some explanations and highlights of intricacies that I had previously missed. But I have to say that this type of fiction would be preferable for me to read alone at some point.

Has there been any more thought about the next book for a read-along? I'm keen to start the next one. 😁

I hadn't anticipated that the Count would go back to his cell at Chateau d'If and relive his experiences there with the sympathetic guide as a listener. I thought that was very well done although I did some eye-rolling at how it was important for him as a superior being to banish any doubts or have guilty thoughts about the death of a child. But it was good to go back to the cell as the story is coming to an end.

Similarly, I enjoyed the return to the bandits in Rome since the middle section of the book takes place here. Poor Danglars! Did anyone else think that he might end up in Luigi Vampa's guest suite for fourteen years? The smattering of Italian that Danglars was using from Eugénie's Italian arias was very funny, particularly when he addressed the coachman as 'caro mio'. That really was funny!

I really enjoyed Vampa! I see he was reading about Alexander this time! He deserves his own mini series too!
Agree Danglars could be played for laughs - that bit was brilliant! Pepino was v funny too - a gourmand with his chickpeas!

I think I missed Peppino and his chickpeas! I must go back and look it up.
Agree that Vampa is quite the character.
Danglars is one smug git, isn't he.

Yes Danglars’ Italian was properly funny 😄 And I agree it was good to revisit the chateau d’If and Vampa - good closure!

Ohh I hadn’t thought of Danglars being imprisoned for 14 years Fuzzy. That would have been cruel! I thought earlier on that Valentine was being set up to be locked up for the poisoning crimes she didn’t commit so was glad that didn’t happen.

interesting Danglars was last - so presumably top billing as chief baddie? I think I’d have thought Villefort was, though l suppose his actions against Dantès weren’t personal as such.

I think that Danglars is the chief baddie because the nefarious scheme was his idea. Villefort facilitated it. I'm going to wait until Monday to find out what happens to Danglars!

I’ve fallen behind as I’ve got a new job starting in a few weeks so consequently my actual job has gone bananas.

I think we are at the point where:

• we’ve finished
• or we are ploughing on to the finish line
• some adaptation watching

I will make a list of suggestions for next read and we can agree timeline, I get the feeling we would all like a bit of a rest.

A couple of options I think

• start next read in July, giving a bit of time to decide, source and plan plus indulge in other things
• take the summer off and start back September

I think that Villefort and Fernand both had explicable personal reasons for their actions, Fernand because he was in love with Mercedes, Villefort to protect his father (and his own reputation!).

Danglars on the other hand is just eaten up with envy of Dantes, being the golden boy of their boss.

Caderousse is an odd one - he's a bit flaky at the beginning but he sort of keeps an eye out for Dantes père after Edmond disappears, he doesn't really go bad until he decides to kill that diamond merchant.

That would be great to make a list of suggestions thanks, I'm good with either a July or September start.

Sounds great, thanks Agualusa. Could we have a date after which it's ok to discuss the ending of this one?

I think the last chapter will be on Wednesday, so we should be able to discuss it after that.

September sounds good, back to school and all that…

Yes I think Wedn as @FuzzyCaoraDhubh says

Finished! I really enjoyed it and thought the last few chapters were great, especially as @FuzzyCaoraDhubh says the trip back to the Chateau d'If.

I've also finished, one day ahead of schedule! I liked the ending.

This was a riveting read. Five stars!

Finished! I enjoyed the reappearance of characters I hadn't seen for a while in the last few chapters (and Danglars final comeuppance) but would probably have enjoyed the last chapter more if I'd read the last three back to back at the weekend. But that's me being very fussy. But a great romp and personally I enjoyed all the diversions to Rome etc before the revenging got to full speed.

Thanks @AgualusasLover for organising the readalong, it's been great fun and all the extra information people have shared about the french language and the history has deepened the experience.

Yes, huge thanks to everyone on the thread. I've so enjoyed the extra knowledge added by people who have visited the places, or knew the history or the detail of how it would be physically written at the time. It's really added something for me.

Back to reading in my own time for a bit I think, but I would join another one day.

I finished a few weeks ag9 and it's been quite hard not to post any spoilers.

It does finally make sense why the Count tested Morel to the limit, to ensure that he could be trusted with the fortune and to look after Valentine and Noirtier.

And I think the moral that seeking the revenge and planning it so meticulously all those years took a serious toll on him too.

I would have liked to know what happened to Benedetto in the end, he disappeared after the court scene.