Count of Monte Cristo: Chapter 8

[osprey_archer]

After much waffling and repeated warnings not to do it, I have gone ahead and started reading The Count of Monte Cristo. Somehow none of the warnings were as powerful as the fact that I actually own the book and it has been sitting on my shelf, taking up space and waiting to be read.

And also I missed having a lengthy book project to post about every Thursday. This is probably an unfortunate sign of my long slow march toward reading Proust.

In any case! So far The Count of Monte Cristo is all right. Dantes started out on top of the world - about to be made captain of his own ship and marry the girl he loves - and in few short chapters, he has been cast down to the depths of despair, although I think he's still under the impression that he's going to get out of jail soon and go on with his life. Oh Dantes! As if accused Napoleonic conspirators get to go on with their lives.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

... why would someone warn you against reading The Count of Monte Cristo? That's very sad. I hope you enjoy it anyway! I finally managed to read it last year and, whether because it was one of those random magic books I suddenly am able to read, or what, I had an awful lot of fun and found it too short. Except for the bits where the Count went AWOL. It has everything, tho'!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think it was because of those bits where the Count goes AWOL. And also she mentioned there was a castle with hashish-induced dream sequences that went on for a hundred pages or so? Unless that was in The Three Musketeers.

In any case I am reading it now, so clearly the anti-rec did not take effect! I'm doing a chapter a night so I'll probably be reading it for the next six months or so.

[thisbluespirit]

The hashish dream last, er, about 3 pages at most? And you need to make sure you have the most recent translation or else you don't get the hashish or the runaway lesbians, and even if you don't want the random hashish dream, you surely must want the runaway lesbians.

Unless you hate it, I shouldn't think it'll take you six months - it's too good to be rationed too much!

ETA: I also loved Three Musketeers to pieces, though, and this one's maybe even better? (Maybe). It just depends, I suppose, whether you would rather have a sensible tragic wrong and revenge tale (probably of sensible length) or a whopping great completely ridiculous revenge tale that involves an equally improbable eescape, a large cast of characters who are all secretly connected, several marvellous and unnecessary disguises, pirates, treasure, Roman Brigands, random drug-taking and runaway lesbians and possible vampires. I mean, it's also dodgy in places, but I think you've clearly read enough 19th C lit to take that as a given and you can't ask much more of a book than the above. :lol:

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

How sad is it that I've never read any of these Dumas books? Very sad? Should I solve this problem right now? (I'm putting off reading Sword of Honor by Evelyn Waugh because I still don't feel like dealing with Evelyn Waugh).

I've never heard of anyone warning other people not to read The Count of Monte Cristo - only that it's really readable and entertaining. What were you warned about?

This is probably an unfortunate sign of my long slow march toward reading Proust.

Well, you know what I'm going to say to that. March faster! :)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Well, if you read The Count of Monte Cristo right now, then we could talk about it, so... maybe you should! Although I will be reading it quite slowly, so you might finish it and then stand there tapping your foot impatiently, metaphorically speaking.

My friend Emma warned me that there is a long bizarre castle sequence in the middle of the book which has nothing to do with anything else and suggested I should read The Three Musketeers instead. But the fact that I own a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo won out in the end.

I can only read one giant book at once! And Proust is not merely one giant book but six of them!

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I JUST MIGHT if there's a copy at the library.

And hey, just tape all the Lost Time volumes together at the spine! Now it's one book! :D Or use an ereader; that probably works too.

[minutia-r.livejournal.com]

Well, and one of the people who was going YES DO IT, I am v. pleased! Silly Dantes, he will be bitter and disillusioned soon enough.

And ugh, The Three Musketeers. Could not finish. The trouble was that about fifty pages in I was rooting for "the French Revolution shows up and kills all these people" but that wasn't going to happen for another 150 years or so.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was The Three Musketeers I was warned off? I DON'T KNOW, I'M SO CONFUSED. Is there a part in The Three Musketeers where they go to a castle and smoke hashish?

[minutia-r.livejournal.com]

No, that sounds more like The Count of Monte Cristo--although I suppose there could be hashish smoking in The Three Musketeers too; I never got far enough in to say for sure.

I dunno, a lot of people like The Three Musketeers. I am even willing to believe there are people who dislike The Count of Monte Cristo. It takes all kinds, man.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to read The Count of Monte Cristo for ages! I loved The Three Musketeers when I read it a few years ago, so I have great faith in Dumas.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

You should do it! evelyn_b is thinking about reading it too, so we would practically be a reading group!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, maybe I will. If you're only going to do a few chapters a week, that's not too hard to keep up with. What translation are you reading?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the Penguin edition, which was translated by Robin Buss.

[littlerhymes]

The Count of Monte Cristo is a delight, it is Dumas' FINEST. I'm looking forward to your thoughts!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I did not expect such an outpouring of enthusiasm when people heard I was reading this book! This is a pleasant surprise.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

So look, I started reading this and now I am CAUGHT UP to Chapter 8 and it's amazing, it's like a silent movie only before there were movies. Dantes is the biggest sweetheart and he's just been THROWN INTO JAIL by an amazing convergence of sneaky bastardy ON HIS WEDDING DAY and I realize that I have no idea what's going to happen in the next 68382 chapters. Poor Dantes! Poor Mercedes! Poor Dantes' dad! Poor drunk guy who didn't sign on for this base treachery but is too drunk and weak-souled to stop it! Poor idiot suitor who shouldn't have been so damn impulsive!

I can't wait to see where this goes, HOPEFULLY NOT just a bunch more dungeons :( :( :(

How much are you planning to read per week?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think there WERE silent movie versions of this and when I am done reading it I should definitely track at least one down. I know for a fact that was a silent movie of The Three Musketeers - the Douglas Fairbanks version is really famous, but there might be others, actually - people complain about remakes now, but back in the days of the silents people would make like five different versions of the same story just because.

ANYWAY. I think there's going to be plenty of DUNGEONS for a while, but at some point he will doubtless escape in some daring and lively manner, and then there will probably be REVENGE. (I have also been told that there is HASHISH at some point, I guess just because Dumas felt like it?)

And also possibly reunions? Although Dantes' dad may die of despair now that his son is in prison. And Mercedes will... either marry the idiot suitor or possibly join a nunnery? OR MAYBE DANGLARS WILL SWOOP IN TO TRY TO WIN HER HEART TO MAKE HIS REVENGE COMPLETE.

I don't think she would go for him, though, I think maybe he'd try it and she'd be like "On the whole I prefer the nunnery."

BUT WHO KNOWS, WE'LL JUST HAVE TO READ AND FIND OUT. I am planning to do seven chapters a week, one a night.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Man, if Mercedes marries Danglars out of DESPAIR that would be the worst thing ever, at least her jackass suitor is a guy she knows and likes for some reason. I'm crossing my fingers for STONE-FACED FIDELITY and maybe she can weave a map into some cloth like Penelope only it also helps Dantes escape somehow. Then later if there is REVENGE she can be a voice for mercy, like her name suggests.

BUT LIKE YOU SAID, WE'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE! I really hope Dantes' dad doesn't die of despair :(((( but I guess if he did that would make REVENGE all the more likely :(

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

If there is anything I have learned about Dumas in these few short chapters it is that he has no use for subtlety AT ALL, so it is 100% likely that Mercedes' name is totally symbolic and she will be the voice for mercy at the end of it.

Hopefully not because she married Danglars out of DESPAIR, though. Although I think we are going to see plenty of DESPAIR on all sides.