Count of Monte Cristo: Chapter 75
Dec. 1st, 2016 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI'm about two thirds of the way through this book, and at last the Count's carefully laid plans are beginning to bear fruit! At least, his plans against Villefort and Danglars are; I'm not sure what his plan against Fernand is, and it's making me nervous.
And CLEARLY it's making Mercedes nervous too, because she knows that something is going to go down but she has no idea what. So the Count comes to her house for a ball and she's trying so hard to get him to eat something - I guess because eating something is a sign of friendship/an acceptance of hospitality which might prevent him from vengeancing properly? And he won't eat anything, not even the fresh succulent peach from the greenhouse.
I wonder if Mercedes has guessed that his reappearance and skulking around means that Fernand is to blame for Dantes' arrest in the first place. Or does she think that she's the one Dantes wants vengeance upon, for marrying another? OH MERCEDES.
However, these questions have remained unanswered (at least for now), because the book is all Valentine Villefort and Maximilien Morrel all the time right now, which I'm actually all right with because I have become so engrossed by their epic passion. (Dumas keeps comparing them to Pyramus and Thisbe, who fell in love talking through a gap in the wall between their houses, because Valentine has to talk to Maximilien through a fence. Occasionally, in moments of rapture, she puts her fingers through and he gets to touch her hand.)
Her marriage to Franz, whom she doesn't love, has been looming ominously ever closer - but! Now her grandfather Noirtier has taken a hand! Despite the fact that a stroke has left him paralyzed and mute, Noirtier is probably the most badass character in this book (aside from Dantes, of course): he just happens to have a confession in a secret drawer of his desk that proves he killed Franz's father, which has currently rendered Franz mute with horror.
Does this mean that Franz will call off the marriage? Will the scandal sweep through Paris, ruining Villefort's good name? ONE CAN ONLY HOPE.
Still no word from Caderrouse, but given how tightly everyone in this novel seems to be bound together, I'm sure he'll show up again sometime.
And CLEARLY it's making Mercedes nervous too, because she knows that something is going to go down but she has no idea what. So the Count comes to her house for a ball and she's trying so hard to get him to eat something - I guess because eating something is a sign of friendship/an acceptance of hospitality which might prevent him from vengeancing properly? And he won't eat anything, not even the fresh succulent peach from the greenhouse.
I wonder if Mercedes has guessed that his reappearance and skulking around means that Fernand is to blame for Dantes' arrest in the first place. Or does she think that she's the one Dantes wants vengeance upon, for marrying another? OH MERCEDES.
However, these questions have remained unanswered (at least for now), because the book is all Valentine Villefort and Maximilien Morrel all the time right now, which I'm actually all right with because I have become so engrossed by their epic passion. (Dumas keeps comparing them to Pyramus and Thisbe, who fell in love talking through a gap in the wall between their houses, because Valentine has to talk to Maximilien through a fence. Occasionally, in moments of rapture, she puts her fingers through and he gets to touch her hand.)
Her marriage to Franz, whom she doesn't love, has been looming ominously ever closer - but! Now her grandfather Noirtier has taken a hand! Despite the fact that a stroke has left him paralyzed and mute, Noirtier is probably the most badass character in this book (aside from Dantes, of course): he just happens to have a confession in a secret drawer of his desk that proves he killed Franz's father, which has currently rendered Franz mute with horror.
Does this mean that Franz will call off the marriage? Will the scandal sweep through Paris, ruining Villefort's good name? ONE CAN ONLY HOPE.
Still no word from Caderrouse, but given how tightly everyone in this novel seems to be bound together, I'm sure he'll show up again sometime.
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Date: 2016-12-02 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-03 01:23 am (UTC)ALSO RUNAWAY LESBIAN ALERT. Eugenie "almost wishes her father would lose his fortune" so she could be an artist like her friend Louise. ARTISTS IN LOVE? Be careful what you almost wish for, Eugenie! I hear those garrets get hella cold and damp.
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Date: 2016-12-03 12:53 pm (UTC)Surely Eugenie and Louise wouldn't spend too long in a garret, though! Louise would be a great triumph on the stage and they could settle into a luxurious apartment together. Meanwhile, Eugenie's father will live in a hovel somewhere, bemoaning his lost fortune.
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Date: 2016-12-04 02:44 am (UTC)Right now, Danglars is just idly plucking flowers off one of the Count's plants, because that's our Danglars. He is distracted because he just lost a million francs due to Dantes bribing the telegraph guys to make a false report (but he doesn't know that part of it). Dumas then makes sure to have him try the same thing with a cactus and get his fingers pricked. HA-ha!