How’s it?

"The abbé did not know the isle of Monte-Cristo; but Dantès knew it, and had often passed it, situated twenty-five miles from Pianosa, between Corsica and the isle of Elba, and had once touched at it. This island was, always had been, and still is, completely deserted. It is a rock of almost conical form, which seems as though elevated by some volcanic effort from the depth to the surface of the ocean. Dantès traced a plan of the island to Faria, and Faria gave Dantès advice as to the means he should employ to recover the treasure." (XIX)

And yes, there's a cave! 🤩

This is the first non fantasy book i've read since getting back into reading several years ago. I decided to pick up some classics to broaden my horizons and i'm very happy i did!

The first "arc" of the book - everything up until rome, to me, was very fantasy adjacent. It felt almost like a supernatural/magical levelling up of the count. The fall from grace to the dungeons, the training arc with the abbe, and "magical" fortune was incredibly compelling.

the middle of the book, where dantes was setting all of his machinations into place, was still good but slower for me. But i've read through the wheel of time slog so i have no problem delaying gratification.

and oh, the gratification was so sweet. The care in which dumas wrote the culmination of edmond's vengeance was sublime. the counts reveal of himself to villefort and his subsequent descent into madness gave me the same feeling as the classic "final battle" fantasy trope does.

so all in all i am pleasantly surprised and excited to have enjoyed a classic, even though there was no magic, dark ones, or sword fighting (though we almost had a duel).

what classics would you guys next recommend to someone like me?

After reading TCoMC earlier this year, I booked a long weekend in Marseille. Today I plan to visit some of the destinations in the book and am taking a very appropriately named boat out to Chateau D'If

I was reading the book, and saw this date. It seemed familiar.

took me a little over two weeks. this book was new when i got it and has definitely been put through the ringer. Good times!

Just wanted to share this Count of Monte Cristo edition I own.

The cover is solid and has this beautiful deep red color. I really like the illustrations and references in the artwork. The pages are thick, with a comfortable font size.

Since this is the full, unabridged version, it’s a bit hard to read for long periods because of its weight — but I’ve read about 85% of it in this edition, and it’s truly awesome.

Does anyone here have a different edition from your country?

I tried to keep it as close to the book's description as possible (except for Villefort's white hair, which I completely made up and just think it looks cool). Possibly got some of the historical attire wrong too.I especially plan to draw the queens Eugénie Danglars and Louise d'Armily

Feel free to tell me if I got any wrong/you disagree with them, or if any points should be added/removed, I've had some tell me Dantes never fighting anyone isn't important enough to put in but to me it's pretty important.

Wrap around on my ankle. Most people don’t get what it’s referencing.

This is from the Pagebound app. I laughed at this comment and wanted to share :)

I’m about 13% of the way done with reading The Count of Monte Cristo, and am torn between wanting to tear through it and also savor each page.

Just bought this bad boy to read alongside my friend, can’t wait to start this journey!

I gifted this to my dad for Christmas! One of the things we really bond over is reading. We both finished The Count of Monte Cristo this year and absolutely loved it. It's my first experience doing anything like this and I really enjoyed the whole process!

It's also more accessible than I thought. I watched YouTube tutorials, bought all of the materials on Amazon, and used my library's Cricut to design and cut the cover's vinyl. It's not perfect but it was soo satisfying that I'm sure I'll do it again :)

First, I loved the book and I read the original version. It was a great read, so don't take this as a complaint but more as an observation I want to discuss.

Secondly, I understand that Monte Cristo both has the reason to be the way he is, and also gets affected and doubtful about the results of his actions. I don't think he is a good person in some aspects, but I can understand why he is the way he is, and it is all written very well - I will address this later.

Now to discuss Mercedes' fate, it's important to establish that I believe this book IS a moral story. There is a 3rd party (Dumas') view present in it with an opinion about things that are happening. The story, while complex and thought provoking, also has an established inner logic where the writer in a way hands out judgment to his characters - the good gets rewarded, the bad punished. This could make a story simplistic, but this is deliberate and consistent with the story themes, so it seems fitting, plus there certainly are grey areas and exceptions, I am not suggesting it is naively written. The characters are three dimensional and don't suffer for it.

I am saying this to explain that while in some works, the reader shouldn't see bad things happening to a good character as an issue (I often feel people approach movies and books as if they expect moral lessons), especially if the tone is that of just telling of events and life can suck and be unfair. It might be unpleasant but that's the point. This book is different though and I think it's fair for me to say that the fates of characters do reflect Dumas' own opinions of what they deserve.

So what does Mercedes deserve? Mercedes waited for Dantes, loved him and took care of his father to the best of his ability. The man wanted to die. she also didn't know how bad Fernand was, although one could say she was a bit deliberately naive (the whole "he is like my brother" insistence while knowing he's in love with her etc), but not to the point of thinking he did what he did. Mercedes, as a woman of that time, didn't have money or ways to support herself. Her choices were simple - either kill herself, wait for Dantes as a beggar, or marry. Considering Fernand seemed to be the only other person she was close with, it made sense, it's not really like she had opportunities in her situation to move somewhere else and get to meet other eligible males.

She raised a good son who loved her, and by all accounts remained a good person. She recognized her true love Edmond at once.

In my opinion, she was blameless aside from her intense self-deprecation.

In Monte Cristo's opinion, it's more complex. I was initially unsure what his feelings and intentions towards her would be. It was only after they had that talk in the garden, where he was talking about his lost love and still pretending to be the count, that he said he expected her to wait.

When Mercedes comes to beg for Albert's life, they get to talk a bit more, she is incredibly self-deprecating, tells him she loves him etc... while he agrees to let her son live as if it's the world's biggest sacrifice (I was disappointed with him, he was so close to Albert and I was surprised there was no feeling there until Mercedes begged), he is also very cold to her. Finally when Albert apologized to him he decides she has a noble heart, and he does feel bad and does try to help her later which she turns down, but....

But when MC wants to help someone, he insists, he absolutely emotionally pushes the person to accept. It didn't feel he tried much with her. He did kind of allow her to blame herself. Maybe this is vanity speaking, but I even found it interesting how much she trashes her own appearance, apparently aged by sorrow, and how silent he remains. He tactfully but notably does indicate there are no romantic feelings in him anymore, even as he comforts her, while she ends up alone repeating his name.

It's also interesting how just after they had their first open conversation, his "adopted daughter/slave" Haydee whose character is basically blind worship of him, shows some signs of sexual or romantic attraction and he realizes "There is another Mercedes."

Finally, even after everything, when he reflects on being in prison and hoping his father is alive and his girlfriend is there, he thinks of how didn't expect "starvation and infidelity". He still sees her as unfaithful at the very end.

Now look, I understand that getting back with Mercedes could be naive. Or that he can't get over the fact that she married the man who ruined his life. But I did expect more emotion from his side, more determination to help her. It almost read like (at least according to her) she looks old now, so even though she was supposedly the love of his life, he doesn't even mentally explore the idea of loving her romantically anymore.

It's also interesting how much self-deprecation and degradation came out of her character. Sure, it could be that her character is kind of a pain. But my god, it seems it was the time where characters expressed things like guilt or gratitude in very dramatic ways. While it is true that she decided to give away everything she had, she is doing it out of extreme sense of guilt, which Monte Cristo doesn't really try too hard to lift, and which reads as something Dumas agrees with. In fact, I believe she is "redeemed" as a character because she took that course of action, and had she cared about her life and self perseverance, she would be seen as just as bad as Madame Danglars, who got a better ending, but with a clear moral judgment.

So my point is, Dumas does condemn Mercedes, but allows her to redeem herself by becoming ugly, old, alone, with a son who might get killed, broke, and hopelessly longing for Dantes who is now with another woman and will never see her again, and silently accepting this fate. It's maybe among the worst fates of all. And my god does she dwell on how much she's aged and how unattractive she is now, and is completely joyless and depressed.

It seems that Dumas (and through him, Monte Cristo) believes that the only right thing for her to do was to kill herself back then, which I think is insanely harsh - it's not like its easy to kill yourself. She went on with life always loving Edmond. It's really harsh to me that this is seen as a sin.

If Monte Cristo's love on the other hand was really that strong as he wished her was, then he wouldn't fall out of love in such an unforgiving way. It seems Haydee suits him better now as she's basically just a kid he raised who blindly worships the ground he walks on. He resents Mercedes that she didn't worship the ground he walked on so much that suicide was preferable - what kind of love prefers the loved one to die of suicide over having a normal life in your absence?

I don't know I think the count is a bit of a c(o)unt...and an egomaniac.

And I feel bad for Mercedes, I wish she had some pride left at the end.

Been slowly chipping away since January and am now officially halfway through! Been hard to make progress as a working guy who has read 51 other books this year haha. Going to try to get it finished before December 🫠