Wednesday, February 3, 2021

1000 Books Project: The Count of Monte Cristo - Discussion One

Oh, the injustice!!! Yes, pretty much my reaction during this entire first section. I cannot abide injustice of any kind so, even though I know the story (from films), reading it in the brilliance of Dumas' prose makes it all the more gut wrenching. 

When I was researching my original (abridged...egads!) copy of the book, I read somewhere a couple of comments alluding to this book being a difficult read. Not the subject matter, but the writing itself. I did not find that at all. I was absolutely riveted the entire time. This is my first Dumas read and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. (I happily obtained the Wordsworth Classics edition, pictured here. Much better!)

Some notable differences in the book from my favorite version of the film, the 2002 version which starred Jim Caviezel as Dantes. This is why the book should always be read, whether you watch the movie or not. So much more depth to the story, and more plausibility in my opinion. I am going to watch the movie again after we finish this read-along. It has been a while since I last watched it. 

In my research on themes in the book, I came across this statement:
"what separates the good from the bad in The Count of Monte Cristo is that the good appreciate the good things they have, however small, while the bad focus on what they lack." 
Isn't that the truth. Dantes would have been perfectly happy in life whether he stayed a ship's mate, or became a captain of the ship. I believe he would have eventually been able to find happiness even had he lost Mercedes in a normal way (death or some other reason) rather than the way it actually happened. Danglers could never be happy because he was just bad. Rather than focus on doing a good job in whatever job he held, he instead focused on the belief that he deserved what Dantes had. I feel that Fernand looked on Mercedes more as a possession than actually loving her, and also the belief that their being together was how it was supposed to be because of their families and culture. If you truly love someone, you would want them to be happy. Right? Caderousse is just an unhappy person. Hence the drinking. He is complicit in what happens to Dantes and does nothing to come to his aid because he just can't muster any positive thought or gesture.

Of course, the Dantes post-d'lf I suspect will fall under the bad classification of this theme with his plans for vengeance. 

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What did you think of this first section? Share any and all thoughts in the comments.

This month's schedule: February: Read through page 305, through the end of Chapter XXXVII
Discussion February 28 (I apologize if I'm sometimes late with discussion posts. Life gets in the way at times.)


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