The Count of Monte Cristo

    Oh shit, you say, Bryan is doing another one of those damn book reviews! Even worse, he's going to compare it to the movie! Haven't we suffered this hell enough?!

   Well, no, you haven't. There is one consolation, though, I will not compare this work of Alexandre Dumas to any of its film interpretations/adaptations, for in this 1,462 page bullet stopper, there is way too much going on for one movie to cover...but I will return to the media aspect later.

   I do need to mention one film adaptation, though, since it was the impetus for me reading the book in the first place. The 2002 film with Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and Richard Harris made the story intriguing enough. The next year I picked up the book, which turned out to be an ABRIDGED version despite its 500+ pages. Sure enough, when I read it, there seemed to be some pieces missing in terms of characters' fates. Therefore I went back to the store to get the full monty, so to speak. After finally finishing the full version last night, I am quite glad I made the purchase and effort, even though I put it down after just under 500 pages 3 years ago.

   The basic sketch of the tale is as follows: young Edmond Dantes, a sailor aboard the Marseilles vessel Pharaeon, has been secretly put in charge of a letter to one of Napoleon Bonaparte's agents by the ill captain LeClere. Upon arrival in Marseilles, the ship's and company's owner Monsieur Morrel is impressed with Edmond's deeds (not knowing of the letter) and makes him captain. The jealous Danglars, another ship officer, who has seen the letter, plots with Edmond's jealous rival for his lover Mercedes, Fernand Mondego to frame Edmond by sending the letter to the deputy procuror de roi (prosecutor for the king) Villefort. Edmond is arrested and interrogated and, after Edmond reveals is naivete for the letter's true meaning (Edmond is quite illiterate) he is about to be set free until he tells of the name of the letter's intended recipient Noirtier. Villefort is visibly agitated but keeps Edmond assured he will be free...and then sends Edmond to the Chateau D'If, a prison intended for the outcasts and embarrassments of Marseilles. There he meets the Abbe (Father) Faria who is imprisoned in a nearby cell and is befriended by him. 

   Faria is a wise and experienced man who teaches Edmond to read as well as mathematics and economics and the ways of the world. It is with Faria that Edmond discovers what the plot against him was truly about and it is here that Edmond becomes bent on revenge if he ever gets out. Faria also informs Edmond of a hidden treasure trove on the island of Monte Cristo, hidden underwater. When Faria dies, Edmond sneaks his body into the body bag which is tossed into the sea. 

   From there, Edmond works on ships and acquires enough money to get to Monte Cristo to find the treasure. Once that is acquired, he embarks on a series of life adventures for several years, establishing a series of various identities and backgrounds and buying slaves to perform as his servants. Once he purchases the title of the Count of Monte Cristo , he begins to set up his revenge plot by getting to know what makes the men who conspired against him tick and use that intelligence against them, which is pretty much what the last thousand or so pages are all about.

The end.

Haha, yeah right! I've been waiting way too long to write this to end it here.

First, let's go back to where the conspirators met. There was Danglars, the conspiracy leader; Fernand, a jealous rival for Mercedes’s affections and love...and a third, a tailor named Gaspard Caderousse. The latter is introduced as a man who is owed money by the Dantes family, specifically Edmond’s father. After the debt is paid (leaving the father a bit strapped), Caderousse is all friendly and benevolent. He is also prone to drink and as he sits and observes the conspirators, he assumes it is a joke. Caderousse appears later to tell Abbe Busoni (one of Edmond’s alter egos), by prompting, of what happened to all Edmond knew in Marseilles. Edmond learns that his father died of starvation while his enemies relocated to Paris. He provides Caderousse with a diamond to make a new life as Caderousse has fallen on hard times. 

Caderousse only goes downhill from there. Trying to get a good price for the diamond, he and his wife act to murder the jeweler they use (the wife dies during this) and Caderousse is imprisoned. He is later a thief and blackmailer, murdered by his blackmail victim Benedetto. I find Caderousse interesting because really he seems to be a born loser and his demand of repayment of a debt at a bad time, along with not standing up for Edmond to the prosecutor when he should have, sends his life from bad to worse. In fact, Edmond, as the Count, declares “1!” upon Caderousse’s death.

Another aspect of the story that is quite fascinating is Edmond creating all of these elaborate disguises and characters for himself: Sinbad the Sailor, Lord Wilmore, and Abbe Busoni. The latter is the most frequent alter ego as it signifies a religious presence in people’s homes as well as a legal influence to let certain prisoners free to begin a new life, Caderousse among them. In one scene, Abbe Busoni passes Danglars and leaves the room, then out comes the Count a moment or two later! Lord Wilmore is used mainly for one act of generosity for Monsieur Morrel, Edmond’s former boss who fell on hard times. In fact, via the riches from Monte Cristo, Morrel is rescued from a certain suicide. It is Edmond’s last act of generosity for some time.

From then on, the Count (he is not Edmond in any way for some time to come) plots how to get to his enemies via spies and observation. After a mysterious 10 years of which we the reader may assume Edmond traveled and experienced the world, he begins his chess-like game of revenge. He engages the Viscount Albert de Morcerf (son of Mercedes and Fernand, now known as the Count de Morcerf) in Rome. After gaining Albert’s trust via acting as a host in his home and various sports and theatrical displays, the Count arranges a kidnapping of Albert by the bandit Luigi Vampa, an acquaintance Edmond made soon after his prison escape. The Count then easily rescues Albert with merely his name. The ruse is effective and Albert invites the Count to Paris. 

Upon arrival, the Count wastes no time in purchasing not one home, but two, as well as gaining intelligence from unsuspecting friends of Albert regarding the Count’s enemies, though everyone views the Count as a wise benefactor and friend, particularly the wives of Villefort and Danglars. The men themselves meet the Count but do not recognize him as the man they tried to destroy over 20 years ago. Fernand, under his new name Count de Morcerf, does not appear much but does not recognize Edmond, either.

The revenge against Mondego/Morcerf involves love for his family. The Count arranges for Morcerf to be publicly humiliated and charged for a crime via testimony from the Count's slave/eventual love Haydee. After this humiliation, first Albert challenges the Count to a duel. The Count at first is ready to kill Albert until Mercedes, who knows the Count is really Edmond, confronts him and begs to spare Albert's life. The Count is quite moved and is prepared to let himself be killed until Albert apologizes, which to the Count is a sign from God. After Albert backs down, Morcerf personally confronts the Count to kill him, but upon his revelation to Morcerf as Edmond, Morcerf is horrified to see his former rival and, upon seeing Mercedes and Albert leave him and his home, commits suicide via pistol.

The Count’s own servant, the Corsican Bertuccio, gives the Count a big piece of Villefort’s shady past. In fact it is Villefort that is eventually given perhaps the most crushing blow in terms of vengeance. Not only does he and Madame Danglars have a son they both thought was lost (due to him burying him after birth thinking the boy was dead anyway), but his wife is poisoning anyone who gets in the way of her bratty boy Edward’s inheritance. Upon discovery, she poisons herself and Edward and both die. This drives Villefort to madness.

An interesting subplot involving the lost son is involved here regarding the revenge against Villefort. The son Benedetto was rescued from burial and later adopted by Bertuccio's (the servant) sister in law. and raised by her and Bertuccio, but he grew to be a criminal anyway. Imprisoned along with Caderousse, both are released with the Count giving Benedetto the new name Andrea Cavalcanti. "Andrea" upon murdering Caderousse to free himself from blackmail, is arrested for the murder. While imprisoned, Bertuccio visits him and tells him of his true parentage.

Danglars receives probably the lightest of the Count's vengeance, perhaps due to the brutal emotional beating Villefort was dealt, yet deserved in terms of punishing greed, and Danglars was greedy and more than a tad corrupt. He did have his problems, though. His wife was having an affair and his daughter has no interest in men...in fact the daughter Eugenie is a more than subtly implied lesbian. Upon his wife and daughter leaving him and him trying to swindle funds that did not belong to him, he like Albert is imprisoned by Luigi Vampa and generally forced into starvation unless he (Danglars) pays exorbitant sums of money to buy paltry amounts of food. When he is down to a mere 50,000 francs, he repents to the Count who forgives him then reveals himself as Edmond Dantes.

Yet Dantes has a soft spot for one family: the Morrels. After his old shipowner boss and friend dies, the Count befriends his children, particularly Maximillian, who is a military hero and having a forbidden romance with Valentine Villefort, daughter of the procuror and his first wife. After the Count saves her from the second wife's attempted poisoning, she and Maximillian are free to be together by the novel's end.

Over the 1,462 pages, there were many instances where I had to "skip ahead a bit" because of the long descriptive paragraphs that did not move the plot along, plus the too-literal French to English translated phrases that were a bore and sounding pseudo-Shakespearean to me.

While no movie could capture this complete tale without being over 4 hours long, The Count of Monte Cristo could easily be made into a streaming miniseries, or even an entire season if every nuance of the book is used. It would almost be soap opera-ish with different characters having unanticipated interactions with other characters you wouldn't imagine having any connection at all.