MobileRead MobileRead Club Dumas: Count of Monte Cristo Group Read

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

No it is not
But I found what I wanted i.e. Translator's name

I could have told you that if you'd asked me .

[astra]

I didn't have enough of patience to wait till the morning

[milostrong]

I downloaded the Count from Feedbooks and just finished it a couple weeks ago. I was so impressed, I immediately started The Three Musqueteers. What a great writer this guy was. What an imagination, what great plots and twists and turns. It has to be one of the greatest novels I've ever read. It's very long, but I couldn't stop hitting the next page button.

[MdB]

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Count me in! Do we have a general format for discussion here? A group leader? This will be my first on-line book club discussion. (He says with a hint of...fear? Excitement? ...something quivery anyway...)

[mjh215]

Originally Posted by MdB

Do we have a general format for discussion here? A group leader? This will be my first on-line book club discussion. (He says with a hint of...fear? Excitement? ...something quivery anyway...)

I think the format is basically, read it, when finished come in, talk.... I am taking my time on it, unlike several others who seem to be nearly finished. I'm guessing it'll take me a full month or so. (Hey, why didn't someone mention the book was so long? )

I would recommend that whoever starts off any discussion throw up a -Spoilers- tag just to be safe.

-MJ

[MdB]

All right.

SPOILERS POSSIBLE: In fact - if you haven't read the book yet, I am going to suggest that you should stop checking this post until you do. You wouldn't want to be caught in a spoiler:

Start off with the simplest one possible: Hero or Devil? Do you admire the tenacity of Edmond Dantes - his single minded cunning and ability to plan increasingly ahead of his enemies? Or do you pity his wast of time, resources, and life. Is the moral of the tale from Dumas' perspective that even a brilliant man, with perfect cunning and impeccable logic, cannot truly achieve happiness when his goal is misery? Is it possible to achieve personal gratification in the act of vengeance?

[astra]

Originally Posted by MdB

All right.

SPOILERS POSSIBLE: Do you admire the tenacity of Edmond Dantes - his single minded cunning and ability to plan increasingly ahead of his enemies? Or do you pity his wast of time, resources, and life. Is the moral of the tale from Dumas' perspective that even a brilliant man, with perfect cunning and impeccable logic, cannot truly achieve happiness when his goal is misery? Is it possible to achieve personal gratification in the act of vengeance?

I do admire him.

If it had happened to me, it would break me.

It didn't break him. Moreover, it shows villains that they cannot sleep well after they commit an atrocity. It teaches people a lesson. If you lie, misbehave etc., sooner or later it is going to backfire on you. It is just a matter of time.

[MdB]

Possibly. But is that a universal truth? A societal one? Do you honestly believe that to be the case in today's society? Cheaters never prosper has, in my opinion, never been further from the truth than it is today.

What about the Nietzsche paradox - when you stare long into the abyss, the abyss stares back. Is it true that anyone tasked with fighting monsters is slowly and surely drawn into a world whereby they become a monster in return?

[astra]

I am not so good with words as you
You need to fimd someone else

Anyway, in reality we should assess the situation and act accordingly.
It is a sign of superioir intelegence if in a ceratin situation you know that you can be humiliated by someone, instead of staying and waiting for the inevitable conflict, you might just leave before the situation arises.
However, if you are very smart and capable and you know that you can handle the situation, as Edmond did, then why not?
Maybe revenge was the only was to survive for Edmond, to get over the terribly injustice that was inflicted upon him.
Can you imagine the situation when you are being separated from the lady you love so much, to see the person who separated you from her to prosper, to live the rest of your life without her? Because "she" is the only one. We have only one other half walking somewhere in the world. Anyone else is just a substitute....and it might drive you crazy.

[VillageReader]

I can see I'll be way behind on this one. I'm only 8 or 9 chapters in, so, what, about 7%? I probably won't be able to devote any serious time to it until after the Christmas party on Sunday. We have a small group of 75 or so coming to the house for the annual bash.

[MdB]

Astra,

But, I find one of the most interesting things about the Count as a character is, at the end, when he could have had Mercedes back - could have re-entered life as he had it before he was falsly imprisoned, only with wealth and status and the like - he found that he could not do it. He had spent so much time creating this new diabolical persona that it seemed that the person of Edmond Dantes truly had died in that cell, and the person reborn to the waves off the coast of Le Chateu d' If was well and truly a different man, one who could no longer live in the same world.

It's the saddest thing in the world - he spent a lifetime fighting for one thing, only to find out that he couldn't really have it any more. It was no longer truly available to him. He had something else, sure, but it was not the same.

I always wonder if this is a message of hope or of caution out of Dumas...is he saying that one should be careful that, when fighting for a cause, the cause is just and possible, or is he the opposite - giving a kind of "every cloud has a silver lining" speech? Either way, I find the Count to be one of the most amazing, intelligent, fantastic, and utterly pitiable literary creations I have ever read about. One of the reasons I like the story so much - it strikes a chord in me.

[bill_mchale]

I am glad we are doing this. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of those books I have wanted to read for a while, but never was motivated to start.

I started it last night. I am through 3 chapters right now.

Its funny, but only three chapters in, and Edmond Dante is already a better drawn character than in the movie made a few years ago starring James Caviezel (though I do enjoy that film as a fun popcorn flick).

Maybe we can set up sort of a large book club that picks a new book every three months? I have been thinking of reading War and Peace and Les Miserables for a while .

--
Bill

[MdB]

That movie was a travesty of one of my favorite books! (if you haven't read the book, I can understand how it might be mildly enjoyable however)
And, I'm in Bill, both War & Peace and Les Mis are great reads.

[bill_mchale]

I haven't actually read them yet (Though I did start War and Peace and get a few pages in back when I was still a teenager). Thats why I suggested them as ideas to read after the CMC .

Basically, I am convinced that few novels can be given a decent treatment by a 2 hour movie. IMHO, the best novel adaptation of the last decade was the Lord of the Rings Trilogy... and it took three movies each pushing three hours long. I figure it would take that to give a decent treatment to the Count of Monte Cristo as well.

The only Dumas novel that ever had a film adaptation that seriously tried to follow the novel seems to have been the Three Musketeers and that took two movies to get the whole book in.

--
Bill

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MdB

That movie was a travesty of one of my favorite books! (if you haven't read the book, I can understand how it might be mildly enjoyable however)

There was a superb TV "mini-series" made for French TV a few years ago, starring Gerard Depardieu, which is available on DVD with English subtitles. It's extremely faithful to the book, and I recommend it thoroughly. The DVD copy I bought came with a copy of the book (in English).

Available from Amazon UK here