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Old 03-28-2018, 01:34 AM   #1
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The Monte Cristo plot: appropriate vengeance

Having re-read the epic novel The Count of Monte Cristo, I have also re-read several other novels which use almost exactly the same basic plot.

You will remember that Edmond Dantes, falsely jailed for 17 years, escapes, locates a buried treasure, comes back as the fabulously wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, unrecognised. His vengeance on those who ruined him is appropriate: the man who became a wealthy banker finishes up broke; and so on. The punishment fits the perpetrator.

Alexndre Dumas' book is enormously long, and high Victorian in many respects, and it should be borne in mind that the standard English translation most commonly found is both shortened (but still a whopping 500,000 words!) and somewhat bowdlerised in spots. A lesbian relationship hinted at in the English translation, is much plainer in the original; and some scenes which the translator thought might to too strong for 19th Century English readers were toned down also. And no, I have not read the recent modern, unexpurgated translation.

I don't know if the basic plot has been used before Dumas; more than likely I suspect. But the Monte Cristo plot has certainly been used many times since. One author even used the plot it in two novels.

E Phillips Oppenheim's The Long Arm of Mannister (1909) and The Channay Syndicate (1927) are essentially the same novel, in which a businessman is done in the eye by his associates, takes the rap, and then systematically punishes his former associates in various ways. Channay is the better one by far. In Mannister, the way the hero was done in the eye was never stated. In Channay, it is. Both were serialised first in American "slick" magazines as 10 short stories, the first dealing with the initial betrayal, then a chapter each for the baddies being chastened, and chapter 10 as a wrap-up.

Max Brand's Destry Rides Again (1930) is a very compact version in a Western setting. Destry, a young troublemaker, is framed for a robbery and jailed. He knows he didn't do it; he knows the witnesses were lying. Out again, he returns to town to gain satisfaction. And it isn't by wholesale slaughter, as so often it is in action movies, but targetted and appropriate. (The book, by the way, bears no resemblance to the movie versions whatsoever, other than the name Destry).

Jeffery Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976), is a variant. In this, there are four victims, and one perpetrator. Their revenge is for each to swindle the swindler out of the exact amount that they lost. In typical Archer fashion, there is a twist in the tail.

One Monte Cristo version whose title and author unfortunately escapes me, is intentionally very close to the original and obviously meant to be recognised as such as, if you like, a modern remake. It is set in the 1970s to start with, in the Vietnam war, in which a group of soldiers betray an army colleague by framing him for drug dealing; the 'copter taking him to Saigon for trial crashes, and he is captured by the NVA. Many years later, he escapes, unearths a treasure worth a fortune, and goes home to the USA, and then the revenge follows the Monte Cristo plot very closely. (And the hero adopts the alias Chris, just to help reader grasp the origin of the story.) Quite well done, I enjoyed it, but it was a long time ago that I read it, and all I recall of the title is the one word "knife". A lengthy prowl around the Internet has failed to help me identify it, and my paperback was disposed of long ago.

If you simplify the plot down to one villain and one or perhaps two victims, you have the good old "biter bit" or "worm turns" plot, the mainstay of thousands of short stories. Practically every short story writer has employed it In one form or another, seriously, humorously, or otherwise, even P G Wodehouse.

A typical example, with a humorous tone, is by that Old Reliable Leslie Charteris, called "The Star Producers", from the short story collection The Happy Highwayman (1939). In it we meet two theatrical con-men Waldermar Urlaub and Homer Quarterstone, who con theatrical hopefuls. The Saint intervenes on behalf of a victim or two, cons the con-men with their own con, and there's a very nice twist in the tail.

The Monte Cristo plot still has legs. A version set in an entirely alien society on an alien planet, with motivations and retaliations arising from the alien culture you have created, could be a fruitful variation. (And, for all I know, it's already been done).

Last edited by Pulpmeister; 03-28-2018 at 09:22 PM. Reason: Cristo instead of Christo
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Old 03-28-2018, 09:59 AM   #2
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Wrote a variation on in in my current work-in-progress. I would say more about that, but that would be spoiling a book I'll have out one day.
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Old 03-28-2018, 02:28 PM   #3
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Having re-read the epic novel The Count of Monte Christo, ...
Sorry to sidetrack, but is "Christo" a translation from another language? Doing a Google I come up with "... Cristo".
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Old 03-28-2018, 09:19 PM   #4
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Whoops, my error! Cristo it is. Monte Cristo is a small rocky island off the coast of Italy, where in the novel a vast treaure in jewels and gold lies concealed until Edmond Dantes recovers it.

I have now corrected the spelling in the body of the post, perhaps a moderator could fix the title to save me more embarrassment!

Last edited by Pulpmeister; 03-28-2018 at 09:23 PM.
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Old 03-28-2018, 09:43 PM   #5
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^^ Done.
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Old 03-29-2018, 01:40 AM   #6
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There is also The Stars' Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry, which I remember being terribly flat. (The revenge plan is just not elaborate, just brutal iirc.)
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Old 03-29-2018, 04:41 AM   #7
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I would just add that the modern translation done by Robin Buss for Penguin Classics is absolutely excellent - way better than the 1846 anonymous translation done for Chapman and Hall that nearly all other editions use. Well worth getting.
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Old 03-29-2018, 04:48 PM   #8
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I would just add that the modern translation done by Robin Buss for Penguin Classics is absolutely excellent - way better than the 1846 anonymous translation done for Chapman and Hall that nearly all other editions use. Well worth getting.
Thank you. I just picked it up from Amazon for$0.49.
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Old 03-30-2018, 08:15 AM   #9
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Thank you. I just picked it up from Amazon for$0.49.
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Are you sure you got the Robin Buss translation? That seemed low to me for a Penguin classic and when I checked ereaderiq for its price history it showed a low of $3.75 in the past year.
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Old 03-30-2018, 08:36 AM   #10
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Are you sure you got the Robin Buss translation? That seemed low to me for a Penguin classic and when I checked ereaderiq for its price history it showed a low of $3.75 in the past year.
I found the version for $.49 at Amazon (was translated by Robin Buss). Search for 0140449264. It's listed at the top.
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Old 03-30-2018, 09:38 AM   #11
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I found the version for $.49 at Amazon (was translated by Robin Buss). Search for 0140449264. It's listed at the top.
Huh. Shows as $8.99 for me.

Amazon must not like me.
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Old 03-30-2018, 09:46 AM   #12
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Huh. Shows as $8.99 for me.

Amazon must not like me.
That's what i'm seeing, too. And I can assure you, Amazon absolutely lurves me to death.
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Old 03-30-2018, 10:03 AM   #13
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I found the version for $.49 at Amazon (was translated by Robin Buss). Search for 0140449264. It's listed at the top.
If you bought this $0.49 translation, it isn't the $8.99 Robin Buss translation.
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Old 03-30-2018, 10:14 AM   #14
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I found the version for $.49 at Amazon (was translated by Robin Buss). Search for 0140449264. It's listed at the top.
Well I found it and bought it at $4.03, and that is including 25% Danish VAT.

Thank you for the search number and thank you to Harry for his recommendation of the translator Robin Buss.
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Old 03-30-2018, 10:30 AM   #15
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Just for the record, your second link does point to the Robin Buss translation.
Using the link I am told "You purchased this item on March 30, 2018."

But as I mentioned I only paid $4.03. For once something is cheaper in Denmark.
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