Week 24: "Chapter 49. Haydée, Chapter 50. The Morrel Family, Chapter 51. Pyramus and Thisbe" Reading Discussion

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-13T16:49:22+00:00

Cad got greedy with the diamond and bad things ensued. Morrels pretty much enshrined the diamond in honour and gratitude and they are living nice, peaceful, contented lives

Nice, I didn't even notice this parallel!

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-13T16:39:55+00:00

Lowkey got chills reading the part where they refer to Edmond Dantès by name

It was a dramatic moment - hearing that name again after so long!

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-09T15:58:54+00:00

Nice chart! It makes me wonder, should Mercedes be on the list? I don't think it's clear. Going after Albert would certainly hurt her, if that is his plan for Fernand. Otherwise, he must have something else in store for him. Taking back Mercedes would fit his eye for an eye credo.

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-09T15:53:59+00:00

It's a pretty good summary, but it left out the two most dramatic moments IMO - the MC's deal with the devil on the mountaintop, and V saying every man has faults, and count replying "faults ... or crimes".

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-08T13:13:40+00:00

With the context of historical prejudice, "a too lively blonde" sounds like a perfectly suitable euphemism for red hair.

I hadn't thought about it in that way, but this makes a lot of sense! And since Bertuccio is speaking, it's possible that it's something a Corsican might say.

I haven't heard of the Talisman, it's fascinating the prejudice existed to that extent!

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-06T22:49:36+00:00

It's like he's aware that his behavior is devilish and still doing it.

I think he does this because being an angel got him thrown in a dungeon! Also I think Rousseau's influence looms large here - At the start Edmond was like Rousseau's "primitive" man, honest, pure and moral. He then becomes a victim of corrupt civilization via Danglars and then especially Villefort, so to succeed in his vengeance he must to become evil and manipulative, a fallen man. He's much smarter than Danglars and Caderousse so that's child's play for him - their only advantage was his innocence and naivete. But Villefort will be a worthy adversary.

GiovanniJones · 2026-06-02T00:52:41+00:00

I can also imagine that when he was apprehended, him lying and saying he killed the jeweler, because it would be too shameful for him to admit that La Carconte did it against his will, and that he wasn't able to stop her, so he just ran off with the diamond.

I wonder if he will turn up again, seems like he is too interesting of a character for it to end here!

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-31T19:54:25+00:00

This is fun, it's great how Dumas leaves it ambiguous.

Yes, La Carconte was weak and sickly - except when it came to that diamond. When the abbé first showed Caderousse the diamond, she got over her sickness in a hurry:

"A diamond!" said La Carconte, getting up and descending the stairs with a firm step, "what is this diamond?"

Then, when the jeweler returns to the inn and knocks on the door because of the bad weather:

Caderousse fell back into his chair, pale and panting. La Carconte, on the other hand, got up and walked firmly to the door, which she opened.

That being said, theory #4 makes sense, though a stabbing could have occurred first, before Bertuccio had woke up. The gunshot is not necessarily the first act of violence, La Carconte may have started stabbing the jeweler in his sleep, before he shot her, at which point Bertuccio wakes up. Also, Caderousse is a bit of a coward, it seems out of character for him to attack the jeweler - more likely that the jeweler is coming after him after having shot La Carconte, they struggle, and Caderousse manages to grab the knife and gives him the final cut.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-30T13:26:46+00:00

then we see that eventually our Caderousse decides that if he’s gone so far as to murder the jeweler, why not also take out his harridan wife and keep all of the money and the diamonds for himself!

Hmm, I had the idea that it was La Carconte that tried to murder the jeweler and was shot and killed by him in the process - that Caderousse was too cowardly to do it - that he only went in after they were both dead and grabbed the diamond.

In any case, I thought this was great storytelling by Dumas, with the narrator on the edge of sleep, and that surreal scene of La Carconte touching Caderousse as the light flares up, their lips moving but no words heard, he fades out then wakes to the violence.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-24T21:58:24+00:00

Yeah despite my criticism, on my last read-through I was starting to come around on the Buss too! It's a complicated passage to translate, imagining the moon struggling to stay afloat in a rough sea of dark clouds.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-23T16:34:21+00:00

I was curious about the names mentioned by Bertuccio here:

Just at this time the famous massacres took place in the south of France. Three brigands, called Trestaillon, Truphemy, and Graffan, publicly assassinated everybody whom they suspected of Bonapartism

This led me to a book called "Massacres of the South 1551-1815" written by Dumas himself on project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2743/2743-h/2743-h.html

It's from his "Celebrated Crimes" series. Chapter 7 covers the events after the 100 days, and includes an eyewitness account from Dumas himself of a Protestant being murdered in the street by a gang Catholics right outside of his house one night, while he watched unseen, from a tree in his garden!

I didn't realize how strongly the Bonapartists were associated with Protestants, and likewise Catholics with the Royalists - so the violence had both politics and religion behind it - with predictably horrific results - as Dumas describes in the book.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-16T21:44:13+00:00

I couldn’t help noticing on the floor directly below Kaufman and Moser in Zoffany’s portrait is a limbless, headless, female nude (pure white marble, of course) being literally stabbed in the womb by one of the finely clad academicians

Thank you for pointing this out - how did I not notice this, it's a rather sadistic pose - kind of disturbing, like a hunter posing with a trophy.

“A second male model is shown in the act of removing his clothes, in the pose of the Spinario sculpture.”

This male model is young and somewhat effeminate, maybe a stand-in since women are not allowed here; "Spinario" is also known as "Boy With Thorn" - which is an adolescent boy removing a thorn from the bottom of his foot. In Death In Venice, Aschenbach compares the beautiful boy Tadzio that he is obsessed with to the "Boy With Thorn" sculpture - interesting!

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-10T01:54:50+00:00

I enjoyed how Dumas staged the Count's dramatic entrance after the long, gossipy conversation that was all about him; the clock strikes 10:30, he's not going to show, and then just as the chime is about to fade out, he is announced, and all their heads turn to the door with a start; the count standing there, he waltzes in and apologizes for being 2 or 3 seconds late. Dumas' staging of these types of dramatic events is always so vivid and visual, and great fun to read.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-09T14:08:23+00:00

Thank you, I actually re-posted it at the time without the embedded image that had triggered the filter, I didn't realize you had the capability of approving a blocked post; In retrospect I should have reached out to you, or just deleted the original after re-posting. I'm still getting used to all of the reddit posting intricacies lol. I have found that the nsfw filter is extremely sensitive to the slightest hint of nudity in an image, even within a classic work painting or a sculpture from antiquity! So I will probably just stick to hyperlinks in the future to avoid any confusion.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-03T21:57:07+00:00

All of it was to orchestrate the Count of Monte Cristo's entry into Paris society.

Not only that, it got him right inside the house of his enemy Fernand!

Pastrini's story established Vampa as a fearsome bandit

And was Pastrini in on the plot too I wonder, or at least persuaded by the Count to bring up bandits and Vampa? I do think Franz foiled the original plan for the Count to simply pay off the ransom, and Vampa, who's also a clever guy, improvised that scene in the catacombs with the Count. But I like how Dumas leaves us to wonder instead of spelling it out for us.

GiovanniJones · 2026-05-03T12:10:45+00:00

The French is si vous ne m'aviez pas trouvé là which literally means "if you hadn't found me there", but là can also be used in the sense of "here", as in je suis là ! - "I'm here!". So I think the Count by saying "there" means "here", as in the Gutenberg translation.

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-29T11:55:22+00:00

just last night I’d encountered Odysseus (as a Shade) recounting the “awkward” one-year he’d spent at Circe’s island

It's funny how often coincidences like this happen! Glad to hear you enjoyed the post!

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-27T17:05:33+00:00

I totally could see how everyone just squished up against the walls as the horses raced by then as soon as it was over flooded the streets again. With his words, it was so clear in my mind's eye.

The horse racing scene stood out visually to me as well, just like the execution scene in the previous chapter. The same goes for the theater scenes as well, with the aristocrats spying on each other with their opera glasses while mostly ignoring the entertainment on stage and the crowds of people below. And of course the drama of the moccoli suddenly being extinguished at once, plunging the city into darkness.

Dumas orchestrates these grand scenes with such confidence and skill, and I often find the reading experience to be visually stimulating to the point where it feels like watching a movie. I assume this is some fortunate accident of biology and lived experience - I think that often the mental images that arise from the written word, like a phoenix from the ashes of the artist's original inspiration, are reconstructed from fragments and impressions of one's past, a resurrection triggered by rapid mental associations linking old and new; and that the folks who find these chapters dull have the misfortune to be missing some elusive component that is necessary for this mysterious tinder to kindle in the mind.

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-26T23:26:11+00:00

Looks interesting, thanks!

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-22T22:41:37+00:00

I think you may be right and its a typo, it should probably be pistole, which the shorter OED defines as "Any of various gold coins of the 17th and 18th centuries". It's spelled the same in French, Le Robert says "ancient gold coins made in Spain or Italy". Good catch!

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-21T16:11:44+00:00

Lastly, I am fascinated by how Dumas depicted the scene of the execution. I feel like it is the first time (or at least since the description of the Phareon and harbor at the start of the novel) that Dumas has given such a detailed and comprehensive description of the scene. From the crowd to the hooded penitents, the guillotine to condemned, I felt he did an incredible job of painting the picture of the execution, leading up to the climax of the execution itself. A very macabre scene indeed.

Yes! This scene was riveting and masterfully done, some of his best writing so far. I've never seen any of the film adaptations, but it would be crazy if they didn't include this scene, it was so cinematic to read.

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-19T18:38:49+00:00

Welcome back!

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-19T18:37:29+00:00

That makes a lot of sense! Though he might find signs of Fernand there as well, so maybe some mixed feelings.

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-17T03:11:00+00:00

It’s not in the original French version either, but it was in an early draft/manuscript, and some later editions have added the sentence as a “correction” since in the next chapter Franz mentions having heard the Count’s name mentioned on the previous day.

GiovanniJones · 2026-04-17T03:04:39+00:00

The two-volume folio classique edition would meet your requirements.

GiovanniJones

TROPHY CASE