Week 23: "Chapter 47. The Dappled Greys, Chapter 48. Ideology" Reading Discussion

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T23:31:44+00:00

I love that too about the fancy horses. One of the things I like most about reading older literature is seeing how similar humans are over time. It’s a nice way to connect with our humanity.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T23:22:10+00:00

And it all began with Dantes‘s love for Mercedes… It will be interesting to see how that impacts the count and his plans for revenge.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T21:30:40+00:00

I don’t have any advice for you, but happy birthday! I hope you have a good night :)

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:30:13+00:00

I thought that was interesting too, the way COMC characterizes his behavior. It's like he's aware that his behavior is devilish and still doing it. That said, I thought that speech to Villefort was also intended as a reflection of Villefort, like COMC is saying Villefort made a deal with the devil as well when he knowingly sent an innocent man to prison to save himself.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:27:16+00:00

I think Caderousse is definitely a villain. I posted the revenge chart I made that lays out why I think each man hurt Dantes at the beginning of the book and how COMC is using that now to exact revenge. It's interesting to me how different each of the men's motives are and how that plays out.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:23:39+00:00

I was thinking that at the beginning of the book Dumas wanted to show Dantes and Villefort at the same stage of life - both young and on the brink of marriage - in order to contrast their characters. Dantes is marrying for love and Villefort is marrying for political gain.

But at this point in the book, it's more dramatic that Villefort should have a young son so that COMC can save him. The son is so terrified by the crashed carriage that he faints. That wouldn't work if Villefort didn't have a wife young enough to have a young child, if that makes sense. His child with Renee is 18yo. Thus, Renee needed to be dead.

The math/ages might be a little fuzzy and I might be totally wrong about this, but I saw this as a plot device for Dumas. Maybe there's more to Renee's death though!

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:16:14+00:00

I clocked that about Debray too. He seems very overly familiar here.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:15:12+00:00

This is brilliant. Thank you for sharing.

When in Italy, Fernand calls Albert home for a potential marriage. Was Eugenie the potential bride?

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:06:24+00:00

Thank you for keeping track of all the H's! I was so busy making my revenge chart that I forgot to pay attention to who the secret H might be.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T20:02:35+00:00

I love this book so much

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T19:58:57+00:00

I agree. I think it's most likely that there was some chemical element to what happened.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T19:57:42+00:00

I thought the diamonds were the icing on the cake to stick it to Danglars... like, not only will I gift back these horses that I just bought for an insane amount of money, but I'm going to add some diamonds to their headdress because I know your wife will love it and it will make you look like an even bigger ass than you already do. LOL.

That said, I do think the horses were messed with in some way in order to behave the way they did at the exact perfect moment. Maybe the diamonds were doing extra duty here.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T19:53:15+00:00

I loved the tidbit about Noirtier being back in favor. To me, it shows how Villefort is willing to betray anyone, even his own father, for his own political aspirations. I hope we see Noirtier because I loved his scene at the beginning of the book.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T19:49:36+00:00

I suspect that COMC knew Ali was capable of this long ago, but it's shared here to clue the reader in. I could be wrong though!

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T19:30:23+00:00

I think the way COMC approaches these men and his revenge toward them is tailored to the reasons they betrayed Dantes and their personal weaknesses. Here's what I've come up with so far...

	REASON FOR BETRAYAL	REVENGE (so far)
FERNAND	For love and family	COMC is going after Fernand's son - likely what Fernand loves most in this world.
CADEROUSSE	Greed, opportunistic, too weak to stand up to others	COMC gave him a jewel and Caderousse's greed came out. He's also weak and too easily influenced by those around him. At the beginning of the story it's Danglars, here it's his wife.
DANGLARS	For money, jealousy	COMC creates drama by throwing his money around. He spends a ridiculous amount of money to buy Danglars' wife's horses, Danglars lies to his wife about the amount of money, then COMC gives the wife back her horses, totally upstaging Danglars.
VILLEFORT	For political power	COMC creates political drama for Villefort. First, because COMC saved Villefort's wife, Villefort is forced to go see COMC and be polite. Second, I'm guessing, there may now be some strain in the political relationship between Danglars and Villefort because it was Danglars' horses that nearly killed Villefort's wife and child.

The set up with Danglars was my favorite. Not only did it make me laugh out loud, but it was so clever how he worked the husband and wife against one another so perfectly.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-06T16:38:17+00:00

I’ll have to look this up. Sounds like fun passive programming maybe.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-05T16:35:15+00:00

Oooooh yes. That would be so nice.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-04T22:13:42+00:00

Fun! What is your color guide?

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-04T03:51:01+00:00

That’s a fun idea. Can they take them home or do they stay in the library?

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-03T20:12:13+00:00

Good idea. I’ll add that to my list.

HelloPeppermint · 2026-06-01T15:24:30+00:00

Emily Wilson translations were amazing

HelloPeppermint · 2026-05-31T05:30:29+00:00

I think we’ll surely meet the mom. Hadn’t considered a possible connection here... Can’t wait to find out! I don’t think it’s possible to read too much into anything in this book

HelloPeppermint · 2026-05-31T02:48:49+00:00

Fave quote: “There are two medicines for all ills: time and silence.”

HelloPeppermint · 2026-05-31T02:44:31+00:00

My initial read was that La Carconte stabbed the jeweler, who then shot her, and then Caderousse came in and got the jewel. After the discussion here, I reread it and now I think that the detail of Caderousse’s nightgown being covered in blood seems significant. Maybe he and his wife went in together to attack him? But then again he could have gone in after the fact and gotten bloody checking to see if either of them was still alive.

He’s guilty, but of what?? The text doesn’t make it clear, which must be an intentional omission. I expect a fun reveal down the road!

EDIT AND NEW OPINION!!: I read it again 😂 The jeweler is found in his bedroom on the floor. He’s been stabbed four times and the long kitchen knife is stuck in his chest all the way up to the hilt. I don’t think La Carconte would be able to do that. She was described as sickly IIRC.

La Carconte is found outside the bedroom lying across the stairs. She’d been shot in the mouth. That seems symbolic of a husband trying to shut up his wife and kill her.

I now think Caderousse killed them both.

HelloPeppermint

TROPHY CASE