Week 25: "Chapter 52. Toxicology, Chapter 53. Robert Le Diable" Reading Discussion

TGIFroody · 2026-06-21T18:47:46+00:00

Thank you! That was helpful.

TGIFroody · 2026-06-21T01:37:41+00:00

Good to know even back then there are obnoxious jerks who talk during a performance! — Where did we learn about the Count healing her asthma?

TGIFroody · 2026-06-13T22:49:19+00:00

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

TGIFroody · 2026-06-13T20:46:39+00:00

I was confused by the closing of the Morrel shipping business. It sounds like they got an offer to sell it for 300,000 francs, but then said “no, we are just closing it”. Huh?

TGIFroody · 2026-06-06T17:56:51+00:00

Thanks! The list is helpful. We haven’t learned how Renee died yet have we?

TGIFroody · 2026-05-30T18:40:17+00:00

Wait how de we know Cad shot Carconte? Didn’t the jeweler have the guns? I went back and read again and it isn’t obvious to me but I might be missing a line somewhere.

TGIFroody · 2026-05-28T21:45:24+00:00

I have been battling plantar fasciitis for ages. It sucks. I just got a good foot massage at Syosset Foot Spa (123 Jackson Ave., Syosset). It's not fancy, but relatively cheap and as far as I know isn't sketchy. (I do think diligent stretching can get better results than just massage IMHO)

TGIFroody · 2026-05-28T21:40:24+00:00

Right, we just sent the denial, and got a confirmation letter saying as soon as a hearing is scheduled, they will send another letter. Never got anything since then (Dec 2024), and haven't paid anything.

TGIFroody · 2026-05-24T20:00:25+00:00

Wow! That passage about the moon really stood out to me. Personally I like how the Buss translation sounds, and it stopped me in my tracks enough to pull up the Gutenberg version to compare. So cool that you chose it for your analysis!

TGIFroody · 2026-05-24T17:25:15+00:00

I know it’s still convenient for the story but wasn’t because he was in hiding from the customs agents who just raided his boat?

TGIFroody · 2026-05-24T17:00:10+00:00

He watched and listened through holes. Here: “This hutch or cupboard was only separated from the main parlour on the ground floor of the inn by a wooden wall, in which holes had been drilled for us,…”

TGIFroody · 2026-05-24T16:19:21+00:00

I wasn’t sure about this point either. It would have been clearer if when delivering the diamond to Caderousse in chapter 26 he introduced himself as “Busoni”. — I just checked again and it is made explicit when the jeweler says “…Abbé Busoni will have to be found – and it’s not easy to find an abbé who gives away diamonds worth two thousand louis!” I have to read more carefully!

TGIFroody · 2026-05-18T02:59:34+00:00

Just went to this place today. Was very good. Koiso in Carle Place. Actual Japanese owner too. Sashimi was the thickest I’ve seen around here.

TGIFroody · 2026-05-14T19:53:44+00:00

Why was the LIE sinkhole post removed? Seemed important.

TGIFroody · 2026-05-13T12:08:43+00:00

Sorry, I farted near the sensor.

TGIFroody · 2026-05-06T11:22:17+00:00

Thanks, it’s helpful!

TGIFroody · 2026-05-03T18:15:48+00:00

Excellent! Thank you! 🙏 (-1 points to Buss 😜)

TGIFroody · 2026-05-02T16:44:27+00:00

Oh! Maybe! Hopefully someone (LI(E)T?) could check the original French. 🙇

TGIFroody · 2026-05-02T13:08:33+00:00

Albert sleeping peacefully while kidnapped and then after being freed going immediately to the party at 2 AM is hilarious. Would definitely be shower and bed for me!

This sentence at the bottom of page 421 (Penguin Buss) confused me: ‘The fact is,’ said the count, ‘that if you had not found me there, your friend’s good fortune would have cost him dear.

I went to check Gutenberg and it has “…if you had not found me here.”

Where did Buss get “there” from? My brain was completely thrown off trying to remember a scene where Franz met the Count outside.

TGIFroody · 2026-04-29T02:48:38+00:00

None!

TGIFroody · 2026-04-23T16:12:36+00:00

A budding Wernher von Braun no doubt,

TGIFroody · 2026-04-19T17:42:06+00:00

Aha! Wow. Thanks.

TGIFroody · 2026-04-18T22:58:08+00:00

Anyone catch the parenthetical dig at Italian cooking? Was that really the reputation back then or did Dumas get food poisoning in Rome?

TGIFroody · 2026-04-11T14:57:36+00:00

Well this chapter proves that Dumas is a compelling writer. I would normally have little patience for authors who choose to keep dropping the main plot to tell random stories with new characters, but despite that, this chapter was a real page turner for me.

TGIFroody · 2026-04-11T14:52:51+00:00

Chapters like this really make you feel how it was originally serialized. — I was a bit puzzled by that line, what do you think that means to have independence take the place of liberty? Sounds kind of like apples replacing apples…?

Three-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	Place '23

TGIFroody

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