Review of the Count of Monte Cristo

Is it coincidence that great writers are always born in the same generation as other great writers? Shakespeare died the same day Cervantes died, Hawthorne and Hemingway were friends, John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton had quite a number of discussions together, Pythagoras begat Socrates who begat Plato who begat Aristotle who begat Alexander the Great..... and in this case Dumas and Hugo happened to be born in the same year and buried in the same cemetery; 2 of the most famous French authors of fiction to have lived.
Interesting that this story resonates with anyone who reads it. The concept of justice or maybe rather injustice is something we know and feel and aren't necessarily taught from birth. We just know something is wrong if and when it occurs. If someone calls another a chink, nip, nigga, wop, mick, charlie, honkie, nazi, kyke, gook.... the natural reaction is to crack something over the other person's skull. Why? does anyone teach us that.... - no its because its a natural human instinct. We are born knowing its wrong especially when we are on the receiving end of such circumstance. Is this not how law was formed in the first place? where a hierarchy of pain that one experiences results in a newly formed documented hierarchy of punishment established by whatever authority is currently in power, whether it be a Moses on a mountain, a king with his own theories inheriting a throne through nepotism, a president or prime-minister elected through the populace. The curtain that covers the blind from the righteousness or truth of human behavior becomes lifted and unviels itself with the passage of time: especially in instances of extreme oppression. Focus your thoughts on every oppressed group of people we can recall in history. It took thousands of years unfortunately, but they eventually got themselves out; blacks out of slavery, scientists out of the church, the Chinese off the railroads, gays and lesbians start coming out of the closet en masse, equality between females and males. Injustice we all know and feel; it does not necessarily need to be taught. Therefore.... when we flip the switch on injustice of course what a great a feeling....... we really start to conclude: here's to you Edmund Dantes for righting everything we know is wrong with the world!!.... and following along the initial path of how everything is linked. Thank you Dumas for being the father and source of our current entertainment of masked vigilantes, which we see in Batman, the Watchmen, the Xmen, the Jedi, Daredevil, the Punisher, Spiderman. Imagination begets imagination.


Favorite passages in the most famous book on vengeance.

"i shall not get any further with these two fools," he murmered. " Dantes will certainly marry that fair damsel, become captain, and have a the laugh over us, unless..." - a livid smile was seen to pass over his lips - "unless i set to work". - Fernand Mondego p 21

"No, my dear fellow, I am not proud, but i am in love, and believe love is more apt to make one blind than pride is" - Edmond Dantes p 21

"Dantes passed through all the various stages of misery that affect a forgotten and forsaken prisoner in his cell. First there was pride born of hope and a consciousness of his innocence; next he was so reduced thathe began to doubt his innocence; finally his pride gave way to entreaty yet it was not God he prayed to, for that is the last resource, but man. The wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted" - narrator, Dumas p 72

"Dantes lifted up his eyes to Heaven, joined his hands under the coverlet, and said a prayer of thanks. The piece of iron which had been left him created in him a feeling of gratitude toward God stronger than any he had felt for the greatest blessings in past years." - narrator, Dumas p 78

"From this moment Dantes' happiness knew no bounds; he was not going to be alone any more, and perhaps he might even gain his freedom; anyway, even if he remained a prisoner, he would have a companion, and captivity shared with another is but half captivity. He walked up and down his cell all day long, his heart beating wildly with joy. At moments it almost seemed to choke him. At the least sound he heard he sprang to the door. Once or twice he was seized with fear that they would separate him from thisman whome he knew not, but whom he already loved as a friend." - narrator, Dumas p81

"On two shirts, i have invented a preparation by means of which linen is rendered as smooth and glossy as parchment. i also made some excellent quills which everyone would prefer to the ordinary ones ifonce they were known i made them from the cartilage of the head of those enormous whiting they sometimes give us on fast-days. Formerly there must have been a fireplace in my cell which was doubtless closed up some time before i came. It must have been used for many years, for theinterior was coated with soot. I dissolved some soot in a portion of wine they bring me every sunday, and my ink was made. For notes to which i wished to draw special attention, I pricked my fingeres and wrote with my blood" - Abbe Faria p 86

"Alas, my good friend" said the abbe smiling, "human knowledge is limited, and when i have taught you mathematics, physics, history and the three or four living languages i speak, you will know all that i know. It will not take you more than two years to give you the knowledge I possess."
"Two years?", exclaimed Dantes. "Do you really think you can teach me all these things in two years? what will you teach first? i am anxious to begin. I am thirsting for knowledge".
p 93

"My son", the abbe said, "you are a sailor and a swimmer and should therefore know that a man could not possibly make more than fifty strokes with such a load on his back. I shall stay here till the hour of my deliverance has struck, the hour of my death. But you, my son, flee, escape! You are young, lithe, strong; troublenot about me.... I give you back your word!"
"Very well" said Dantes, "in that case i shall stay here too!" Rising and solemnly stretching one hadn over the old man, he said; "By all that i deem most holy, i swear that i shall not leave you till death takes one of us!"
Faria looked up at this noble-minded, simple young man, and read in the expression on his face, now animated by a feeling of pure devotion, the sincerity of his affection and the loyalty of his oath. p99

"Very pressing indeed", replied the old man, "How do we know that i shall not be seized with the third attack tomorrow or the day after? Remember that then all will be over. Yes it is true. I have often thought with bitter joy of these riches, which are vast enough to make the fortunes of ten families, and which my persecutors will never enjoy. This has been my vengeance, and in the despair of m captivity i have lived on it during the long nights spent in my dungeon. But now that i have forgiven them all, for love of you, now that i see you full of youth and with a bright future before you, now that i think of all thehappiness which will result to you from this disclosure, i tremble at any delay in securing to one so worthy as you the possession of such an enormous treasure." p 101

"But as the flames devoured the paper i held between my fingers, i saw yellowish characters appear as if by magic, an unholy terror seized me. I crushed the paper in my hand and choked the flame. Then i lighted the candle and with inexpressible emotion opened out the crumpled paper. I recognized that a mysterious, sympathetic ink had traced these characters which could only become apparent when placed in contact with heat. A little more than one third of the paper had been consumed by the flames. it was the very paper you read this morning; read it again Dantes, and then i will give you the missing words to make the sense complete." Abbe Faria p 108

"And now my dear boy", said Faria, "sole consolation of my miserable life, whom Heaven sent to me somewhat late in life, yet sent me an invaluable gift for which i am most thankful, at this moment when i must leave you. I wish you all the happiness and prosperity you desire. My son, I give you my blessing."
A violent shock checked the old man's speech. Dantes raised his head; he saw his friend's eyes all flecked with crimson as though a flow of blood had surged up from his chest to his forehead.
"Farewell! farewell!" the old man murmured, clasping the young man's hand convulsively. "Farewell Forget not Monte Cristo!" p 114

The idea of suicide, which had been dispelled by his friend and which he himself had forgotten in his presence, rose again before him like a phantom beside Faria's corpse.
"If i could only die" he said, "I should go where he has gone. But how am i to die? it is quite simple", said he with a smile. "i will stay here, throw myself on the first one who enteres, strangle him, and then i shall be guillotined."
Dantes however, recoiled from such an infamous death, and swiftly passed from despair to an ardent desire for life and liberty. "Die? Oh no!" he cried out, "it would hardly have been worth while to live, to suffer so much and then to die now. No, I desire to live, to fight to the end. I wish to reconquer the happiness that hasbeen taken from me. Before i die, i have my executioners to punish, and possibly also some friends to recompense. Yet they will forget me here and i shall only leave this dungeon in the same way that Faria has done." p 119

"What is the day of the month" he presently asked of Jacopo, the sailor who had saved him and who now sat beside him.
"The 28th of February."
"What year?"
"Have you forgotten, that you ask such a question?"
"i was so frightened last night", replied Dantes, with a smile, "that i have almost lost my memory. What year is it?"
"The year eighteen-twenty-nine," replied Jacopo.
It was fourteen years to the very day since Dantes arrest. He was nineteen when he entered the Chateau d'If; he was thirty-three when he escaped. p 127

Then he turned to the clock again; he no longer counted by minutes, but by seconds. Taking the weapon once more, he opened his mouth with his eyes on the clock. The noise he made in cocking the pistol sent a shiver through him; a cold perspiration broke out on his forehead and he was seized by a mortal anguish.
He heard the outer door creak on its hinges. The inner door opened. The clock was about to strike eleven. Morrel did not turn around.
He put the pistol to his mouth... suddenly he heard a cry... it was his daughters voice. He turned round and saw Julie. The pistol dropped from his hands.
"Father!" cried the girl out of breath and overcome with joy. "You are saved! You are saved"
She threw herself into his arms, at the same time holding out to him a red silk purse.... Julie's Dowry
p189

As Morrel and his son were embracing each other on the quay-side amid the applause of the onlookers, a man whose face was half hidden by a black beard and who had been watching the scene from behind a sentry-box, muttered to himself; "Be happy, noble heart. May you be blessed for all the good you have done and will do hereafter!" ANd with a smile of joy he left his hiding place without being observed descended the steps to the water... p190

"Now farewell to kindness, humanity, gratitude," said he. "Farewell to all the sentiments which rejoice the heart. I have played the part of Providence in recompensing the good, may the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked!" - Dantes p 191

"Pardon me, messieurs but i think i can help you out of the dilemma," said Maximilian. "Monte Cristo is a small island i have often heard mentioned by my fathers old sailors. It is a grain of sand in the middle of the Mediterranean, an atom in the infinite." p 243

At these words there was again discernible in Monte Crist that strange fixed stare, that furtive flush, and that slight trembling of the eyelids which in him denoted emotion. p 245

"Madame, the Count and yourself reward me too generously for a very simple action. To save a man and thereby to spare a fathers agony and a mother's feelings is not to do a noble deed, it is but an act of humanity". - Count of Monte Cristo p259

"... then again, my heart is filled with three great sentiments - sadness, love and gratitude - and with these as companions it is impossible to grow weary". - Haydee, daughter of Ali Pasha p282

"yoth is the flower of which love is the fruit; Happy the gatherer who picks it after watching it slowly mature". - Count of Monte Cristo p283

"It is fortunate that we still have some conscience left, otherwise we should be very unhappy," said Monte Cristo. "After any vigorous action it is conscience that saves us, for it furnishes us with a thaousand and one excuses of which we alone are judges, and however excellent these reasons may by to lull us to sleep, before a tribunal they would most likely avail us little in preserving our lives. Take, for instance, Lady Macbeth. She found an excellent servant in her conscience, for she wanted a throne, not for her husband but for her son. Ah, maternal love is a great virtue and such a powerful motive that it excuses much. But for her conscience, Lady Macbeth would have been very unhappy after Duncan's death." p297

"When i close my eyes, i seem to see once more all that i have ever seen. We have a twofold power of vision, that of the body and that of the mind. Whereas the body may sometimes forget the impressions it has received, the mind never does." - Haydee after explaining her story of her parents betrayal p432

"Oh, Man," muttered d'Avrigny. "The most selfish of all creatures, who believes that the earth turns, the sun shines and the scythe of death reaps for him alone. And have those who have lost their lives lost nothing? Mosnsieur de Saint-Meran, Madame de Saint-Meran, Monsieur Noirtier...." p 464

"...the Count of Monte Cristo is only responsible to the Count of Monte Cristo". p489

"Fool that i am" said the Count of Monte Cristo "that i did not tear outmy heart the day I resolved to revenge myself!" - p496

"But not mine, Mother dear", replied Albert. "I am young and strong and i think i am brave, and i have also learned since yesterday what force of will means. Alas! Mother, there are those who have suffered so much and yethave not succumbed to their sufferings, but instead have built up a new fortune on the ruins of their former happiness. I have learnt this, Mother, and i have seen such men; i know that they have risen with such vigour and glory from the abyss into which their enemies had cast them that they have overthrown thier former conquerors. No, Mother from today I have done with the past, and i will accept nothing from it, not even my name, for you understand, do you not, Mother, that your son couldnot bear the name of a man who should blush before every other man?" p504

Monte Crist uttered a wild cry, which only those can conceive who have heard the roar of a wounded lion.
Never had Morrel beheld such an expression; never had such a dreadful eye flashed before his face, never had the genius of terror, which he had so often seen either on the field of battle or in the murder-infested nights of algeria, shed round him such sinister fires! He shrank back in torror. p 519

The colour rose in Debray's cheecks at the thought of the million francs he had in his pocketbook and unimaginative though he was, he could not help reflecting that a few minutes back there were in that house two women; the one justly dishounered (Mdm Danglers getting divorced), had just left with 1,500,000 frances under her cloak, while the other one, (Mercedes) unjustly smitten, yet superb in her misfortune, considered herself rich with just a few francs. The parallel disturbed his usual politeness, the philosophy of the example overwhelmed him; he stammered a few words of general courtesy and quickly ran down the stairs. p 580

"Really Emmanuel," said Julie, "one could almost imagine that when all these rich people, who were so happy but yesterday, laid the foundations of their wealth, happiness, genius; and like the fairy of our childhood days who had not received an invitation to some christening or wedding, this genius has suddenly appeared to take his vengeance for the neglect." p597

"Madame", replied the Count, taking her two hands, "all that you can tell me in words can never express what i read in your eyes, or the feelings awakened in your heart, as also in mine. Like the benefactors of romances, i would have left without revealing myself to you, but this virtue was beyond me, because i am but a weak and vain man, and because i feel a better man for seeing a look of gratitude, joy and affection in the eyes of my fellow beings. I will leave you now, and i carry my egoism so far as to say; 'Do not forget me, my friends, for you will probably never see me again!" p 599

"Maximillian, the friends we have do not repose under the ground," said the Count; "they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us. I have two such friends. The one is he who gave me being, and the other is he who brought my intellegence to life. Their spirits are ever with me. When in doubt i consult them, and if i ever do anything that is good, i owe it to them. Consult the voice of your heart, Morrel, and ask it whether you should continue this behavior toward me." p605

"Listen Morrel, and fix your whole mind on what i am going to tell you. I once knew a man who, like you had set all his hopes of happiness upon a women. he was young; he had an old father whom he loved, and a sweetheart whom he adored. He was about to marry her, when suddenly he was overtaken by one of those caprices of fate which would make us doubt in the goodness of God, if He did not reveal Himself later by showing us that all is but a means to an end. This man was deprived of his liberty, of the women he loved, of the future of which he had dreamed and which he beleived was his, and plunged into the depths of a dungeon. He stayed there fourteen years Morrel. Fourteen years!" repeated the Count. "And during those fourteen years he suffered many an ahour of despair. Like you, Morrel, he also thought he was the unhappiest of men and soutght to take his own life".
"Well?" asked Morrel.
"Well, when he was at the height of his despair; God revealed Himself to him through another human being. It takes a long time for the eyes that are swollen with weeping to see clearly, and at first, perhaps, he did not comprehend this infinite mercy, but at length he took patience and waited. One day he miraculously left his tomb, transfigured, rich and powerful. His first cry was for his father, but his father was dead! When his son sought his grave, ten years after his death, even that had disappeared, and no one could say to him; 'there rests in teh Lord the father who so dearly loved you!' That man, therefore, was unhappier than you, for he did not even know where to look for his father's grave."
"But then he still had the women he loved".
"You are wrong, Morrel. This women was faithless. She married one of the persecutors of her betrothed. You see, Morrell, that in this again he was unhappier than you."
"And did this man find consolation?"
"At all events he found peace."
"Is it possible for this man ever to be happy again?"
"He hopes so".
p609

"Tell the angel who is going to watch over you, Morrel, to pray for a man who, like Satan, believed for one moment he was equal to God, bt who now acknowledges in all Christian humility that in God alone is supreme power and infinite wisdom. Her prayers will perhaps soothe the remorse in the depths of his heart. Live and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!" p620