The Count of Monte Cristo - Part 4

So things have picked up a head of steam lately.  The web is tightening and threads are becoming more and more visible.  Caderousse has been dealt with in a pleasing sort of way.  What a wretch he became.  Only in fiction could a person have such reach and foresight as The count has.  To use his English gentleman persona to help the two escape only to set them up and at odds with each other so many years later is such a stretch that I’m almost tossed overboard.  Almost.  Only the story as a whole keeps me on board with what has to happen in order for the fiction to be successful.  The Cavalcanti angle is a strange one though and I wonder when he’ll play the card Caderousse helped him win.  Seems a sad thing to do to Eugenie though.

The scene in the opera box was such a product of its time.  Honor is an unknown quantity at this time of humanity and also this kind of ritualistic dance in dealing with it.  The whole glove thing is something I understand, but cannot empathize with.  I admit I have some sympathy for the younger Morcerf; the sins of the father being visited upon the son and all that, but I am sorry to see what Mercedes has done to Dantes and that he’s taken her up on it.  Having seen her reactions to his presence, it came as no surprise that she’d recognized him.  I’d have thought her a dense woman if she hadn’t and was especially pleased that she’s recognized his voice first.  That’s always the last thing to change and the hardest to disguise so it made sense. Seems Dumas had an idea of what women notice.  And it seems he also likes to reinforce feminine stereotypes as well; woman as poisoner being one that sticks out.  

Disorder and disillusion in the Danglars household has reached a crescendo and the argument between father and daughter is scary and wonderful to read.  Both are so articulate and so bare in their contempt for one another.  Ah family.

Anyway, I also know the final resolution of the duel and like the way that Dumas handled that and the bit of suspense it provided while I didn’t know.  And with the ignominious suicide of the elder Morcerf, we only have two arch enemies left.  Neither has a prayer.