The Count of Monte Cristo, Part 4

The story of the Count of Monte Cristo ends where it began...at the Port of Marseilles. The count repents for his motive of vengeance, seeing that he has no right to assume he's the agent of God, no one can be. He visits the home of his dead father and finds there his lost love whom he's able to comfort and forgive. He promises to help her young son whom his actions against the father had harmed. He brings together young lovers whom his actions had separated. He frees his young slave girl and restores her fortune. In the end the count finds peace, happiness, and the love he deserves. In the final scene he sails away from the port of Marseilles to a new life.

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3...prior installments at this blog

The Count of Monte Cristo, Part 3

Edmond Dantès as the Count of Monte Cristo sees himself as an agent of a vengeful God and sets out to destroy those who falsely imprisoned him. He sets his plan in motion in Paris and stays his course of revenge even though the lives of his three targets are complicated by relationships which did not exist when they had a hand in Dantès imprisonment so many years ago. The plot escalates, ruining each man, but also bringing harm to their innocent children, finally ending in the near-death of a daughter and the sure death of a son of one target. At this point Dantès questions his motives and understands that his revenge has consumed him to the determent of those innocently involved.

Look here and here for prior installments.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Part 2

Chateau d'If

Our hero Edmond Dantès many years imprisoned is on the edge of losing all hope when he happens to meet another prisoner Abbé Faria in Chateau d'If. This man changes Dantès' life by first providing human contact, then educating Dantès in the ways of the world and the ways of society as well, and then by telling him where a great treasure is hidden. Unfortunately, the abbé dies as the two are planning an escape from Chateau d'If. However, after the death Dantès escapes on his own, finds the fortune, and begins a grand scheme to get his revenge on the trio who had him falsely imprisoned.

So many years have passed and Dantès' prison experience was so devastating that upon his return to the outside world no one, not even those closest to him, recognize him. Aside from the physical transformation, he has advanced intellectually due to the abbé's teaching and also has a great fortune. However, the greatest change of all is in his psychology. Dantès is no longer trusting and naive. Now he is cynical and conniving, set on revenge. In fact, all these changes make it possible for Edmond Dantès to re-invent himself as the Count of Monte Cristo and set his plot in motion.

The first installment is in this prior post.

Novel: The Count of Monte Cristo

I am currently reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I've only met a few of the characters who will populate the text with Edmond Dante, being the central character. At this point in my reading he's young, honest, gallant, naive, loyal. He loves a beautiful woman and has been selected to captain a merchant ship. However, at his betrothal party he is arrested and subsequently thrown into the worst prison imaginable Chateau D'lf for a crime he did not commit, framed by a jealous trio and imprisoned by a crown prosecutor who advances his political career on the back on this innocent man.

Stay tuned for another installment of this wonderful tale.