June 18, 2014

The Blog of Monte Cristo

According to my Kobo, I'm only 6% done (that's 8 chapters, or 74 pages) into The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, who's also written stuff like The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask -- all of which I've seen movie adaptations for in French class way back in grade 9 (2007? probably). As always, I have a running commentary in my mind and usually by the time I sit down to think and blog about it I've forgotten most of the thoughts.
(book cover borrowed from Goodreads.com)
I've debated the value of Tweeting some of my thoughts as I read (@swanships), but I generally don't use Twitter much at all. Maybe I'll give it a go again? We'll see.


Try as I might, I can't get the tweet to centre itself on the page. It's a minor issue, but it's bothering me. Maybe I'll just... not embed tweets?

In the meantime, here are some preliminary thoughts on the book thus far:
  • Villefort is actually a pretty sympathetic character. I don't know if it's personal bias or what. Maybe it's just because I've only read up to Château d'If so even in the film adaptation he was sympathetic up to that point.
    James Frain
    as Villefort
    Guy Pearce
    as Fernand Mondego












  • Fernand didn't start off as Edmond's best friend? That makes the entire betrayal arc (aka the entire plot) somehow less epic. I mean, it's still epic, being betrayed in such a fashion and spending 18 (I think?) years in prison for something you've never done, but being betrayed by one's best friend adds a whole new level do it. I think the film did that well.
The .epub I have has a really ... not appealing cover.
Is that supposed to be Edmond or Dumas?
Why can't I have a cover with the Château d'If too?


Posted at
tagged: ,