SPOILER ALERT I want this thread to be about the Count of Monte Cristo. It took me 2 years to read this book, because I read about a chapter per week to maintain my French. It's an excellent book, imo one of the best of all time. Before it slips even further from my mind, I want to express some frustration and improvements, just because I think it will be fun. Mercedes. I had no problem with the fact that Mercedes had a child with Fernand after getting over it and seeing the plot further develop. But for a while I was sure Albert would turn out to be the Count's. It was quite a blow Mercedes really had betrayed the Count, even though she thought he was dead. It was even more devastating when she didn't get back together with Edmond after Fernand killed himself. After reading the book, I watched one of the many movies, and was not so surprised to see Albert belonging to the Count, and Mercedes reuniting with Edmond. Happy Hollywood ending. Danglars. Most evil man in the universe. I was more disappointed by the lack of closure around Danglars than anything else about this book. 1) The Count didn't kill him. What the hell? If anybody needed killin' it was Dangalrs. So Edmond saved his soul by letting him live, but what a let down for us. 2) At one point, the Count mentioned Danglars was the cousin of Renee. Wtf? 3) Danglar had to be the one who sunk Morrel's fleet. There were so many innuendoes of foul play, but never any closure. It had to be Danglar; he was the only one with the power and reach. I'm guessing Dumas ran out of time, or got edited or something. What a shame. Helouise. How did she kill the Marquis? He wasn't even around. My guess is it was done slowly, or by proxy. She had to be the one who poisoned Renee; she's the only poisoner in the story. Again, many innuendoes of foul play, but never any closure. I'm guessing she had her eye on Villefort, and secretly had Renee poisoned. Also, the innuendoes were there, but Dumas never stated that she poisoned Noirtier into paralysis. C'mon - we know she did it. Villefort. Again, why didn't Edmond kill him? How was driving him mad enough? He'll recover for sure. Sad lack of violence. I was expecting a lot of swordplay from the author of the Three Musketeers. There was very little. Basically, I wanted to see Dantes do more physical damage to those who imprisoned him. Vampa - What was Dumas thinking here? How many hundreds of pages were wasted on Vampa's character development, and for what? He did very little in the end. Don't get me wrong, the character was needed, but the background chapters were the only part of the book I found boring. Originally, I thought Dumas was going to use Vampa to get revenge for the sinking of Morrel's fleet, so I was disappointed when so little happened. Franz - What was the whole episode on the island all about? I understand that Dumas wanted to describe the secret den, but why was Franz there? And why have him overhear the count talking to Vampa in Rome? Again, I didn't see the need for Franz. At first I thought the Count was just setting up Franz, but now I believe it was a silly old writing technique, coincidentally putting a character somewhere for an excuse to add detail. Zaccone. When Villefort disguised himself and tried to investigate the Count, the abbe told him the Count's name was Zaccone. Why? And what about the other misinformation? It was really random, and I didn't see the need for it. Eugenie. When she left the hotel with her girlfriend, exposed as being a girl, why was she so humiliated? I can see a little embarrassment, but Dumas really played it up.
