Yes, it is true that he is very self aggrandizing. He even gets offended when a person dares to suggest that he was involved in something perverse. And uses his need for money as some sort of justification by which he thinks that everyone should forgive him all of his actions.

I particularly loved the part in which he tries to absolve himself by saying that well instead of judging me for having an innocent women sent to an asylum, consider the fact that I could have killed her, but I didn't, so really I am innocent of things I could have done that are even worse than the things I did do.

The count almost struck me as having delusions of grandeur. All of his comments are very self aggrandizing and self congratulatory. He also seems to think that he can do no wrong. While he does not portray himself as victim, he has no problem using others to his own ends.

For most of the book, I couldn’t decide whose side the Count was on. At times he seems to be working for or at least with Sir Percival. At others he almost seems to be advocating for Laura and Marion. It took me a while but I finally realized that the Count was always and consistently on only one side, His own.

Of all the characters within the book Mrs. Catherick has come to be my least favorite, she seems worse than the lot of them.

The way in which she tries to play the victim is just so ludicrous as well as quite annoying. I think she has somehow sincerely convinced herself that she was wronged in someway and she tries to remove all reasonability from herself for anything that has happened. The way she prides herself at having done her motherly duty in making sure Anne was placed in a private asylum and in the end it was not even because she really cared about her daughters well being, but about the self-image of her family, and not wanting to be associated with paupers.

Also the way in which she takes offence whenever her reputation is questioned is really quite comical, her obsession with her reputation really is a case of "thou protests too much" I think. Even if she did not actually have an affair with Glyde, at the least did not in fact sleep with him, she was still a married woman who was carrying on a flirtation with another man, and accepting gifts from him.

She reminded me of Madame Bovary, she is one of those women who just think they are somehow entitled.

For discussion of chapters 9 - 10, including the narrative of Mrs. Catherick and Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco.

**PLEASE NOTE: THE BELOW WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS!**