The Count of Monte Cristo: The Breakdown Discussion

[Alison, the guru of grace]

Any ideas on breaking this up? Is three equal parts too broad? For me, that's 500 pages/month. Thoughts.....

[Arctic]

here's my suggestion for breaking things up, chapter-wise, if this helps:

Homecoming, Chapters 1-7 unabridged
Chateau d'If, Chapters 8-20 unabridged
Setting the stage, Chapters 21-30 unabridged
Italy, Chapters 31-38 unabridged
Arriving in France, Chapters 39-50 unabridged
Valentine, Chapters 51-61 unabridged
Buried secrets, Chapters 62-64 unabridged
Danglars, Chapters 65-71 unabridged
Valentine, Chapters 72-80 unabridged
Caderousse, Chapters 81-83 unabridged
Duel, Chapters 84-92 unabridged
Valentine and Eugenie, Chapters 93-106 unabridged
Trial, Chapters 107-113 unabridged
Danglars, Chapters 114-116 unabridged
The End, Chapter 117 unabridged


Many sections involve several different storylines, so it becomes hard to compartmentalize, especially towards the end. I'd be interested in hearing suggestions from others who have the read the book also.

[whichwaydidshego, the sage of sass]

Heather, that seems like a LOT of threads. Am I the only one that thinks so? I haven't started it yet, though - going to do the Sedaris and another book club book for this month first... okay, and at least one personal book, too, as I know once I start TCOMC I'll want to keep my momentum and keep going. Plus I heard it's that kind of good - sucks you in.

[Arctic]

no, you're right. it is a lot of threads. I'll try to clump more of them together. lemme think about it...

[whichwaydidshego, the sage of sass]

You rock! Thanks, girl!

[Arctic]

ok, my condensed version (about 15 chapters per section):

section 1 - chapters 1-30 unab.
section 2 - chapters 31-50 unab.
section 3 - chapters 51-83 unab.
section 4 - chapters 84-105 unab.
section 5 - chapters 106-117 unab.

[Arctic]

section 1 is long, but it goes really fast.

[Meghan]

I was talking with Sarah about how some other clubs have separate folders for their monthly book discussions. But I know that wouldn't work out here since that's not really how we're set up.

Sarah came up with a really great idea. Why don't you make a temporary folder just for the Count of Monte Cristo? That way you can have as many threads as you want and they won't get lost with the other monthly book threads. Then when we're done, you can move the threads to the "normal" folder.

[M0rfeus]

i like that idea!!!
T

[[deleted user]]

I just wanted to say that I read this book a few months ago and even though it is a big book, I really enjoyed it and the reading went faster than I thought it would. I hope every one will enjoy the story. It was so diffrent than the movie. It was kinda hard to believe the movie was based on the book.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

I'm about 150 pages in? I love it! I think it's really great--and it is reading really fast. I did print out a character list from Wikipedia. The problem is, there are spoilers. So, I try to just read the first sentence about each character, to remind me of who they were. Otherwise, entire plot lines will be given away.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

What if, from Heather's suggestion, we did the following...

June: section 1 - chapters 1-19

July: section 2 - chapters 20-31
section 3 - chapters 32-46

August: section 4 - chapters 47-62
section 5 - chapters 63-73

[Arctic]

Yeah that looks good. Chapters 20 and 47 really are two of the more solid breaking points as far as storyline goes, I think.

Alison, any favorite lines yet? I remember finding lots to love in the first part of the book. I'll have to dig up my notes and post some later.

The Count was originally published as a serial novel in a journal in 18 parts over a period of 2 years...can't imagine keeping track of all the characters then. though keeping track is quite important to appreciating the story.

[Arctic]

hold up... huge oversight. I'm looking at my digital version of the novel and it has 117 chapters, so apparently I bought the abridged version after reading it on my palm pilot. Anyway, sorry for the confusion, here's the respective cut off points for the unabridged version:

June: Chapter 1. Marseilles, The Arrival - Chapter 30. The Fifth of September

July: Chapter 31. Italy, Sinbad the Sailor - Chapter 83. The Hand of God

August: Chapter 84. Beauchamp - Chapter 117. The Fifth of October


To keep chapter numbers more even, Italy (chapters 31 - 38) could be included in the June section instead, if wanted.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

So, is everyone on board (no pun intended) for:

June: Chapters 1-38 [38 chapters]

July: Chapters 39-83 [44 chapters]

August: Chapters 84-117 [33 chapters]?

"He was a fine, tall, slim young fellow, with black eyes, and hair as dark as the raven's wing; and his whole appearance bespoke that calmness and resolution peculiar to men accustomed from their cradle to contend with danger."

[Dini, the master of meaning]

I'm reading the abridged one, but I'm on board! ;)

[[deleted user]]

sounds good to me. I'm lovin this book so far.
Dini, How many pages is your version?

[whichwaydidshego, the sage of sass]

Thanks for all the contributions and help with this, gang. Well done, Alison, for making this happen!

[M0rfeus]

oooo the 5th of september is REALLY good!
;)

[Joanie]

Thanks for taking care of the breakdown all. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by this one and feel better now with a structure in place.

On a side note, every morning while I'm getting dressed I see the book on my shelf (I haven't really started yet) and I think of that part in Shawshank Redemption where they're categorizing the new books and Haywood finds The Count and says "By Alexander Dumb-Ass" and Andy (Tim Robbins) corrects his pronunciation and tells him it's about a prison break-I can't remember the exact phrase but Haywood says something like "so, do it yourself?" Makes me smile each morning!

[Arctic]

good call on the Shawshank Redemption lines, Joanie...I'd forgotten about that. :)

Alison said: "Does anyone know what the correlating breakdown would be for the abridged version? We can post it here."

not sure if there are several different abridged versions out there or what, but I compared the B&N version and the Tor Classics version and they have the same chapter names/numbers. So for those two abridged editions here's the monthly breakdown:


June: chapters 1-29 (I. Marseilles, The Arrival - XXIX. The Catacombs of St. Sebastian)

July: chapters 30-53 (XXX. The Guests - LIII. The Accusation)

August: chapters 54-71 (LIV. The Trial - LXXI. The Fifth of October)



note that Chapters may be a better yardstick to use than book length due to variances in fonts and page spacing used by publishers.

[Sera]

Thank you so much, Heather! Now, I can participate within the appropriate threads.

[Arctic]

glad to help - I really enjoyed this book and I'm hoping everyone else does too!

Each section covers a lot of ground so it will be interesting to see how the discussions go. Can't wait to read everyone's thoughts!

[Alison, the guru of grace]

Good call on The Shawshank Redemption reference. Hopefully no spoiling here, but there are similarities in the two stories...

Thanks, Heather! I really appreciate that.

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Dharma, my book is 600-ish pages with extras. I haven't really checked but it seems like the same translation with the abridged versions that Heather mentioned. Oh and thanks Heather for breaking it down for us! All that Roman numerals have got my head spinning ;P