When My Ship Comes in Wednesday

[evelyn_b]

What I've Finished Reading

Donkey Boy is heartbreakingly specific and as inexplicable as childhood. Not much has changed since we last saw the Maddison family, except that there are two more children now and everyone is a little more bitten and a little more shy. Hetty tries to make Dickie happy, but he doesn't believe he can be happy and he won't

Comments

[a_phoenixdragon]

*HUGS*

[osprey_archer]

YAY FOR REAL TREASURE!!!!!

And YES, Dantes' plan to save the Morrel's is THE BEST/most ridiculous. Could he just have a messenger deliver the purse a week before Morrel's utter bankruptcy? OF COURSE NOT, he needs to have Julie run out and retrieve it AS HER FATHER SITS IN HIS ROOM TOYING WITH HIS GUN for maximum melodrama. OH DANTES. OH DUMAS. AND THEN THE FAKE PHARAON.

I am so excited/concerned to see what has become of Mercedes' marriage to Fernand. Does she spend a lot of time sitting in windows, gazing dolefully out at the street and sighing for her lost love? Or has she moved on and had half a dozen bitty Fernand's and nearly forgotten her beloved Edmond except that sometimes an unexpected pain catches her just beneath the heart, and she has to pause and catch her breath and force a smile?

Also I'm wondering if Mercedes is included in Dantes' epic revenge schemes. Is he angry at her for being faithless to his memory? Or does he realize that she was pretty much out of options and made the best of a terrible situation?

[evelyn_b]

Man, I HOPE Mercedes doesn't get revenged upon. Dantes does have that sarcastic, "eighteen months, who could ask for more?" line, so there's evidence of some bitterness, but MY FAVORITE Caderousse makes sure to note that she doesn't seem happy, despite her seemingly enviable position, so maybe that bodes well for sympathy? Of course, if her husband gets caught beneath a vengeance avalanche, it's hard to imagine her not being harmed to some extent. :( We know she has at least one little Fernand, I think? Chance of forced smiles is high.

What I'm hoping for:

1. good things ONLY for Mercedes >:(

2. more page time for Caderousse (I'd like him to be an unlikely and partial hero, but I'll settle for him showing up now and then)

3. a "happy" ending may be impossible at this point but I'd be really glad if Dumas could use some of that handwavey magic and make it so the quest for vengeance doesn't consume Dantes totally, we'll see I guess

[osprey_archer]

I am imagining a DRAMATIC TURNAROUND, where Dantes is planning to revenge himself upon Mercedes, but then he sees how VERY SAD she looks and suddenly is filled with remorse and sympathy for her suffering and has to revise his plans so that his revenge on Fernand won't be too terrible for her.

Although I suspect you are right about the vengeance avalanche almost inevitably burying Mercedes too if Dantes directs it against Fernand. Clearly something for Dantes to angst about!

Would a movie adaptation have time for the fake Pharaon? I'm seeing a director cutting out the brief rewarding-the-good prelude entirely to skip right to the VENGEANCE.

[evelyn_b]

Oh, you're probably right about movies cutting out the Pharaon; we do have over a thousand pages still to go! But it's so cinematic!

DRAMATIC TURNAROUND seems like a good bet, but I'm going to be anxious until it happens for real. Dantes, Dantes, I'm worried about you.

[lost_spook]

I am smugly grinning at your Monte Cristo thoughts. :-D

*mimes spoilers*

*goes away*

[evelyn_b]

I keep thinking I want a Count of Monte Cristo icon, but I can't search for images because they might be full of spoilers! SOON THOUGH. Thank you again for your restraint, however smug. :D

this book is going to be the death of me in the best possible way. <3