[JPK]

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the poll, and especially to those of you who voted for The Count of Monte Cristo as the first selection for our group.

Keep an eye on this space as it will update weekly with the chapter assignments.

Week 7 is Monday April 3rd and runs through Sunday April 9nd. It will cover chapters 91-105.

Week 6 ran Monday March 27th through Sunday April 2nd and covered chapters 76-90. Discussion of these chapters should remain in spoiler tags until Monday April 10th.

Material up until chapter 75 can be discussed at this point without the use of spoiler tags.

As this is a dedicated thread for the work and there may be times that people will fall behind I ask that you keep any spoilers in blocks for the week that we are discussing the section as well as the week after. This will give anyone who has fallen behind a reasonable chance to catch up. Any spoilers over a week old are fair game for the main thread.

Finally I'd like to invite anyone that may have missed sign-ups and voting but that would like to join in at this point to hop aboard. This is an amazing book and one that I personally believe everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.

This post has been edited by JPK: 03 April 2017 - 04:49 PM

[JPK]

Now a little bit of an introduction to the work:

The Count of Monte Cristo is a work about a man by the name of Edmond Dantés who is betrayed and framed for a crime he did not commit by three men. He is imprisoned in the Chateau D´If for several years after which he seeks his revenge on the men who wronged him.

The Count of Monte Cristo was originally published in the Journal des Débats in eighteen parts between 1844 and 1845. Due to the serialized nature of the work Dumas had to write chapters on a weekly basis and that´s why the work is filled with so many twists and cliffhangers to maintain reader interest.

Dumas was involved in the politics of his time and held a fascination with Napoleon Boneparte which shows in The Count. Due to this, as you read you'll notice references to major events in french history surrounding the politics of Boneparte.

This is one of my favorite books that I've ever read and due to our shared interest in Erikson's work I believe that you'll feel right at home with the intricate plotting and philosophical nature of the work.

Enjoy guys, and let the discussion begin whenever you're ready.

This post has been edited by JPK: 19 February 2017 - 08:23 PM

[Aptorian]

I think there's some ability to create announcement banner that pops up in every forum, right? Could the mods make one of those to spread awareness of the Book Club?

For those who are only just now checking in, remember that The Count of Monte Cristo is old enough to be in the Public Domain so you can find a free e-book version on the internet.

This post has been edited by Apt: 19 February 2017 - 07:01 PM

[Puck]

I think you got the dates messed up, JPK. It should be Monday 20th through Sunday 26th for the first batch of chapters, no?

[JPK]

Puck, on 19 February 2017 - 08:57 PM, said:

I think you got the dates messed up, JPK. It should be Monday 20th through Sunday 26th for the first batch of chapters, no?

Fixed. Derp.

[Macros]

book arrived just now, 875 pages, 117 chapters, will commence stage one tonight

[Traveller]

One of my all time favourite books.

I re-read Moby Dick a few weeks back, and got so much more out of it than I did when I read it about 20 or so years ago, that I thought it would be good to revisit some more.

So I downloaded this last night, three chapters in.

[Macros]

Decided just to read the first three chapters.
It's basically cast introduction and scene setting, but I see what people meant when they referenced flowery prose padding the word count a bit. It's not iritating but one would imagine it could be somewhat tighter in its delivery, and suffer no ill

[JPK]

Macros, on 20 February 2017 - 10:27 PM, said:

Decided just to read the first three chapters.
It's basically cast introduction and scene setting, but I see what people meant when they referenced flowery prose padding the word count a bit. It's not iritating but one would imagine it could be somewhat tighter in its delivery, and suffer no ill

Yeah it really does make a lot more sense when you keep in mind that he was getting paid for each installment. He wanted to drag this out as long as he could. I think he did a great job in finding a happy medium with padding his material without bloating it to the point of being unreadable.

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler

I'd forgotten just how much of events were completely manipulated by Danglars. He really used both Fernand and especially Caderousse.

[Puck]

There are also free audio book versions floating around the internet, btw, in case you find yourself like me willing to read but with no time to spend eye time on it.

Edit to add: Here's a good one.

This post has been edited by Puck: 22 February 2017 - 12:38 AM

[Macros]

@jpk.
Just read chapter 4. I haven't read it before but it's easy to see straight up who the brains is

[JPK]

Macros, on 22 February 2017 - 02:11 PM, said:

@jpk.
Just read chapter 4. I haven't read it before but it's easy to see straight up who the brains is

Macros:

Spoiler

Yeah, it really is. I'd remembered that he was the ringleader, but I forgot how much he straight up manipulated the other two as well as Caderousse's straight up objections to what was developing in front of him.

Spoilers up to chapter 8.

Spoiler

Ah, Villefort. The asshole judge. That's why I thought something was wrong with it all falling on Danglars. "Oh Dantes, you didn't do anything wrong. Who did you say that letter was supposed to be for again?" It's hard for me to decide which is worse, the guy who set him up out of jealousy and a past dispute, or the worm who sets him up to take the fall for his own family's dishonor.

[Traveller]

Just out of curiosity, does listening to a book give the same.. insight into a book that reading it does? I only ask as I've never listened to an entire book, and when I read I find the very shape or look of certain words and phrases give a depth that I think I'd miss if I just heard them spoken.

Danglars is a real shit, so totally and effortlessly manipulated the other two. Just getting into chapter 5.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 February 2017 - 07:46 PM

[Puck]

Traveller, on 22 February 2017 - 07:45 PM, said:

Just out of curiosity, does listening to a book give the same.. insight into a book that reading it does? I only ask as I've never listened to an entire book, and when I read I find the very shape or look of certain words and phrases give a depth that I think I'd miss if I just heard them spoken.

Depends. I suspect it's the same difference as with how some people are visual learners and some do better when listening to the information, so everyone has to find out for themselves. Sounds like actually reading the text yourself is more your thing. I prefer that by far as well, and usually only listen to audio books when I'be read them before, so it's more like a reread in audio, as I don't catch details well when listening for the first time - though better when the narrator is good.
But, when I am too busy to read visually but not too busy to listen (usually while painting) I don't mind listening to a few chapters.

Case in point, BK seems to be more drawn to the audio version of this particular book.

[Macros]

One iritating note on my edition.
It has footnotes that help give context to some statements, like historical backgrounds that readers of the day would have all known.
However, unlike a prachett novel, they are not at the bottom of each page, they are all at the back.

This is bothersome.
Onto chapter 7, will probably rattle out the rest of the 15 tomorrow and spoiler my entire thoughts so far

[Traveller]

Puck, on 22 February 2017 - 10:07 PM, said:

Traveller, on 22 February 2017 - 07:45 PM, said:

Just out of curiosity, does listening to a book give the same.. insight into a book that reading it does? I only ask as I've never listened to an entire book, and when I read I find the very shape or look of certain words and phrases give a depth that I think I'd miss if I just heard them spoken.

Depends. I suspect it's the same difference as with how some people are visual learners and some do better when listening to the information, so everyone has to find out for themselves. Sounds like actually reading the text yourself is more your thing. I prefer that by far as well, and usually only listen to audio books when I'be read them before, so it's more like a reread in audio, as I don't catch details well when listening for the first time - though better when the narrator is good.
But, when I am too busy to read visually but not too busy to listen (usually while painting) I don't mind listening to a few chapters.

Case in point, BK seems to be more drawn to the audio version of this particular book.

If you get five people to read the same page out loud, they invariably put different emphasis on certain words and the way each line is read, with their own accent and pronunciation - whereas if you read it you do that yourself in your own way. BKs comments just made me wonder if it would be possible to get two different opinions on the same text, and the extent of that difference, depending solely on its delivery.
Sorry, slight deviation from the subject there, I'll get back to the book.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 February 2017 - 11:00 PM

[Itwæs Nom]

Macros, on 22 February 2017 - 10:12 PM, said:

One iritating note on my edition.
It has footnotes that help give context to some statements, like historical backgrounds that readers of the day would have all known.
However, unlike a prachett novel, they are not at the bottom of each page, they are all at the back.

This is bothersome.
Onto chapter 7, will probably rattle out the rest of the 15 tomorrow and spoiler my entire thoughts so far

One of the central European specific letters still shows as a question mark for me and the file has multiple absolutely random line breaks on every page. And no footnotes at all. Why the hell couldn't whoever made this crap do it properly I have no idea.

[Puck]

I'm past Chapter 6 (doing two chapters a day, round about) and I have to say, non-spoilery, that I am enjoying how the people in the story feel like actual people with opinions and stuff even though they're obviously taking certain roles to make the story move forwward.

[JPK]

Briar King, on 23 February 2017 - 06:07 AM, said:

Listened to ch 5 but not posting thoughts since Ambien is kicking in.

I'm happy that you found a way to make this work BK. Who is doing the narration for the audio that you're listening to? I actually listened to it the first time I went through it too.

[Andorion]

Read upto Chapter 9.

Spoiler

As everyone has stated upthread, Danglars has been extremely cold and manipulative.

Villefort has been an utter asshole.

Dantes was so very naive.

Anybody else getting a bad feeling about Dantes' father?

First mention of a mad abbe promising everyone piles of money