The novel "Count of Monte Cristo" is called the pearl, crown, diamond of the work of Alexander Dumas. It stands apart from the mainstream of the writer's work, built on historical subjects. This is the first literary work by Dumas about contemporary events and the most ambitious work of the writer. After almost 200 years, the novel still captivates and captivates the reader, as in 1844. Alexander Dumas managed to create the perfect algorithm for writing an adventure novel, which is often used now.
19th Century Soap Opera
An honest and gullible young man, a young man who has just entered adulthood. He is in love and loved. A capable and executive employee - the authorities appreciate him. Ahead of career prospects, a wedding, a happy life. Everything is destroyed in one day by envy and betrayal. The main character goes through the difficult path of spiritual growth, self-improvement, punishes offenders, restores justice and an honest name. Many series and modern novels are created in accordance with this plot.
Manufacturers of television and literary series now use the techniques discovered in the nineteenth century. One of them was invented by the publishing house Revue de Paris in the first quarter of the century before last. In each issue, in the most prestigious place, in the "basement", part of the feuilleton novel was printed with the key phrase "to be continued." The most successful novels in the series brought thousands of new subscribers. The first readers' reviews of the “Count of Monte Cristo” almost doubled the circulation of The Magazine de Deba, where the novel was printed.
The second important technique is the dynamics of the plot and the maintenance of intrigue. Since it was not supposed that the novel would be read all at once, there is no single line of tension in it, leading to a climax and denouement. Modern readers in their reviews of the book "The Count of Monte Cristo" note the wave-like dynamics by which, if desired, you can determine all 136 parts that were published in periodicals. The absence of long descriptions is only the minimum necessary to create a visual image. The plot develops through actions and dialogues. All this is close to the perception of today's readers, brought up on the long-playing stories of modern television. The talent of the narrator, A. Dumas, allows you to read a multi-page book about a mysterious graph literally in one go.
Copyright
Conversations and speculations about the true author of the novel began simultaneously with the printing of the first passages. It was difficult to believe that one writer could create a literary canvas of such a scale in such a short time. Dumas did not deny the presence of assistants, remarking good-naturedly: "Napoleon also had his generals."
The names of the two "generals of Dumas" are well known to researchers of his work. The first is Viejo, whose talent was only in the amazing similarity of his style with the manner of writing of the great novelist. Publishers accepted original manuscripts written only by the author themselves. Given the "flow method" of work, it was almost impossible to do this, I had to use the services of Viejo.
Auguste Macke - this name could well appear next to the name of Dumas on the book about the Count of Monte Cristo and another 17 works of the great Frenchman. But the publishers (the laws of PR promotion and marketing were in force then) rejected this offer of the generous maestro. After all, the books of the brand "Alexander Dumas" were more expensive than "Dumas and Co.". Using the amazing talent of O. Macke to find stories and facts, Dumas continued to sign literary works with his own name: "A brilliant writer does not steal, but conquers." Working as an assistant, O. Macke did not win the fame of the author, but after the triumph of the novel by Alexander Dumas "Count of Monte Cristo", according to contemporaries, he secured a decent condition. The master honestly paid his apprentices.
The plot of the book "Count of Monte Cristo"
According to the famous author, there are plots everywhere and in everything. It is only necessary to possess the talent to see and transform.
The real story that happened at the beginning of the 19th century and recorded in the police chronicle is almost a direct quote from the book "Count of Monte Cristo". Due to the slanderous denunciation concocted by his friends, the young shoemaker Francois Pico ends up in Fenestrelle Prison for seven long years. The bride, not waiting for her beloved, marries one of the traitors. In the fortress, he meets a priest who, before his death, reveals to him the secret of the treasure. Gold, gems, millions of francs — a fortune that Pico spent on destroying slanderers. The ending of the real story is tragic - Pico dies at the hands of one of the villainous traitors, before dying, telling in detail the dramatic story of his life, with the condition of handing it over to the French police.
Whoever got this story in the archives, Dumas or Mack, no longer matters. A. Dumas never denied the help of Auguste Macke in the work on the plot. The main thing is that the writer’s talent breathed life and power into each character in this story. A twenty-page raw material produced a vivid canvas of the life of French society after two revolutions and in anticipation of thirds. No, the author was not a revolutionary, but thanks to his gift to see the true, he felt and showed the tragic ups and downs in the fates of those living in an era of change. New reviews of the book "The Count of Monte Cristo" again show the relevance of the confrontation between offended and persecuted careerists, swindlers and upstarts.
Edmond Dantes - Count of Monte Cristo
The protagonist of the novel differs from its prototype not only in its external description, but also in its internal motives and justification for its actions. He does not take revenge; he feels himself an instrument of retribution. The right to this is given to him by the baseness of human nature: "Everyone believes that he is unhappy than another unfortunate person who cries and groans next to him," "There is nothing that would not be sold when you know how to offer the right price," "Today’s friends - tomorrow’s enemies "- so cruelty is justified.
Own death also serves as an excuse and gives the right to retaliation. After all, Edmond Dantes died in the castle of If. Count Monte Cristo emerged from the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. A man who did not have childhood and love, who in the past only had pain. And in the future there are no relatives and friends, only revenge. Many in reviews of the book "Count of Monte Cristo" emphasize the symbolism of the dungeon escape episode.
The character of the Count of Monte Cristo is a many-sided hero, in whose masks and transformations you can get confused. The author does not talk about the feelings and experiences of the renewed hero. Only actions and voiced observations. It is as if programmed to perform one task, so he does not have a personal life - he decides the fate of others. When the program is completed, there is no joy, no peace - devastation comes: "The world is a living room from which we must be able to leave politely and decently, bowing to everyone and paying their card debts."
Abbot Faria. Truth and fiction
The ingenious ability to interweave facts and fantasies, real heroes and fictional images is one of the components of the talent of the French novelist.
In the story of the shoemaker Pico, his cellmate was an unnamed priest, and at the same time, Abbot Faria was in custody in If fortress. Jose Custodio Faria is a man whose fate deserves a separate novel. A descendant of Indian Brahmins, born near Goa, who received a theological education in Rome, a professor at the Marseille Academy - it was he who became the prototype of the literary abbot.
In the book "Count of Monte Cristo" the description of the character makes the reader wonder who he is - a magician, a charlatan or a scientist? A comprehensively educated, inventor, polyglot - Abbot Faria becomes the mentor of young Edmond. He helps him figure out what happened: "There may not be a corpus delicti, but there is always a reason." And it was he who warned Dantes against revenge: "To execute the judgment itself is burdensome for the body and destructive for the soul."
Strong and weak
All characters in the novel are divided into strong and weak. The weak are those who have not resisted the temptations of vice. Having succumbed once to self-interest, fear or vanity, weak people continue to commit crimes in the future, until the strong stand in their way. Those who defy circumstances and make history themselves.
The contents of the book "Count of Monte Cristo" is permeated by the constant opposition of the positions of strengths and weaknesses, their choice in similar situations and the outcome of the chosen path.
Fraud and greedy Danglar greed led to complete collapse. The hunger torture in the finals by his own example showed him the true price of money in comparison with human life.
Kadruss several times had the opportunity, with a hint and help from the count, to turn his fate, to become strong. And each time he chose the path of a coward and a traitor. He perishes at the hands of the same coward and traitor, his "friend."
The ambitious and conceited Fernand, who gained fame and honor as a murder, paid for it. Having lost everything that he so longed for and cherished, he was forced to kill himself.
Everyone in the finals got what the weak traitor began his journey with.
Revenge or retribution?
When you ask readers what Dumas's novel “The Count of Monte Cristo” is about, you always hear in reviews: about revenge.
But the main character of Dumas does not take revenge, as in a vendetta, - blood for blood, slander for slander. Using his available resources, he intensifies or provokes the temptations of the main villains, pushing them to a new vice or crime. And each time they again make a choice of the weak and bring themselves closer to death. It is not revenge that is committed, but retaliation, the logical and fair outcome of committed acts.
Readers of the novel throughout the book ask themselves questions: what would I do in the place of Edmond Dantes, where is the line between revenge and justice, is one person entitled to control the fate of another? Alexander Dumas does not give complete and detailed answers. It only shows what a person turns his life and the life of those who love him, deciding to become the sole and sole judge of others.
Readers say that this is one of the best works of Dumas, from which it is impossible to break away. The twisted plot, magnificent heroes, simplicity of presentation are mentioned as the advantages of the book.
Copycats and sequels
How many books of the Count of Monte Cristo have been published over the past two hundred years is difficult to calculate. But readers did not want to part with their favorite heroes and demanded a continuation. What happened to the life of a fighter with injustice and faithful to Hyde, what happened to the other characters of the novel: Alexander Dumas did not write a sequel.
In the wake of interest, other authors appeared who used the heroes of the novel in their works. Ten years after the first edition of the original version, the most famous sequel fan fiction of the popular book “The Lord of the World”, written by Adolf Mutzelburg, is released. Until the end of the century, four more sequel novels by various authors saw the light.
New interest in options for the continuation of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" appeared after the publication of the novel "Last Payment" in 1990 in the Slovo publishing house in Russia. He was presented to the public as a lost novel by Dumas, articles in support of this version appeared in Izvestia and Literaturnaya Gazeta. The plot of the book was built around the consonance of the name of the protagonist Dantes and the name of the murderer A.S. Pushkin. The book was written after a visit to A. Dumas of the Russian Empire and described the investigation of the events that led to the duel at the Black River. The fake was quickly exposed and the real author was installed. It turned out to be Vyacheslav Lebedev, who was indicated by the publishing house as a translator of the novel.
Count Monte Cristo in the movie
In order to meet again with your favorite characters, you do not need to compose and look for continuations. The names of the heroes have long become common nouns, quotes from the book "Count of Monte Cristo" went to the epigraphs of other works. Performances, musicals are staged, films are made, and each interpretation finds new colors and puts its emphasis in the presentation of the famous novel.
Film versions were made in the USA, Germany, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. In the writer’s homeland, the novel was filmed three times, with the participation of famous French actors: Jean Marais (1954), Louis Jourdan (1961), Gerard Depardieu (1998). The last film adaptation to date is a joint project of the USA and France, released in 2002.
Most viewers consider the French version of 1954 to be the best embodiment of the novel on screen. The creators, according to viewers and critics, managed to maintain the grace of presentation and the atmosphere of France, carefully transferring the plot of the creation of Alexander Dumas to cinema language.
Winning time
The popularity of the novel does not subside over time. Reviews of the book "Count of Monte Cristo" are constantly appearing from new fans of Alexander Dumas. In the fortress of If, they conduct excursions, showing a camera where the future Count of Monte Cristo spent 14 years in prison, and even a secret passage dug by Abbot Faria. Marseilles residents convince tourists of the authenticity of the events described and offer fish soup in restaurants "according to the Dantes family recipe." There is a project to create a reserve and a republic on Monte Cristo island with its own flag and coat of arms, which depict an anchor and a hunting horn. The writer's mansion, called the Monte Cristo Castle, became a museum where literary and musical performances take place.
A novel by Alexander Dumas about his contemporaries came to us from the past and will remain in the future, defeating ruthless time with a talented word and a brilliant plot.