Adventure really sums up these five chapters. They are fun to read despite some contrived moments. Brief summary: Dantés finds his way from nothing to working on a smuggling ship, to finding Faria's treasure on the island on Monte Cristo, and then to returning to his old home.
Throughout all of this, the most interesting aspect is the character of Dantés himself. We find out that it has been an entire fourteen years since he was imprisoned. Cannot imagine losing fourteen years of my life. And then he looks into the mirror for the first time, he can barely recognize himself.
More surprising is his change in personality. After suffering a flesh wound from a gun shot, Dantés says, laughing at the danger, "pain, you are not an evil" (217). The only other time I can recall him making such a melancholy joke was his comment about his captain's death at the very beginning of the book. Unsurprisingly, he is growing desensitized and his "heart was turning to stone" (217). But this is slowed by the involuntary kindness of Jacopo.
I particularly liked Dumas' Candide reference. Upon seeing Jacopo's concern, the narrator states asks, "could it be that the world was neither as good as Doctor Pangloss pretended, nor as bad as it seemed to Dantés, since this man ... had felt such distress at seeing him fall dead?" (217). There is truth to the idea that all it takes for a day to change is a moment of kindness.
Jacopo's relationship with Dantés evolves further. Dantés even becomes a mentor to him, echoing his own relationship with Faria. Despite Faria's influence on Dantés, Edmond is a cold individual. On thinking about the smugglers he is working with he proclaims, "better to die than to go one living this sordid and base existence" (223). Sorry, but I seem to remember just a few chapters ago, you were contemplating suicide in prison. This seems to be a little bit better. Though, I do think it is probably the promise of Faria's vast treasure that makes Dantés this way. One has to wonder what Dantés would do if there was no treasure for him to find. Would he just live among the smugglers? I suppose so.
Through these chapters, Dumas' retains his ability to make good cliffhangers and make the story itself compelling. Despite the importance of finding the treasure on Monte Cristo, these chapters largely felt like transitions to get to the next part of the story. It starts building again in chapter 25 with Dantés 'returning to life' and looking for people he used to know. One gets a strong Rip Van Winkle vibe from it. I'm looking forward to the next several chapters because, for the first time, I really do not know where the story is going. When I started this, I assumed that his time in prison would take up more of the story. But we still have 900 some pages left. Excited to see where all of this goes.
Thank you for reading,
Scott Charles
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