With this post I have decided to mix it up a bit by only doing the next five chapters. Reading back over the last one, the amount of material covered limited what could be discussed in an already long post. I'd love to do this book a chapter at a time, but with 117 chapters... it would take a good deal of time. So here we go.
It's amazing to me that so much of this book is not centered around Dantés. In fact, of the five chapters covered here, only two focus the book's protagonist. This is effective as it shows just how much time is passing and how much time is passing while he is gone. On that note, here's a summary of chapters XI-XIII:
I have studied European history. (I don't pretend to remember most of it) I was aware how common changes in French rule were. In the earlier chapters, when people were talking about Napoleon, I was subconsciously aware that he returned and ruled again for one-hundred days. But my mind was blown when it actually happened in the book.
And the moment when Louis XVIII finds out about Napoleon coming is perfect. He asks the Minister of Police how he found out about Napoleon's return, and the Minister responds, "by the telegraph, Sire" (99). If nothing else, this book fully displays the power of communication. With a letter, Edmond is jailed for upwards of five years and, with a mere telegram, Louis XVIII finds out that his rule is about to end. Then "Louis XVIII stepped forward and crossed his arms, as Napoleon would have done" (99). The theme is brought up several times in these chapters that, despite all of the fighting and bloodshed, there is no difference between these rulers.
And it is under this pressure that it seems we really meet Villefort. Throughout chapter XI, I was honestly worried about the guy. It seemed that at any moment Louis might discover his Bonapartist connections. I was convinced that the man in the blue coat that Louis was looking for was going to turn out to be Villefort. And the tension reached a peak when the man in the blue coat appeared at Villefort's doorstep at the end of the chapter.
Sidenote: It seems only slightly ridiculous that the primary way this man is identified is by the color of his coat. Surely, blue coats were not that rare at the time.
We find out that the man in the blue coat is Villefort's father. We also find out that Villefort's real name is Gérard. I have nothing to say about that. Anyway, it turns out that every thing about Villefort is dictated by surviving this policial environment. His father is a leader among the Bonapartists and Villefort is on the side of the king. They work together to protect one another if one side wins a permanent victory. And there is something to the way that Villefort's father makes an abstraction out of politics with the following line:
"I thought him enough of a philosopher to realize that there is no such thing as murder in politics. You know as well as I do, my dear boy, that in politics there are no people, only ideas; no feelings, only interests. In politics, you don't kill a man, you remove an obstacle, that's all" (107).And that is the exact crack that Dantés fell through: he was an obstacle for Villefort and then he was removed. Amusingly enough, Napoleon's return in chapter XIII is Dantés' greatest chance of being saved. As the political pendulum swings, Dantés goes from an absolute traitor to potentially being a hero. If anything, so far this book is about the indirect impact of political ideas and action on innocent lives. The people who survive this environment are people like Villefort, who literally putting his marriage on hold with two women to wait and see how the politics all work out.
In chapter XIII, we see the world of CoMC at work. We see Napoleon rise and fall again. We see Villefort predicting future political changes, Morrel still trying to save Dantés, Fernand's hope for Mercedes overcoming his thoughts of suicide, and Dantés funeral.
When we finally reconnect with Dantés, he is "a man capable of anything" (121). To Dumas' credit, the sequences of Edmond in prison are not boring. There is a constant tension at play with Edmond's mental state and it is thrilling when he pulls it all together to argue for his right to a trial when the prison inspector visits.
In chapter XIV, we also meet the abbé for the first time. Most notable about his presence here is the off-hand remark the inspector makes about him. He says, "with the naivete of the corrupt, 'if he had really been rich, he would not be prison'" (129). This struck me as profound. I have heard it said that it is difficult for writer's to write extremely virtuous character because it is rather easy to imagine how one could be morally worse, but it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be such a good person. The corrupt are naive in assuming that everyone is the same as they are. I can only truly speak for myself, but I think this is something we all do. I think most of us recognize some of our own shortcomings and that when we think about others, we sometimes assume that they have the same shortcomings. Assumptions like this can lead to skewed perceptions, like the inspector who assumes that a rich man could not end up in prison.
And as chapter XIV ends, Edmond falls even further when he loses his name. Chapter XV spends a lot of time showing Dantés struggle through prison life. He contemplates suicide, finds God, looses hope, and regains it in only a matter of pages. His desire to just see a face was the most compelling part of this for me. Think on it. It is in the face's of others that we can most clearly recognize common humanity. We can see the face move and react nonverbally. I can understand the comfort it would bring to Dantés.
The misery that Dantés suffers heightens the joy that the reader feels when hope arrives in the form of the abbé. All of it makes that moment at the end of chapter XV such a strong cliffhanger.
With that concludes my look through chapter X-XV. Morals of the story: Politics are abstract, letters are powerful, don't let your shortcomings dictate how you see others, and faces are awesome. Hopefully this format works somewhat better than the previous one and feel free to comment below!
Thank you for reading,
Scott Zellner
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