Re: The Count of Monte Cristo

Bruce Wayne, Edmond Dantès and Mr. Darcy. How can you not love them, right? Smart, intelligent men with kind hearts. The exceedingly wealthy bit cannot hurt either, I am sure. But the brains and the determination on them. If they should look like Jensen Ackles, heaven help me!

I jest. But only in parts. The Count of Monte Cristo was the first full novel I read. Up till then, I’d read story books for children – your abridged versions of full-fledged novels or specific children literature. But Monte Cristo was my first. I read it in Mizo. My uncle got married and when my aunt moved in, she brought with her the Mizo translation of the Alexandre Dumas book, this thick, yellowed white papers with no pictures, filled with words upon words. She said it was a good book. I borrowed it from her and read it. And I loved the book. And fell in love with novels.

There are many things to love about Monte Cristo. On my 2026 re-read (because I saw the most beautiful pub. of it by Rupa and it begged me for a revisit), I checked Wiki before the Amazon delivery and it told me that it came out as a series at first. The final work as published first in 1844 would have five volumes, after all. This intrigues me so much because at one point, I had tried to write a novel myself. And I had to know the ending because otherwise, I didn’t know where I was going. I didn't know how it ended so my novel remains unwritten. JK Rowling did this though. She always knew about the horcruxes right from Book One, for example. But then there are others like Douglas Adams who wrote Hitchhiker’s Guide in bits and pieces and comically would quip one day that he never knew where it was going; the characters just sort of went on their adventure and he just wrote that down. Like with the whale and the surprised bowl of petunias. Apparently, Dumas and Adams think alike, or have the same process. I love when my fandoms collide. The more you know!

Another thing I realized to be true, as a much older woman reading the tale again, is that Dantès was right when he said “all things are to be sold to such as care to pay the price.” Simply put: everything has a price. Cynical, but I have since realized this is true of this world. I suppose Abbe Faria taught us all well those of us who chose to learn from him. Even on the count that the world is filled with tigers and crocodiles and that the two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than others!

Something I remember well because I was fascinated by the concept of it is when it was revealed that the Count gave himself away a little bit when he would not eat or drink in Morcerf’s home because, as Albert would tell Mercédès, “M. de Monte Cristo is almost an Oriental, and it is customary with the Orientals to secure full liberty for revenge by not eating or drinking in the houses of their enemies”. I have since wondered about the wisdom and depth of this remark. Do we not also believe it to be a more intense betrayal if it comes from people we have dined with? Because after all, do we not always consider those with whom we have dined with, to be closer than those with whom we have not? 

Age brings some levels of perception that youth missed out on!

Three things stood out to me on this my most recent re-read. One, Monte Cristo at one point snapped: “Display is not becoming to everyone.” He was speaking to Albert, of course, but he might as well say it to netizens today using and abusing social media. Display, dear reader, is truly not becoming to everyone.

Two, Pu Lalsangliana who translated the work in Mizo did an excellent job of it. He maintained the integrity of the story while also simultaneously made it easy to understand it in Mizo. Our cultures, advancements in society, and general worlds are so different. It is the mark of someone who understood the soul of the book to have brought out that very soul in another language. Translation is not easy. One must be well versed in both languages, as well as understand colloquial context, to be able to bring out the depth of literature. I am thoroughly impressed.

Three, on the topic of different worlds, it was never clearer to me than this weekend just how strange the world we inhabit today is. In the early 1800s when this story was set in, they were already talking of money as much as 13 million francs and well-established modern banking system, even going so far as discussing the possibility of “unlimited credit”. They had the railways, merchant ships and overseas commerce, art and literature, and global politics, moving from France to Italy to Constantinople and England. The Count was very much a global citizen already. In Mizoram in 2026, we are discussing whether railways entering the borders of our state is a boon or bane. We are reluctant to talk finances and some people still believe to talk politics is to discard religion. Yet in an interesting dichotomy, we have the world in our fingertips via smartphones today. They always say it has reached technology has reached the furthest corners of the world. Maybe we are that furthest corner.

Monte Cristo is a story about vengeance. Everyone knows that to be the sum of it. As a big fan of it, I have also wondered idly if I needed to take revenge on some people at some points in my life, and whether or not I should plan for it. All of us are wronged people at one point or the other in our lives. Is that not true? But seeing as I do not possess the means or the countenance or the mental acuity of Dantès, I have let it be. I often think about the Bible saying that vengeance is the Lord’s; as a Christian, perhaps that is mercy. I believe in Karma. I believe that The Universe does not like imbalance and is always seeking to rectify it. Causing unnecessary pain to others, for example, is an injustice and imbalance that Karma will somehow even out in ways we might not even ever know. This gives me peace. 

But a tale of such sweet avenging will always hit right. I will always love Monte Cristo.

I leave now with the last line of the novel here, a quote from The Count of Monte Cristo himself: 

all human wisdomis summed up in two words: 

“ ‘Wait and hope (Fac et spera)!’ ”