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When My Ship Comes In Wednesday
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What I've Finished Reading
Donkey Boy is heartbreakingly specific and as inexplicable as childhood. Not much has changed since we last saw the Maddison family, except that there are two more children now and everyone is a little more bitten and a little more shy. Hetty tries to make Dickie happy, but he doesn't believe he can be happy and he won't let anything go; he blows up horribly at his whole family over some toast that was spoiled by the coal fire; everything that ought to be a funny story feels like an assault on his dignity. Meanwhile, little Phillip, lonely and confused, acts out in ways nobody understands, himself least of all. He sings to himself at night a song of the world that no one can be allowed to hear. What he's becoming, who can say? He might be grown up and married himself before he knows, if he ever does know. It's not like the years did his father any good.
What I'm Reading Now
I never got around to making a separate post for The Count of Monte Cristo, but rest assured it's still the best thing sincefreedom young love living parents finding a pile of gold in a grotto. Spoilers below through Chapter 30!
IT WAS REAL YOU GUYS.
No tricks, no metaphors, just a big pile of diamonds in a trunk. And no Sierra Madre sadness, either; Dantes fills his pockets with diamonds and boards the ship, no questions asked, no diamonds inconveniently rolling out onto the deck and prompting inconvenient curiosity. This is completely plausible! Sailors don't live cheek by jowl or anything. Why would anyone notice a thing like that? He's also able to sell a bunch of jewels to the first dealer he runs across without tripping any kind of “where'd you get 16 giant diamonds buddy” wire in the local law enforcement and bandit communities. I'm kind of in awe of Dumas' handwaving skills here. In order to roll the plot forward, he needs to sidestep any trouble about the money, so he blithely informs us there's no trouble about the money. NEXT PLOT POINT.
Of course he can't take the whole haul with him; there's too much of it, so we're treated to a description of how carefully he hid the secret entrance to the secret treasure grotto. There's no count in evidence on Monte Cristo, unless DANTES HIMSELF IS THE COUNT. Unless someone else manages to steal his carefully hidden secret GIANT TREASURE HOARD or take over the island by force I don't see what's stopping him from calling himself whatever he wants.
So Dantes is suddenly incredibly wealthy, with a big box of more wealth waiting for him to come back and scoop it up. Triumph soon gives way to SADNESS, though, as Dantes returns to his hometown and is overcome with emotion. It's time for Dantes to learn what we've already been told: his dad is dead. Mercedes has vanished. It's a nice touch that the people now living in his father's apartment are a very young couple, just like he and Mercedes were supposed to be – a ghost of the life that was stolen from him.
Then, Caderousse is back! Dantes goes IN DISGUISE (as his own dead abbe friend) to the house ofeveryone's my favorite spineless drunk to get the deets on his father, Fernand, Danglars, and Mercedes. He tricks Caderousse into spilling the dirt on everyone by luring him into a fake Dumas plot. Here Dantes learns that Danglars and Fernand betrayed him, that they're both super wealthy and successful, and that Mercedes is married to Fernand . :(
We also learn that M. Morrel, who tried to help Dantes and failed so spectacularly, is now in dire financial straits – he's lost all his ships but one, and that one is missing, and he's on the verge of bankruptcy.
Then there's a stunning interlude, possibly my favorite thing that's happened in the book so far. Dantes buys M. Morrel's last remaining ship, the missing one (in a different disguise) and then visits M. Morrel, presenting himself as his largest creditor and offers to delay his debts so that he can put off declaring bankruptcy – even as he learns that the last ship has been destroyed. The way the debts are eventually forgiven is amazingly baroque – he delivers the receipts to Morrel's daughter Julie via clandestine appointment at the last minute; why not a week before the bill was due? SUSPENSE, of course. “This is the most ridiculous melodrama I have ever seen,” I thought, even as I could hardly breathe because I didn't know if Julie was going to come back in time to prevent Morrel from shooting himself. I was afraid to keep reading! But of course I had to keep reading or I would be in suspense forever, and that's no way to live. SPOILER: SHE'S JUST IN TIME. As if that weren't enough, Dantes has built a replica of the lost ship, brand new, with its name in new paint, and sailed it into harbor full of its lost cargo. A miracle! Anything at all could happen from now on, but I already love Alexandre Dumas forever. How does anyone dare to write something so beautiful and shameless? I haven't felt this way sinceGallifrey came back to life .
Now, apparently, it's time for REVENGE. Dantes informs us of this change of focus in a monologue as he slips quietly out of town. I don't know if I'll like revenge as much as Doing Nice Things for the Morrel Family, but Dumas hasn't failed me so far.
THE BEST. I can't wait to see what Dumas has up his sleeve this week.
What I Plan to Read Next
Young Phillip Maddison: more like Phillip SADdison. Another one I'll probably have to purchase new through Faber Finds, since the university library's Williamson coverage is patchy (and the city library's nonexistent), though I'll check used first. Someone actually bought the copy of The Dark Lantern that I took to the bookstore! So at least one other person is reading these, even if they're unlikely to come back and talk to me about it.
What I've Finished Reading
Donkey Boy is heartbreakingly specific and as inexplicable as childhood. Not much has changed since we last saw the Maddison family, except that there are two more children now and everyone is a little more bitten and a little more shy. Hetty tries to make Dickie happy, but he doesn't believe he can be happy and he won't let anything go; he blows up horribly at his whole family over some toast that was spoiled by the coal fire; everything that ought to be a funny story feels like an assault on his dignity. Meanwhile, little Phillip, lonely and confused, acts out in ways nobody understands, himself least of all. He sings to himself at night a song of the world that no one can be allowed to hear. What he's becoming, who can say? He might be grown up and married himself before he knows, if he ever does know. It's not like the years did his father any good.
What I'm Reading Now
I never got around to making a separate post for The Count of Monte Cristo, but rest assured it's still the best thing since
IT WAS REAL YOU GUYS.
No tricks, no metaphors, just a big pile of diamonds in a trunk. And no Sierra Madre sadness, either; Dantes fills his pockets with diamonds and boards the ship, no questions asked, no diamonds inconveniently rolling out onto the deck and prompting inconvenient curiosity. This is completely plausible! Sailors don't live cheek by jowl or anything. Why would anyone notice a thing like that? He's also able to sell a bunch of jewels to the first dealer he runs across without tripping any kind of “where'd you get 16 giant diamonds buddy” wire in the local law enforcement and bandit communities. I'm kind of in awe of Dumas' handwaving skills here. In order to roll the plot forward, he needs to sidestep any trouble about the money, so he blithely informs us there's no trouble about the money. NEXT PLOT POINT.
Of course he can't take the whole haul with him; there's too much of it, so we're treated to a description of how carefully he hid the secret entrance to the secret treasure grotto. There's no count in evidence on Monte Cristo, unless DANTES HIMSELF IS THE COUNT. Unless someone else manages to steal his carefully hidden secret GIANT TREASURE HOARD or take over the island by force I don't see what's stopping him from calling himself whatever he wants.
So Dantes is suddenly incredibly wealthy, with a big box of more wealth waiting for him to come back and scoop it up. Triumph soon gives way to SADNESS, though, as Dantes returns to his hometown and is overcome with emotion. It's time for Dantes to learn what we've already been told: his dad is dead. Mercedes has vanished. It's a nice touch that the people now living in his father's apartment are a very young couple, just like he and Mercedes were supposed to be – a ghost of the life that was stolen from him.
Then, Caderousse is back! Dantes goes IN DISGUISE (as his own dead abbe friend) to the house of
We also learn that M. Morrel, who tried to help Dantes and failed so spectacularly, is now in dire financial straits – he's lost all his ships but one, and that one is missing, and he's on the verge of bankruptcy.
Then there's a stunning interlude, possibly my favorite thing that's happened in the book so far. Dantes buys M. Morrel's last remaining ship, the missing one (in a different disguise) and then visits M. Morrel, presenting himself as his largest creditor and offers to delay his debts so that he can put off declaring bankruptcy – even as he learns that the last ship has been destroyed. The way the debts are eventually forgiven is amazingly baroque – he delivers the receipts to Morrel's daughter Julie via clandestine appointment at the last minute; why not a week before the bill was due? SUSPENSE, of course. “This is the most ridiculous melodrama I have ever seen,” I thought, even as I could hardly breathe because I didn't know if Julie was going to come back in time to prevent Morrel from shooting himself. I was afraid to keep reading! But of course I had to keep reading or I would be in suspense forever, and that's no way to live. SPOILER: SHE'S JUST IN TIME. As if that weren't enough, Dantes has built a replica of the lost ship, brand new, with its name in new paint, and sailed it into harbor full of its lost cargo. A miracle! Anything at all could happen from now on, but I already love Alexandre Dumas forever. How does anyone dare to write something so beautiful and shameless? I haven't felt this way since
Now, apparently, it's time for REVENGE. Dantes informs us of this change of focus in a monologue as he slips quietly out of town. I don't know if I'll like revenge as much as Doing Nice Things for the Morrel Family, but Dumas hasn't failed me so far.
THE BEST. I can't wait to see what Dumas has up his sleeve this week.
What I Plan to Read Next
Young Phillip Maddison: more like Phillip SADdison. Another one I'll probably have to purchase new through Faber Finds, since the university library's Williamson coverage is patchy (and the city library's nonexistent), though I'll check used first. Someone actually bought the copy of The Dark Lantern that I took to the bookstore! So at least one other person is reading these, even if they're unlikely to come back and talk to me about it.