BETWEEN THE LINES

Notes to The Count of Monte Cristo — Reading edition

30 notes in Reading edition. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.

30 notes
Chapter 4. Conspiracy

Note 1

“The wicked are great drinkers of water; As the flood proved once for all.”

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Chapter 34. The Colosseum

Note 5

Scott, of course: “The son of an ill-fated sire, and the father of a yet more unfortunate family, bore in his looks that cast of inauspicious melancholy by which the physiognomists…

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Chapter 35. La Mazzolata

Note 7

Dr. Guillotin got the idea of his famous machine from witnessing an execution in Italy.

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Chapter 63. The Dinner

Note 10

Elisabeth de Rossan, Marquise de Ganges, was one of the famous women of the court of Louis XIV. where she was known as “La Belle Provençale.” She was the widow of the Marquis de Ca…

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Chapter 68. A Summer Ball

Note 11

Magistrate and orator of great eloquence—chancellor of France under Louis XV.

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Chapter 77. Haydée

Note 13

Ali Pasha, “The Lion,” was born at Tepelini, an Albanian village at the foot of the Klissoura Mountains, in 1741. By diplomacy and success in arms he became almost supreme ruler of…

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Chapter 77. Haydée

Note 16

The god of fruitfulness in Grecian mythology. In Crete he was supposed to be slain in winter with the decay of vegetation and to revive in the spring. Haydée’s learned reference is…

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Chapter 94. Maximilian’s Avowal

Note 19

In the old Greek legend the Atreidae, or children of Atreus, were doomed to punishment because of the abominable crime of their father. The Agamemnon of Aeschylus is based on this …

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Chapter 98. The Bell and Bottle Tavern

Note 22

Literally, “the basket,” because wedding gifts were originally brought in such a receptacle.

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Chapter 102. Valentine

Note 23

Germain Pillon was a famous French sculptor (1535-1598). His best known work is “The Three Graces,” now in the Louvre.

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Chapter 104. Danglars’ Signature

Note 24

Frédérick Lemaître—French actor (1800-1876). Robert Macaire is the hero of two favorite melodramas—“Chien de Montargis” and “Chien d’Aubry”—and the name is applied to bold criminal…

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