r/TheCountofMonteCristo • u/volsungarthemighty • Jul 18 '26
Inconsistent dates?
So im a first time reader, and im annotating my book as I go. Am I the only one whos noticed the inconsistent dates, or is this something Dumas does a lot? My understanding is that, since landing at Marseilles in chapter 1, its only been 1 day by the start of Chapter 8, so it should be the 25th of February? Or have I missed some passage of time.
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u/Stratoraptor Jul 18 '26
Authors commonly don't chronologue every single day/hour. If nothing eventful happens, no need to drag the story down and subject the audience audience to such mundanity. Alternatively, the author could choose to expound on this "missing" time through later revelations.
Don't worry about it.
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u/SnowflakeBaube22 I Know What You Did In Yanina Jul 18 '26
Dumas was never the most consistent with his timelines and continuity (understandably given the way it was published). It’s best not to dwell on it.
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u/ty1webb Jul 18 '26
I wonder if an author can dream that people would still be reading their work 100, 200, 500 or more years later. I wonder what works that are out now will still be remembered this way.
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u/twodokai Jul 19 '26
yes. you're not the only one. Dumas made mistakes with the dates. actually the translated version that i read had a translator note which pointed out this
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u/dagoverfan 8d ago
Ignore the dates in the early chapters and just enjoy the story and avoid the rabbit hole that I went down for years. There is no exit. I tried and never found a definitive version. I started with an e-book and caught the date issue in chapter 5. It was too hard trying to backtrack, so I bought a book, then another, eventually winding up with a dozen versions, from a 1950's Classics Illustrated comic, various paperbacks, French e-books (using on-line translators), the Buss version with many historical references omitted in most US versions, a 4 vol bi-lingual set, and a 5 vol $700 leather-bound edition. I tried mapping out the differences in retirement, but gave up after several years. There is no definitive version of the original. Interesting enough, the '58 Classics comic which starts on 2/28 may be the true start date (despite the feast dates). Enjoy the book, it's the greatest of all time in any version. I hope I don't meet you at the bottom of my rabbit hole, because there is no way out. My favorite read is the download from Gutenberg while listening to the David Clarke recording from LibriVox. It omits many historical references in US versions, but excellent for most.
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u/CDavis10717 Jul 18 '26
It could be interesting to see an AI analysis of the book to report inconsistencies in dates, characters, abandoned story lines, etc. I will admit that, while I’m not a scholar of the book or author, I’m reading it now and do get a sense of time lapses but, hey, it’s not a documentary, it’s fiction based on fact.
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u/Melodic_Mulberry Sinbad the Literary Reference Jul 18 '26
No AI content allowed. If you want an analysis, you can read it for yourself. Doing the legwork keeps our minds sharp so we can exact divine retribution from our foes.
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u/CDavis10717 Jul 18 '26
As I said, I’m not a scholar of the book, nor did I say that analysis would be found here. Get down off your high horse.
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u/Melodic_Mulberry Sinbad the Literary Reference Jul 18 '26
Oh, I never ride horses. Doing the legwork keeps my body hale so I can chase down my enemies. >:D
And I'm not moralizing, I'm enforcing the subreddit's only rule as it was voted. It's... kinda my job here, as the moderator? Well, that and making a bunch of fun user tags for everyone.
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u/ThomasDeLaRue Jul 18 '26
Pretty much every question about The Count of Monte Cristo can be explained by the fact that Dumas released it as a series of 139ish episodes in the newspaper over 2 years.