de Villefort confusion

[kev67]

I am confused. In chapter XLV, The Vendetta, the Count of Monte Cristo forces his steward, Bertuccio, to describe how he killed M. de Villefort. I was a bit surprised about that, because I thought the Count would have wanted to do that himself. However, in chapter XLIX, Ideology, de Villefort visits the count at him home to thank him for saving his wife and son. So, were there two de Villeforts?

[Danik 2016]

It's ages that I read the book, but there is a paralytic father and a son of Gerard de Villefort. In the English Wikipedia article you have a graphic showing how the characters relate each other.

[Danik 2016]

The Wikipedia article with family trees and so on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo

By the way, how many characters commit suicide in the novel. I wonder if that was usual at the time.

[kev67]

Haven't got to the suicides yet.

In chapter 63 Bertuccio is mightily discombobulated because he recognises Mme Villefort, who he thought had been murdered, then recognises M. de Villefort, who he thought he had murdered himself. Monte Cristo says he must have stabbed him through the wrong ribs, or else just dreamt it up. What's going on here? It reads like Alexandre Dumas decided to change his plot after a previous chapter had already gone to print. I assume the story was serialized in magazine format first. Maybe this will all be resolved later on. iirc, one of the guests that Bertuccio serves is a young man called Benedetto, who was the baby Bertuccio saved after he thought he had murdered de Villefort. He and his sister-in-law brought him up as their own son, but he was a very bad lad. I think it's the same character, but I continue to be confused.

[kev67]

Double post.

[kev67]

It's ages that I read the book, but there is a paralytic father and a son of Gerard de Villefort. In the English Wikipedia article you have a graphic showing how the characters relate each other.

The grandfather's name was M. Noirtier. I don't know why he does not have the same surname as his son, de Villefort.

[Pompey Bum]

The grandfather's name was M. Noirtier. I don't know why he does not have the same surname as his son, de Villefort.

European genealogical weirdness is really not my thing (and the only version of The Count of Monte Cristo I've ever read was the one in my elementary school French text), but could it have been that the family was not ennobled (that is, given the title de Villefort) until the father's generation?

[kev67]

Chapter 68 explains what happened. Bertuccio bungled the job. So, it wasn't just a big plot hole.