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Thread: Question on chapter 33

  1. #1
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    Question on chapter 33

    Hi there,

    another question on Count of Montecristo. There's a passage I cannot figure out.

    In the Chapter 33 (Roman Bandits) at the end of the story of Luigi Vampa he met Simbad the Sailor (we know who he is).

    Then Dumas wrote:
    "'What is your name?' inquired the traveller.--'Luigi Vampa,' replied
    the shepherd, with the same air as he would have replied, Alexander,
    King of Macedon.--'And yours?'--'I,' said the traveller, 'am called
    Sinbad the Sailor.'" Franz d'Epinay started with surprise.

    "Sinbad the Sailor." he said.

    "Yes," replied the narrator; "that was the name which the traveller gave
    to Vampa as his own."

    "Well, and what may you have to say against this name?" inquired Albert;
    "it is a very pretty name, and the adventures of the gentleman of that
    name amused me very much in my youth, I must confess."--Franz said no
    more.
    The name of Sinbad the Sailor, as may well be supposed, awakened
    in him a world of recollections, as had the name of the Count of Monte
    Cristo on the previous evening
    "

    But reading back on this passage I found no evidence that Franz heard the name "Count of Monte Cristo" before. So how is it possible he reffer to the previous evening?
    Is this an error from Dumas?

  2. #2
    Registered User kiki1982's Avatar
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    It would seem that this is a slip of Dumas's pen, yes. Because Franz d'Epinay is mysteriously entertained by one Simbad le Marin on the Isle of Monte Cristo the night before he goes to Italy, but never is the person who has mysteriously rented all the horses and carriages in Rome named until after the episode with the story when they are allowed to watch the Mazzolata in Monte-Cristo's quarters. The episode in chapter XXXIII takes place the next day during supper, I think. Though he has been on the island, and would obviously lay the link between Simbad and the Count (as there is no-one who actually has the island in his possession as a piece of land, apart from the smugglers of whom Simbad was the chief or at least enjoyed free entry), he has not heard of a person in their hotel with that name 'that made him shudder' 'the day before'. Also not in the French version.
    One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.

    "Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)

  3. #3
    I also wondered about this before chancing upon this post. It definitely isn't mentioned before, all that is said is that 'the rest of the floor was hired by a very rich gentleman, who was supposed to be a Sicilian or Maltese; but the host was unable to decide to which of the two nations the traveller belonged.'

    The only other mention of Monte Cristo in chapter 33 is at the end:
    'he [Vampa] has suddenly taken refuge in the islands, at Giglio, Guanouti, or Monte Cristo' so it is possible that Dumas confused the order of the chapter, or inserted something in the wrong place.

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