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Two Essays on The Count of Monte Cristo

I love The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have read the unabridged version more than once, and my most recent reread was in 2023. At that time, I wrote a couple of brief essays which I posted on Tumblr, one of which was about a canonically queer character and the other discussed a character who is often left out of the various adaptations. I present for you these essays with expansion and alteration, because I keep returning to them as pieces of writing and because I don't want them to be limited to those original posts. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as new patrons DivineJasper and Sasha Khan. (Quotes are from Robin Buss’ English translation of Alexandre Dumas’ work.) Link to Audio Version. ----- Canonical Queerness in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas You’d need to change surprisingly little of The Count of Monte Cristo to confirm Eugénie Danglars as a trans man (or a masc-leaning nonbinary person...
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Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down is haunting and ponderous, dominating thought in an endless urgent moment. It slowly builds each link in a chain of interpersonal violence and murder stretching into the past on the longest elevator ride of Will's young life, demanding reflection.

It makes the most of its stripped-down poetic structure to build and examine the sense of urgency in Will’s plan for revenge. The rules are a litany, a scaffold upon which the rest of the narrative hangs. The way the poem titles both establish the tone of each page and are themselves part of the narrative is very effective. It is a plain retelling of a web of violence and death, counting up a few decades of the results from following the rules for revenge, showing Will his future by showing him the past.

This was a pretty quick read, but the structure and subject matter make every page linger. The time noted every few pages builds a sense of time stretching, as too many thoughts fit into each moment, but they also pass very quickly.

It is unfortunate that this book will likely be timeless, its subject matter relevant and evergreen, but I’m glad that it’s here and that I had the chance to read it.

CW for discussions of murder and gun violence.

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