François “Pierre” Picaud (French: [piko]) was a 19th-century shoemaker in Nîmes, France who may have been the basis for the character of Edmond Dantès in Alexandre Dumas, père’s 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Allut’s deathbed confession forms the bulk of the French police records of the case [about Picaud]. The detailed description of Picaud’s experiences in prison, which could not have been known to Allut, were supposedly dictated to him by the ghost of Father Torri.
Hmm, all sounds pretty sketchy. More like a screenplay itself than solid, verifiable facts.
Could be.
I’ll still enjoy the story.
Check www.abebooks.com they’re pretty good for finding obscure editions. The prices for some of the rarer items can be hhhhhigheee though.
amazon bought-out abebooks. Biblio.com is where its at.
Uuugh
Fantastic book. Might not be for everyone, as it was written long ago, so language and style might be an issue for some.
It’s one of my favorite stories. Probably the only “classic” story that I really enjoyed reading.
TIL - thank you!
Also, Dumas based D’Artagnan from The Three Musketeers and it’s sequels (the last of which was The Man in the Iron Mask) on an account of the life of Charles de Batz de Castelmore D’Atagnan, later Captain in the Musketeers and also for a time Governor of Lille.
This book was such an interesting combination between a chore and a joy to read. I remember audibly gasping at some of the twists, but the antiquity of the language made it a slow go, at least for me.
Crazy to think it might be based on a true story.
Dumas’ work was printed in papers in episodes. He was paid by the word. That makes his prose bit long-winded and verbose.
I had no idea he was paid by the word! It’s been making me feel better that I’m not the only one who struggled.
Understandable. I had that same issue with Frankenstein: great story, real work to get through.
My dad showed me the opening paragraph of Don Quixote, from a (Brazilian) 1950s edition he got, which is apparently one of the better translations. It felt like I was trying to decipher some arcane scroll
The first “classic” writer that I enjoyed was Jukes Verne because his translations were very easy to read.
I read that book about 30 years ago. I was surprised how an old classic moved fast like "Die Hard’. It was a great read!
And, as with the book, this whole saga did play out over 10+ years.
Wild. I can honestly respect Pierre’s dedication.
This is one of those things where I have no idea how I lived this long without learning it, because I love the book, love the 2002 film, and watch it a few times every single year.
such an amazing book for sure one of my all time favorites
i have a antique leather bound version but only the second book… maybe one day I can find it a matching pair
the illustrations in it are exquisite
For the curious: The book is ok. The movie remake (there’s been two or three movies made, I think) from the early 2000’s is fantastic; but the thing is, it’s so different from the book that it’s barely deserving of sharing a name. Like, there’s an arching similarity in story, but that’s about it. The story in the movie is better.
