"The Son of Monte Cristo, Vol II" by Jules Lermina (1881)

The Son of Monte Cristo, Vol. II by Jules Lermina (1881)

Jules Lermina

Back for more agony? Must know what the Lermina-verse has in store for the Count of Monte Cristo? I have the full scoop! I read this entire piece of trash so you don't have to!

For people looking for Part 1 of my Jules Lermina book review, it's on a separate page and you can read it here!

By the way, there are 1940's era movies also titled "The Son of Monte Cristo" and "The Wife of Monte Cristo". These have nothing to do with the books by Jules Lermina. The movies are Hollywood productions with their own screenplays and writers, capitalizing on the success of the none-too-book-accurate 1934 movie, "The Count of Monte Cristo" starring Robert Donat. 

BOOK II:

Part 3: Fanfaro

"The Adventures of Fanfaro" follows the new main-character that we'd JUST MET. None of this involves The Count, Haydee, or anyone that we know of. It comes off as a separate book that Jules Lermina wrote and shoveled into this fake sequel to Dumas' masterwork just to pad it. He might have overestimated public interest in his own character creations, not comprehending that people don't care about Fanfaro, and simply want to get back to the Count. This entire Fanfaro part is totally skippable.

The gist is: Fanfaro is the new badass, while The Count becomes increasingly incompetent and ineffectual😡. We will see more of The Count's decline shortly.

Part 4: Home Alone, starring Spero

Some 12 years later, the Count leaves a letter to Spero, now 21, informing the young man that his strength is ebbing, and he is going away. Time for Spero to become his own man. Spero, although strong and good with weapons, isn't adept at thinking for himself, or normal social situations or reading people.🤣

Benedetto, Danglars and Anselmo have taken on new names. Anselmo is the father of singer Jane Zild, who Spero falls in love with. Benedetto and Danglars are still fiends and form an alliance to destroy the Count via his son Spero. Jane is shot in the street (suicide? attempted murder?) and Spero finds her, takes her home to tend to her, but she disappears, and so does Spero afterwards.

Team Fanfaro conveniently moves back to Paris, and in the Count's absence, Lermina makes Fanfaro the new ultra-competent, vigorous, smart, and brave hero. This, while Team Monte Cristo is crash and burning.

Jane and Spero end up at one of Danglars' houses in Courbevoie (where debauched orgies (!!!)🤣are also held.) Jane was drugged, kidnapped and dragged there, and Spero followed the trail to her. Benedetto struts in, and Spero challenges him to a duel to the death.

Then, Lermina pulls a coup... he, as the author of this wreck work, takes away EVERYTHING that The Count had gained/earned under Dumas. Lermina kills off all of The Count's family and friends!

Benedetto murders Spero and Jane dies as collateral damage. Team Fanfaro arrives too late to save anyone. But Benedetto pays the piper when Anselmo, outraged at the deaths, chases him into the Seine. Benedetto is also pursued by a mysterious white shadow/spectre that re-appears as his mother. Her fingers reach out and grab him and drag him into the waves.

The Count is left holding his dead boy in his arms. Ten years later (now 1871?), he has now become a hermit, living on Monte Cristo island on roots and herbs. Known as "the Abbe of Monte Cristo", he is ready to die. He approaches the coffin of Spero, and believes he hears his son calling him. He holds his Last Will and Testament (dated 1865?), granting the finder the right to all his hidden riches. The paper contains clues on how to find the hidden treasure. He inserts it into a crystal vial and throws it into the sea. Then Edmond Dantes dies, an empty shell of his former self, friendless, heirless, destitute (by choice) and alone.😡

✅
 1-SequelTrope: Benedetto returns to wreak havoc?
✅
 2-SequelTrope: Eugenie straightwashed?
✅
 3-SequelTrope: Haydee dies young?
✅
 4-SequelTrope: The Count's son killed?


And this really sucks. All that setup with Valentine's secret roots in India went nowhere. And, for the English-speaking world, the saga of Edmond Dantes depressingly ends in sadness and tragedy, with him becoming like an Abbe Faria clone, except he has no control over who finds his treasure and whether they have good or bad intentions.

We can look at this as 19th century money-grubbing, coattail-riding, misleadingly-marketed fan fiction that's not Dumas. And not canon, or even good in its own right. Beloved legacy characters deserve more than a one line mention that they just up-and-died.

Lermina can't seem to make up his mind about Mrs. Danglars... she was allegedly killed by Benedetto in 1839, recovers, babysits the baby Morrels in India in 1845 for at least 3 years. How did she end up as some grey-haired crazy suicidal woman back in Paris by 1861? And why does this book keep harping about her old (long-healed) wound, saying Benedetto "murdered" her? Lermina is also terrible at dates and keeping track of them.

The whole shift in focus to Fanfaro in Book II is just bizarre. What for? Was Lermina planning on a vague Monte Cristo spinoff series featuring Fanfaro? Fanfaro Returns? The Continuing Adventures of Fanfaro? The Sword of Fanfaro? Fanfaro delivers Justice? Fanfaro teams up with [insert new character here]? I'm rather skeptical of Lermina's intentions: Was he purposely ruining and demolishing the legacy of Team Monte Cristo in favor of his own rising star, Team Fanfaro?

BUT for the French-speaking world, Jules Lermina's final sequel book, The Treasure of Monte Cristo exists. Characters who died here come back to life (headdesk) and another generation of new freedom-fighters form a committee to free the world from imperialism, tyranny and oppression, using the Treasure of Monte Cristo to fund their cause. Yay?

The worst part: Despite Lermina's socialist views, his Monte Cristo books came off as anti-mercy, anti-compassion and might be interpreted as "Kill them all and let God sort them out" (and that way they can't come back and screw you later)" Because if you think of it, if the Count was ruthless enough to "take care of" (rub out) two loose ends (Benedetto and Danglars), his life would have been better, and his son would still be alive and he'd have a family line for the future.

Timeline: (approximate)

  • 1839: Benedetto sentenced to the galleys and escapes with Anselmo. Villefort dies. Mrs. Danglars stabbed. Haydee pregnant.
  • 1840: Esperance (Spero) born.
  • 1845: Mrs. Danglars babysitting the baby Morrels in India.
  • 1848: Adventure in Milan, Italy. Eugenie and Aslitta marry.
  • 1848: Adventure in Algeria. Albert rescued from Maldar. Bertuccio dies. Jacopo dies.
  • 1849-ish: Albert marries Miss Clary. 
  • 1851: Albert killed in Algerian coup, Miss Clary (Albert's wife) and Mercedes die from grief.
  • 1856: Haydee dies.
  • 1858: Maximilian and Valentine killed in India during Sepoy revolt. 
  • 1861: The Count leaves Spero so he can grow up. Spero killed. Jane Zild killed. Danglars dies. Benedetto dragged into a watery grave by Mrs. Danglars and both die.
  • 1865: The Count writes his Last Will and Testament
  • 1871: The Count dies.

Dead: [L=Legacy character. N= New character]

Villefort (L); Major Bartolomeo (L); Bertuccio (L); Jacopo (L); Medje (N); Maldar (N); Albert (L); Haydee (L); Maximilian and Valentine (L); Miss Clary (N); Mercedes (L); Mama Jane Zild (N); Jane Zild (N); Spero (N); Anselmo (N); Danglars (L); Benedetto (L); Mrs. Danglars (L); The Count of Monte Cristo/Edmond Dantes (L)

Alive:

Eugenie (L); Aslitta (N); Madame Caraman (N); CouCou (N); Beauchamp (L); Gratillet (N); Fanfaro (N); Irene Fanfaro (N); Gontram (N); Carmen (N)

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