The Lord of the World by Adolf Mützelburg (1856)

Der Herr Der Welt (German)

Adolf Mützelburg

I'm not completely convinced that this is a worthwhile read. After slogging through the book, there doesn't seem to be a Main Plot at all- it's more like a set of aimless (mis)adventures involving people peripherally involved with the Count, and it's up to him to chase after them in multiple countries to save them from their dire situations. There seems to be five separate plot threads, and this book just meanders around all over the place, with no specific purpose.

The author, Adolf Mützelburg, seems to be a bad writer, but it seems possible (and probable) that there was a longer version originally, and had been brutally edited down later to about 300 pages. This means that for those who ARE willing to trudge through this rather uninteresting book, there's no pot of gold at the end and it STILL won't make any sense!

The book is available in German (no English version available), and thankfully is on Web accessible pages, so the URL can be pasted into Google Translate without messy OCR scan errors. However, the book seems to be missing some pertinent info, even starting in Chapter One.

1) "Lord Hope" and Haydee. They've settled in Alta California where Hope is mining a second fortune in plentiful gold. A dying German, Herr Buchting, told him the location, with the duty to share some of it with Buchting's wife and children. Hope recedes into the background, sending letters, aides, advice, and monetary assistance to the other main characters. But he's not entirely benevolent... in later chapters, he has a God-complex and jacks around others as a "test of character". But it's his turn to suffer when Benedetto, now a leper (!) wheedles free passage on Hope's ship returning to France and abducts Haydee and her son! Benedetto, Danglars (???) and the hostages are tracked down to a rocky cave, but a massive chasm separates them. Benedetto mocks Hope and makes unreasonable demands, so Hope leaps over (!) and rushes the abductor. But Benedetto dives into the abyss, killing himself and the child. Hope and Haydee are devastated.

2) Don Lotario. A young Spaniard living in Alta California. His hacienda was destroyed by marauding Indians. Hope buys the property, and recruits Don Lotario to become his assistant/protege, sending him to Europe to learn about the world, with a final destination of Berlin to find Buchting's family. Don Lotario goes to Paris, meets some legacy characters, falls in love with Therese, a well-to-do, independent woman, and witnesses the murder of Mrs. Danglars by a disguised Benedetto. Then he scoots off to London (without talking to the police?), gets new instructions to go to Berlin, and BTW, Lord Hope went broke, so the flow of money stops. He makes the most of it, re-connecting with Therese (also in Berlin!), and their amorous meetings (gasp! embracing!) gets her disowned by her guardian and protector, Count Arenberg.

3) Amelie and Wolfram. That couple is pretty wishy-washy, and can't seem to decide if they want each other or not. She's the previously-unknown daughter of Fernand Mondego, and followed Wolfram, a promising architect and Mormon, to America to marry him. She decides not to, and the Church Elders dictate that she marry an elderly doctor instead. Wolfram gets booted from the Mormons for surliness and sloth, and he breaks into the compound to rescue Amelie. They plan to leave the country as companions, not as lovers. A "Mr. Stanley" (Hope) nudges them to New Orleans and purposely contrives a miserable, marginal existence for them. Wolfram is near-fatally shot in a workplace dispute and finally, Hope sees him and has the best doctors attend to him. Wolfram instantly gets well, and travels around with Amelie, establishes himself as a fine architect and earns his own modest fortune. He and Amelie decide they are in love after all. They return to her native France and marry in Notre-Dame, after apparently re-converting to Catholicism (???)

4) Lieutenant Albert Herrera (ne Morcerf). He's in Algeria in 1845 and is sent on a mission to spy on the Kabyles (Arabs). He witnesses the massacre at the caves of Dahra from an attack by the French. Very few escape through a back exit. Albert and the lovely Judith, a Jewess held captive by the Kabyles, escape together on his horse during a sandstorm. We never see them again in this book, and all we know at the ending (from Hope) is that Albert is still in Africa.

5) Maximilian Morrel. In 1840 he's thrown in prison for Bonapartism and participating in a coup. He was involved in transferring a large sum of Lord Hope's money to supporters of Louis Napoleon in London, and the authorities want the name of the London contact. There is a fire at the prison, and another convict (Rablasy) knocks Max out, switches clothes and escapes. Playing hardball, the court charges Max with Rablasy's crimes and "temporarily" stays his execution and sends him to a mental institution (???). Val hears rumors that he's dead. Hope personally busts Max out of the hospital, and reunites him (after a YEAR of separation) with his family. Ex-prosecutor Villefort, who'd gone mad, recovers his senses, is informed that Val is alive, married and has a son, and there is a touching Villefort Family Reunion. 

The Ending: Hope had aged considerably mourning the loss of his son. He calls a gathering of most of the characters (sans Albert), confesses that his hand was behind all of their life's obstacles, and his intent was to drive them to greater heights and "transform humanity" by carrying on his ideas. But unpredictable factors had endangered his pawns protegees, and made him stop his "experiment" and get involved with saving them. He begs for their forgiveness, leaves a Will to provide for them generously and announces his (and Haydee's) disappearance from the world.

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

The Verdict: The Count of Monte Cristo (as Lord Hope here) is pretty dislikeable and rather despicable. He's got all the money in the world and a wealth of knowledge, and comes off as a matchmaker and wannabe cult-leader. He sees promising young people and messes with them, believing in "purification by suffering and misfortune", and once "matured" (susceptible) to accept his thoughts and ideas, they'll be his vanguard to "change the world". But none of this is voluntary on their part. He really should have been upfront, like, "This is my philosophy and I am looking for acolytes. If you agree, I have endless money and resources to help you spread the (my) word." But the way he did it should have pissed all of them off, and realistically, they should tell him to stuff it where the sun don't shine.

In the original, he was going after the evil, greedy and guilty men who ruined his life and sent him to a hellhole prison for 14 years. This time, he's using innocents as playthings and risks their lives to further his narcissism as "Providence" and had seemingly forgotten the lessons he'd learned with little Edouard's death, and his own realization that he shouldn't play God. But he repeats the same old shit again, and even throws Max under the bus a second time!

It's difficult to keep up the motivation to complete reading this. Most good fiction establishes the Main Protagonist, the Problem (or the Quest), the Main Antagonist and the Journey early on. No such thing here. Hope (and we the readers) learns relatively early that Wolfram and Therese are indeed the Buchtings (so it isn't really the story's main driver). It's more like four short stories, linked by Lord Hope's machinations, until his careless handling of the Benedetto problem comes back and bites him in the ass.  

The Lord of the World isn't extremely offensive, or a complete outrage/disgrace. But it's not really worth anyone's time to read it. It's just... completely forgettable and very blah.

Burning and unresolved questions:

• Who is Amelie's mother, and when did Fernand get intimate with her? Did Fernand provide for his daughter? Did Mercedes and Albert know about her? Why is she boldly and openly using the "de Morcerf" surname?
• Why is Benedetto walking around, free? How can he get at least 3 aristocratic aliases and passports, and stalks our young heroes to different countries? How did he get leprosy and why did he leave Europe, go to America, dupe Hope into taking him back to France, get in contact with pirates to assist with the abduction of Haydee and her son, and when did he ever recruit a reluctant Danglars as a henchman?
• Why do Don Lotario, Benedetto, Rablasy, Valentine, Eugenie, Therese and Count Arenberg keep bumping into one another in Paris and/or London and/or Berlin? Do they all have the same travel agent and similar itineraries? Such a small, small world! 
• What is Albert doing? Last seen with Judith, and then, boom! he's missing from the book, only mentioned in Hope's confession at the end that Albert is unwittingly carrying out Hope's plan to "bring civilization to the interior of Africa" and will be provided with money, guns, tools and instruments to accomplish this.
• Why are there obvious chunks of this story missing and so much discontinuity? What I'm reading is from a reputable source: projekt-gutenberg.org. But there's references to backstories and events that do not exist in the book! Amelie's missing backstory? Abbé Laguidais, who's supposed to be Mr. Central Information Booth? Benedetto murdering his mother Mrs. Danglars? Why is this stuff not in the text?