Former Count of Monte Cristo

Former Count of Monte Cristo

Wu Yingzhou

Of the books I've ever bought, the most memorable one for me was the four-volume set, the black cover, the small thirty-two opens, the paperback paper, the translation by Jiang Xuemo, the "Count of Monte Cristo" by Dumas and published by the People's Literature Publishing House.

That set of books was priced at four yuan at the time, and I naturally bought it for four yuan.

When you hear this price, some young people may say: Four dollars can buy a set of four books? It's also too fanciful!

In fact, at that time, my monthly salary was only eighteen yuan. It was the late 1970s, and I had just started working.

It was the first set of books I bought in my life.

That set of books, more than a million words, I read almost in one breath.

The thrilling and bizarre plot of the book, as well as the details of the reasonable and disciplined revenge, really deeply attracted or shocked me, and I couldn't bear to let go for a moment.

Many of its episodes, even after countless years have passed, I still remember very clearly, including some of them.

For example, the old man on death row said to the young Monte Cristo: To know who wants to harm you, to think of whose harm is good for you. In other words: who is the beneficiary of the benefits, who is the culprit.

However, some people say that this set of books does not have a high status in literary history, because it spans three dynasties such as napoleon's imprisonment and restoration, but it does not well reflect the main contradictions of that society at that time.

But I like it.

My likes, of course, are for a reason.

Think about it, the young man named Edmond Duntis, who was about to get married and about to be promoted to captain, was suddenly framed and thrown on death row—his fiancée was forcibly occupied, and his old father was starved to death.

Think about it. Whenever I think of this, it makes people sigh.

Man's fate really changed completely in an instant, and his face was completely different.

Later, of course, a count who was called Monte Cristo avenged him—or for himself—one by one. Therefore, the book has another translation title- "The Vengeance of Monte Cristo".

But in my old days, I often thought that what he had lost was far from being covered by the word "enmity," and even more so that it could not be compensated by gold and silver jewelry; I often thought that from the moment he was thrown on death row, he died, and everything that happened afterwards had nothing to do with him. His hand was almost like the hand of God, the hand of justice.

But at some point, my set of "The Count of Monte Cristo" disappeared without a trace, and I don't know where it went. But I often think that even if it is, I will not read it anymore. Now, what I often read is "Dream of the Red Chamber".

In "Dream of the Red Chamber", there is a Taoist monk named Wang Yiti, who once prescribed a prescription for Baoyu, called "healing jealousy", that is, to choose an autumn pear, plus rock sugar, orange peel, water, to the degree of ripe pear, eat one every morning, eat it and eat it. Wang Daoshi said: One dose does not work to eat ten doses, today does not work tomorrow to eat again, this year does not work to eat until next year, eat a hundred years old, people are going to die, dead and jealous!

If that's the case, people are dead, and there's any jealousy, and what vendetta!

By the way, folklore, of course, is nonsense.

It is said that the former "Empress of The Red Capital" also liked this set of books. It was also in the Yan'an period, when the self-proclaimed "King of the Mountains" decided to recruit her, many generals and xianda did not agree, but they could not do it, so they gave the woman a three-chapter law, one of which was not allowing her to participate in politics. She said, well, we'll see you in thirty years. Since then, she has been studying the set of books, or even wherever she goes, and it has almost become a must-have at the head of her bed. After more than thirty years have passed, the whole country has entered a period of "difficult exploration"...

It's funny to say that one year I saw a sentence printed on the newly published set of books at that time: A book cannot become a bad book because a bad person likes it.