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Count of Monte Cristo House Transformation

21:44 recording · EN · 1 speaker

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Brief overview

Monte Cristo unveils his transformed Auteuil house, and Bertuccio recognises the guests as ghosts of his past.

  1. The plainness outside is the master's deliberate orderThe exterior gave no indication of splendor because the count positively ordered nothing to be altered outside; the splendour was within.
  2. Bertuccio's three days rival a royal night's workWhere the Duc d'Antin removed an avenue of trees in a single night for Louis XIV, Bertuccio planted a bare court and laid a fresh lawn in three days.
  3. One closed chamber turns the steward's pride to terrorEvery room was remade except the chamber the servants passed with curiosity and Bertuccio with terror, the room whose past returns when he sees Madame Danglars and Villefort among the guests.
Executive Summary AI
  • Chapter XII, "Ghosts", opens on the house at Auteuil, whose plain exterior was kept unaltered by the Count's positive order while all the splendour was placed within.
  • The steward Bertuccio, recalling how the Duc d'Antin cleared an avenue of trees that annoyed Louis XIV in one night, planted a bare court in three days with poplars and spreading sycamores and laid a lawn in place of the paving-stones, loading the antechambers and staircases with flowers until Bertuccio himself scarcely knew the house — though one chamber, approached by the grand staircase and lef
  • At five o'clock precisely the count arrived followed by Ali, inspected everything without a sign of approbation, and approved only the rosewood furniture holding gloves; at six the captain of Spahis, Maximilian Morel, rode in on Medea, the horse that cost five thousand francs and that he had wagered he would tame in six months, followed by Madame Danglars' carriage with Debray and Chateau Renaud.
  • Monte Cristo entertains the Baroness with two immense porcelain jars — twelve were baked for an emperor, two broke in the fire, the other ten sunk three hundred fathoms deep and cemented by two hundred years under the sea — while Danglars, indifferent to curiosities, shredded an orange-tree and then a cactus, and the count ran through his Paul Potter, Gerard Dow, Raphael, Van Dyck and Zubaran as M
  • Asked to count the covers, Bertuccio looks through the door and recognises Madame Danglars as the woman of the garden, points to Villefort as a man he believed dead, and mutters "Benedetto! Fatality!" at Andrea Cavalcanti; the count dismisses it as a nightmare bred of vengeful thoughts, reminds him half-past six has struck, and dinner is served.
Key Quote
“That can only be to hold gloves”
— Monte Cristo
Key Quote
“Sir, if you were a friend of mine, I should ask you if you would sell your horse.”
— Madame Danglars
Key Quote
“You understand now that if he were to get rid of the animal before the time named, he would not only lose his bet, but people would say he was afraid.”
— Monte Cristo

Transcript

0:00 XII. Ghosts.
0:32 At first sight, the exterior of the house it ought to will, gave no indications of splendor,
0:38 nothing one would expect from the destined resonance of the magnificent Count of Monte Cristo. But this simplicity was according to the will of its master, who positively ordered nothing to be altered outside.
0:47 The splendour was within. Indeed, almost before the door opened, the scene changed.
0:54 M. Bertuccio had outdone himself in the taste displayed in furnishing, and in the rapidity
1:00 with which it was executed. It is told that the Duc d'Antin removed in a single night
1:08 a whole avenue of trees that annoyed Louis XIV. In three days, M. Bertuccio planted an entirely
1:16 bare court with poplars, large spreading sycamores, to shade the different parts of the house,
1:22 and in the foreground, instead of the usual paving-stones half hidden by the grass there extended a lawn but that morning lay down and upon which the water was yet glistening land to Bertuccio, marking the spot where each tree was to be planted, and the shape and extent
1:47 of the lawn which was to take the place of the paving-stones. Thus the house had become
1:52 unrecognizable, and Bertuccio himself declared that he scarcely knew it, encircled as it was
1:59 by a framework of trees. The overseer would not have objected, while he was about it, to have made some improvements
2:06 in the garden, but the count had positively forbidden it to be touched. Bertruccio made
2:13 amends, however, by loading the antechambers, staircases, and mantelpieces with flowers.
2:21 What, above all, manifested the shrewdness of the steward and the profound science of the master the one in carrying out the ideas of the other was that this house single day acquired the aspect of life, was scented with
2:46 its master's favorite perfumes, and had the very light regulated according to his wish.
2:53 When the Count arrived, he had under his touch his books and arms.
2:58 His eyes rested upon his favorite pictures.
3:01 His dogs, whose caresses he loved, welcomed him in the antechamber. The birds,
3:07 whose songs delighted him, cheered him with their music, and the house, awakened from its long sleep,
3:14 like a sleeping beauty in the woods, lived, sang, and bloomed like the houses we have long cherished,
3:21 and in which, when we are forced to leave them, we leave a part of our souls.
3:27 The servants passed gaily along the fine courtyard. Some, belonging to the kitchens,
3:33 glided down the stairs, restored but the previous day, as if they had always inhabited the house.
3:39 Others, filling the coach-houses, where the equip encased and numbered appeared to have been installed for the last fifty years and in the stables the horses replied with neighs to the grooms who spoke to them with much more respect than many servants pay their masters into two parts on either side of the wall, and contained upwards of two thousand volumes.
4:07 One division was entirely devoted to novels, and even the volume which had been published
4:12 but the day before was to be seen in its place in all the dignity of its red and gold binding.
4:19 On the other side of the house, to match with the library, was the conservatory, ornamented
4:26 with rare flowers, that bloomed in china jars.
4:30 And in the midst of the greenhouse, marvellous alike to sight and smell, was a billiard-table,
4:37 which looked as if it had been abandoned during the past hour by players who had left the
4:42 balls on the cloth.
4:44 One chamber alone had been respected by
4:46 the magnificent Bertuccio. Before this room, to which you could ascend by the grand and go out
4:53 by the back staircase, the servants passed with curiosity, and Bertuccio with terror.
5:00 At five o'clock precisely the count arrived before the house at Auteuil, followed by Ali.
5:07 Bertruccio was awaiting this arrival with impatience, mingled with uneasiness. He hoped
5:13 for some compliments, while at the same time he feared to have frowns. Monte Cristo descended
5:20 into the courtyard, walked all over the house, without giving any sign of approbation or pleasure,
5:26 until he entered his bedroom, situated on the opposite side to the closed room.

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