Sunday, January 12, 2020

What are some quotes from Abbé Busoni?

In The Count of Monte Cristo, Abbé Busoni is one of the identities that Edmond Dantès adopts; another is the Count. The action concerning him takes places mostly in the last third of the novel but also refers back to previous times. Some of the complicated plot revolves around the secrets that the Count’s steward, Bertuccio, had confessed to him when he believed he was the Abbé. Dantès uses this knowledge to exact his revenge on those who had wronged him and his family.
In Chapter 69, we meet the Abbé while he is living in Paris. He receives a visit from M. de Boville, an agent of the prefect of police, asking many questions about the Count. In the extensive back-and-forth of their conversation, the Abbé is extremely evasive, admitting he knows the Count but never even implying they might be the same person.
Later, in Chapter 82, the Count is at home when he hears someone entering the house. Changing his clothes, but retaining the chain mail under them, his transformation is complete as he dons a cassock, wig, and three-cornered hat. So disguised, he approaches the thief Caderousse, and ask him what he is doing. The Count knows that Caderousse had earlier stolen a diamond and falsely accused his own steward. After they converse, Caderousse grows agitated and attacks him. Saved by the chain mail, the Abbé pushes him to the floor but says he will spare his life.
He releases Caderousse to escape through the window, but there he is attacked and left for dead by the attacker. In Chapter 83, the Abbé revives him with medicine and chastises him for his unethical behavior and wasted life. Three crimes and three reprieves, but no more; the weary God has punished him. Urging him to repent and beg God’s forgiveness as Caderousse slips away, the Abbé exposes his true identity:

The count . . . knew this was the last struggle. He approached the dying man, and, leaning over him with a calm and melancholy look, he whispered, “I am—I am——” And his almost closed lips uttered a name so low that the count himself appeared afraid to hear it.

Finally, in Chapter 111, the long masquerade is ended. He confronts his arch-nemesis, Villefort, whose daughter has just died. With all previous scores settled, Dantès can at last resume his rightful identity. As he pulls off his wig, Villefort cries out,

“You are not Busoni?—you are not Monte Cristo? Oh, heavens! you are, then, some secret, implacable, and mortal enemy! I must have wronged you in some way at Marseilles. Oh, woe to me!”
“You condemned me to a horrible, tedious death; you killed my father; you deprived me of liberty, of love, and happiness.”
“Who are you, then? Who are you?”
“I am the spectre of a wretch you buried in the dungeons of the Château d’If. God gave that spectre the form of the Count of Monte Cristo when he at length issued from his tomb, enriched him with gold and diamonds, and led him to you!”
“Ah, I recognize you—I recognize you!” exclaimed the king’s attorney; “you are——”
“I am Edmond Dantès!”

Although many more complications need to be sorted out, after this point Edmond no longer needs the Abbé disguise.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1184/1184-h/1184-h.htm

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