'Les suites des suites': Alexandre Dumas's Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and the News. (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Birch, Edmund
• Is Part Of: Dix-neuf. Volume 21:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 297
• Page End: 311
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: Dumas -- Nettement -- Gautier -- July Monarchy -- journalism -- press -- roman-feuilleton -- la suite -- Ali Pasha -- Arabian Nights; France -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 944.007
• DOI: 10.1080/14787318.2017.1446319
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-7318

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Taking as its subject Alexandre Dumas's Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1844-46), this article explores what the literary critic Alfred Nettement dubbed the newspaper's 'influence contagieuse' under the July Monarchy, and considers the impact of journalism on this ever-popular roman-feuilleton . Reading Dumas's text alongside the writings of nineteenth-century critics, the article traces the ways in which Monte-Cristo reflects on the pressures and rhythms of serial publication – not simply as a consequence of its structure but as a thematic concern crucial to particular strands of its meandering narrative. The problem of endings is central here, with Monte-Cristo emblematic of the ways in which the possibility of closure is repeatedly deferred in the roman-feuilleton – replaced, instead, by a series of suites .