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Saturday Nov 15, 2025
Saturday Nov 15, 2025
The abbé presses for the truth, and Caderousse gives it with a grim pause: Edmond’s father did not die of illness, but of starvation. The words strike like a thunderbolt—too cruel to believe, and yet undeniable. A man left to waste away in grief and hunger, while others lived steps away. The abbé recoils in outrage, unable to contain his horror at such neglect. At this moment, another voice interrupts: La Carconte, pale and haggard, descends the stairs. From her post on the steps, she has heard everything, and cuts in bitterly—Caderousse should never have spoken at all. What use is it, she implies, to dig up the past? But the abbé’s questioning has only just begun.
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The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Friday Nov 14, 2025
Friday Nov 14, 2025
The abbé continues Edmond’s final instructions.
The diamond, he says, was to be sold and its value divided into five equal shares: for Caderousse, for Danglars, for Fernand, for Mercédès—and for Edmond’s father. But the old man is gone, and the mention of his death shakes Caderousse with conflicting passions. The priest presses further, asking how the elder Dantès died. Caderousse, his voice thick with guilt and sorrow, admits the truth: the poor man had wasted away, abandoned and starving, broken by grief and neglect. Each word drags Edmond’s memory closer, and the abbé’s eyes linger, measuring Caderousse’s story against the weight of hidden knowledge.
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New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
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The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Thursday Nov 13, 2025
Thursday Nov 13, 2025
The abbé places temptation directly before Caderousse.
From his pocket he draws a small black box—and inside, a glittering diamond, worth fifty thousand francs. Caderousse can scarcely breathe, his eyes locked on the stone as if it could already be his.
The priest explains: the diamond was left in trust. Dantès had once counted four loyal friends, and wished the stone to be shared among them—or given whole to whichever among them proved most worthy. He names the first: Caderousse. He names another: Danglars. And then, even his rival, Fernand. Each name strikes Caderousse with visible unease, as if ghosts have returned to judge him.
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New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Wednesday Nov 12, 2025
Wednesday Nov 12, 2025
The abbé presses further into the mystery of Edmond Dantès’ imprisonment.
He reveals that even on his deathbed, Edmond swore before God that he never knew why he was arrested. In his final wish, he begged the abbé to clear his name, to remove any stain from his memory.
Then comes a revelation: a wealthy Englishman, once Edmond’s fellow prisoner, left him a diamond of immense value as repayment for kindness in captivity. Instead of using it to bribe his jailers, Edmond had preserved it, believing it might one day give him a future.
Across the table, Caderousse grows heavier with gloom as the abbé’s steady gaze fixes on him, unrelenting.
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New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Tuesday Nov 11, 2025
Tuesday Nov 11, 2025
The abbé delivers the cruelest truth: Edmond Dantès is dead.
He tells Caderousse that he died in prison, hopeless and broken, before even reaching thirty.
Caderousse, stricken, wipes at his brow and his eyes with his red handkerchief. His voice breaks as he murmurs that he has sincerely lamented Edmond’s fate, swearing that once-envied good fortune had turned to tragedy.
But the abbé watches in silence, his steady gaze fixed on the innkeeper’s every reaction. His words are as much a probe as they are a revelation.
⸻
New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Monday Nov 10, 2025
Monday Nov 10, 2025
The abbé’s words strike at the heart of memory.
He tells Caderousse that the good are rewarded and the wicked punished—but then presses with a question: did he once know a sailor named Edmond Dantès?
The reaction is immediate. Caderousse’s face flushes as he insists that Edmond was his close friend, his voice rising with urgency. “What has become of poor Edmond?” he demands. “Is he alive? Is he free? Is he happy?”
The priest does not yet answer. He only watches, calm and piercing, as the weight of the name begins to stir old truths.
⸻
New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Sunday Nov 09, 2025
Sunday Nov 09, 2025
The abbé’s questions press deeper.
Caderousse admits to once being a tailor, though trade and fortune have both long since vanished. Hoping to please his unusual guest, he produces one of his few remaining bottles of wine, only to find himself under the kind of gaze that strips away excuses.
When asked if he is alone, Caderousse mentions his ailing wife upstairs, but insists that, whatever his poverty, he is at least an honest man. The priest listens, silent and steady, as though weighing the claim against truths only he seems to know.
⸻
New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Saturday Nov 08, 2025
Saturday Nov 08, 2025
At the Pont du Gard Inn, the knock at the door stirs up more than dust.
A snarling black dog greets the newcomer, but Caderousse himself rushes to make amends, offering wine and apologies when he realizes the unexpected visitor is a priest. The abbé’s Italian-accented words cut straight to the heart of recognition: he knows Caderousse’s name, his past, even his former address in the Allées de Meilhan.
Why such pointed questions? And what business could a foreign priest possibly have with a ruined innkeeper who thought himself forgotten?
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New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Friday Nov 07, 2025
Friday Nov 07, 2025
A desolate road. A noonday sun. And an unexpected rider.
In The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 26 continues as a solitary figure approaches the Pont du Gard Inn. Mounted on a Hungarian horse and dressed in the black robes of a priest, the stranger advances with calm purpose, undeterred by the barren, sun-scorched road that few others would choose to travel.
At the inn’s threshold, he dismounts, ties his horse, and knocks three times with his iron-tipped cane — a signal that will change the quiet monotony of Caderousse’s life into something far more consequential.
⸻
New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.
Thursday Nov 06, 2025
Thursday Nov 06, 2025
Once a man of display and local pageantry, Gaspard Caderousse has been reduced to shabby obscurity.
In The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter 26, we glimpse how prosperity once dressed him in velvet vests, embroidered stockings, and silver buckles, while his wife, La Carconte, shone in the fashions of Arles. Now, those trappings are long gone. Their inn is barely shelter, and their lives are marked more by envy than joy, with the sounds of distant celebrations a bitter reminder of what has been lost.
Caderousse sits idly at his door, staring at a deserted road and a patch of barren grass, until his wife’s sharp voice calls him upstairs — a summons that sets the next turn of events into motion.
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New to the journey? Start from the beginning at: http://countdownofmontecristo.com
Join the conversation on our Discord: https://discord.gg/Sg2prdm
Support the project on Patreon and receive full-length, story-only audio after each chapter: https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or follow along on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3vyewhvQugX5M3oREl57A
⸻
The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.