Sob a égide da revolta – O Conde de Monte Cristo e a crítica de Antonio Candido

Abstract

Antonio Candido in his essay "Monte Cristo or on vengeance", published in 1952, analyzes the main aspects that characterize a romantic hero and uses as central figure for his reflection Edmond Dantès, the protagonist of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Later, he would publish this text again with a few additions, in his book Thesis and antithesis, in 1964, giving the name of "On vengeance". Without forgetting the great names of European literature such as Byron, Stendhal and Balzac, the critic observes how the essence of the narrative is, in principle, bourgeois, and how the transformation of Dantès is linked to individualism, a striking feature of the romantic movement, which will result in contradictions and problematic experiences of this character, one of the most emblematic of the French writer and of the history of Western literature.