Description
- Abstract:
- Engraving by Pardinel after Gavarni from Le comte de Monte-Cristo / par M. Alexandre Dumas. Illustrates an early episode in the novel: next to Edmond Dantès prison cell, lives another prisoner by the name of Faria, nicknamed "l'abbé fou" (the mad priest). when th prison inspector comes to visit him, he is sitting in a circle sketched on the floor, and he is busy drawing geometrical figures around him. His obsession for geometry and mathematical problems, in conjunction with his solitude and the incomprehension he meets in others, makes him a figure of melencolia imaginativa, a creative melancholia that Dantès will later recognize and value. What is mistaken for madness by the prison staff is in fact a lucidity that Dantès will not fail to see.
Access Conditions
- Rights
- No Copyright - United States
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
Gavarni, Paul,
"L' abbé Faria"
(1850).
Paris: Capital of the 19th Century.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:86870/
Relations
Collection:
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Paris: Capital of the 19th Century
...The project, "Paris, Capital of the 19th century," initiated by the French Studies and Comparative Literature Departments of Brown University, provides a window into the cultural, political and social context of 19th century Parisian culture.
It offers online access to …