I’m about halfway through the book, so perhaps these machinations will be explained, but so far all his attempts at manipulating situations are either not explained or require way too much luck and coincidence to suspend my disbelief . I was first put off by how the count managed to ingratiate himself with Albert so as to introduce him to people in Paris. But since that was multistage, I’ll just give another example. How the hell could he have predicted that the stagecoach with Mdm. Villefort would have been coming by his house at an exact time with the horses going crazy? All we knew is that she was going to Bois. Presumably he could have drugged the horses, but if so, why not say so? I can’t believe Dumas expected the reader to suspend disbelief that much, plus seeing how he managed to pull these “coincidences off” would have made the count much more interesting.
by Kid_Charlema9ne