Grief turns to solitude, and solitude to ruin. Caderousse recounts how even the kindest neighbors withdrew from old Dantès — sorrow being a burden most hearts can bear only at a distance. Left alone, the father sold his few possessions piece by piece, until the house itself threatened to turn him out.

When the silence above grew too deep, Caderousse peered through the keyhole and found him pale, starved, and near death. Morrel brought a doctor, Mercédès came in tears, yet the old man’s smile at being ordered “a limited diet” was his last quiet irony. For nine days he refused sustenance, his grief consuming what hunger had not, and when at last he died, it was with a curse for the men who had destroyed his son — and a blessing for Edmond, whom he would never see again.

The abbé listens, shaken to his core, as Caderousse ends the tale with two words heavier than any sermon: “Of hunger.”

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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. Whether you’re starting from the beginning or joining mid-journey, each episode brings you deeper into the story of The Count of Monte Cristo.