Literary heroes

I will now try to answer the question Annelies Broeders asked me, about the literary heroes I associate the most with.

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I think that you suspected my answers already, as you've read those books as well: some, you made me discover, while others, I gifted you some years ago. 

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For some obvious reasons!

- The Count of Monte-Cristo (by Alexandre Dumas): Edmond Dantes is a young, honest man, in love with the beautiful Mercedes (Mercedes is the name of the woman who is promised to Edmond), destined to become captain on a ship. However, some people are jealous of the honest success of Edmond, and they accuse him unfairly and cause him to be imprisoned in a castle on an island (l'île au château d'if). Nobody accepts to hear Edmond Dantes, and he cannot prove his innocence from the underground cell where he is trapped. It's useless to cry and shout and fret, and Edmond decides to evade from the prison where he is. It will take him years to dig a tunnel, and during these years he will learn a lot of things, coming in contact with another prisoner who is a knowledgeable Italian abbot who is also a scientist and a chemist. When Edmond Dantes finally escapes, he discovers the woman he was promised to married one of the persons who betrayed him. Dantes goes in hiding, on another island, and changes his identity, using all what he learnt from the abbot. He becomes the wealthy and mysterious Count of Monte-Cristo and returns to the place where he lived. Nobody recognizes him. And there, he starts taking his revenge on those who betrayed him and unfairly accused him, but at the end he regrets doing so. At the end, the Count of Monte-Cristo understands that having justice is fair, but taking his revenge doesn't make him happier. 

Yet, the idea of a wronged person, an innocent, who endures terrible sufferings during years, and manages to obtain justice through quite original means, is very interesting. 

- Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand): you know why already. For those who don't know Cyrano, I advice you to read it. Cyrano falls in love with the beautiful Roxane, and as both love literature and poetry, he writes her letters and poems, that he however does not dare to send him under his name. So he writes her under the name of another, and it's only at the very end Roxane understands that Cyrano was writing her the beautiful texts and letters she received, but unfortunately it is too late. This book made me cry a lot too.

- The Prince Raoden in Elantris (by Brandon Sanderson): the Prince Raoden is thrown into Elantris, having caught the elantrian syndrome. In Elantris each hurt, each blow you receive, does not heal. So Elantrians have pain everywhere in their body and their soul. They have troubles to keep their sanity. The Prince Raoden is however determined to find a way out, and to understand why the town of Elantris that used to be fair and beautiful has become such a cursed place. With the help of the Princess Shaollan who falls in love with him, and of a few other friends, he manages to heal of the syndrome he has, and to make Elantris return to its former fairness and glory. You made me discover this book, and this writer.

- Gilbert Markham in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (by Anne Brontë): Gilbert Markham falls in love with the mysterious and sensitive Helen Graham. Their story and their romance always made me think of ours, as you already know. The landscape of the British countryside painted and described by Anne Brontë in the book, and the characters of Gilbert Markham and Helen Graham resemble to ours. This is why it is the first book I ever gifted to you, while you still were in Lausanne. Even before meeting you, reading that novel had made me think of you. To me, you were as mysterious as Helen Graham. 

You asked me what are the five literary heroes I associate the more with. For now, I've given you four names. I still need to think about the fifth. Right now, my mind is dry after a long day in the garden.