The story

At nineteen, Edmond Dantès has it all. Jealous men frame him, and he disappears into the Château d'If for fourteen years. In the dark, an old prisoner teaches him everything he knows and tells him where a fortune is buried. Dantès escapes, digs it up, and walks back into the world as the Count of Monte Cristo.

Why it's here

The ending of this book is the whole Sputwig philosophy in two sentences: how deep you go decides how high the good life feels.

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”Edmond Dantès, The Count of Monte Cristo

"Laugh at the wreckage, loot the lesson" is the method. Dumas explains why the lesson is worth anything. Dantès doesn't come out of fourteen years in the dark ashamed. He comes out with taste, audacity and a plan, and with the one thing nobody who skipped the depths ever gets: he knows exactly how good it is to be alive.

That's chaotic luxury. Not bought. Earned, by going down first.