Talk:Château d'If

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I can't believe that island is anywhere near "30 square kilometers" in area -- it looks more like 3 km2 (or even 0.3 km2). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.213.165 (talk) 16:01, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. Looking at the Google Maps image, and comparing to a 50 meter scale bar, the maximum extent of the island is 290 meters east-west and 170 meters north-south. Capturing the image, saturating the contrast, then counting pixels (with the GIMP histogram tool) in high resolution, I compute 3.25 hectares, 0.0325 km², 8.0 US acres. I'm sure there is an official source (in French) for the "legal" dimensions, and perhaps my numbers will help a francophone find them. I hesitate to make a partial correction, because that would reduce the incentive to accurately correct this glaring ( factor of 900! ) error. The source is a Lonely Planet article without citations KeithLofstrom (talk) 17:10, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

The article originally said 3 hectares, which was correctly converted 30,000 square meters in this edit. A few month ago, Zujine incorrectly converted 30,000 square meters into 30 square kilometers in this edit, when in fact 30,000 square meters is 0.03 square kilometers. I changed it back to the original 3 hectares. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 05:52, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Apologies, when I was editing that section for other content I just made a sloppy mistake. Thank you for correcting it. It's a good reminder that conversions of that sort have never been a strong point, and I should be careful. —Zujine|talk 18:03, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

It's good to see that this problem was solved. I'm pretty hopeless at conversions and can never remember what to do with hectares, but there's a handy template which can deal with stuff like that: {{convert}}. So {{convert|30000|m2|km2}} looks like 30,000 square metres (0.030 km²). It's useful even when just checking something for yourself and you can swap the units around as long as they're still comparable (ie: not trying to convert a distance into an area). Nev1 (talk) 18:07, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Count of Monte Cristo

Is the Count of Monte Cristo really a historical person? -- Smerdis of Tlön 03:22, 14 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I don't think The Count of Monte Cristo is a real person, I think it's just the character from Dumas' book, but I'm not positive. Does anyone know this for a fact??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.30.22 (talk • contribs) 15:33, 22 June 2004 (UTC)

You are correct, The Count of Monte Cristo is purely fictional. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.147.2.84 (talk • contribs) 23:10, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

I will say the count of Monte Cristo is purely fictionnal... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.161.90.73 (talk • contribs) 15:43, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Not entirely fictional alas! But indeed Dumas, like old good storytellers, knew very well how to blend fact and fiction so as in order to create Myth. Washington Irving as another author adept at it. For his most famous story after the Three Musketeers Dumas used an old Parisian police registry in which it was reported that two men set up a third in order for him to be wrongly convicted. There is more to this real story and other editors may want to add to it but from what I know Dumas took the framework of a real existing story out of an old registry and made the poor devil into the greatest Vigilante ever to roam the planet on this side of fiction, and on yonder of reality. But how far fetched is it really for a man who has been falsely accused and robbed of all he had to turn to vengeance and to mold himself into a Count who rules over all? Did not Ovid say that if we cannot hate, we should unwillingly love? Hate indeed may be the greatest motivator of all time. Nothing else will stimulate a man to make a comeback, as would vengeance. Deep in a jail or dungeon, a man's hate feeds him and sustains him to live on, as milk sustains an infant. So yes, a character from a book, but also someone who once lived, but in the end, the Count is you as well as me.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.123.162.4 (talk) 01:11, 1 September 2007 (UTC) The article on the Chateau D’IF has many strengths but it can also be improved by adding some more information on the notable prisoners that were held in the prison. Things like why there were there, were they French citizens that were placed there for a political reason. Adding a small bit of information on why there were notable prisoners at the Chateau would help. When it talks about the “Iron Mask” it doesn’t explain who it is. If more information is added on these notable prisoners then for any of the information that is not found in the links attached to these people already here will need to be more references. There should be references for the pictures that are on the page and if any information that is not found in the 2 books provided. It goes on to explain that there is a sign at the Chateau that explains something in French. It’s surrounded by references of the “Iron Mask” but it doesn’t translate what the sign says. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mckayaa (talk • contribs) 23:32, 27 September 2012 (UTC)