at a certain degree of fortune, the superfluous takes the place of the necessary, and […] the ideal takes the place of the real. Now to continue this argument, what is marvellous? That which we do not comprehend. What is truly desirable? That which we cannot have. Now to see things I cannot understand, to procure things impossible of possession, such is the plan of my life.

— Monte Cristo in Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, 1846