And yes, Eugenie was a lesbian in the book. She ran off with her piano teacher and absolutely hated Albert. Franz was presumably straight in the book, since there wasn't anything that suggested otherwise.
I loved Gankutsuou, but one of the biggest problems I had with it was how it portrayed the Count. He was my favorite character in the book, but at some points in the anime I really disliked him because of his cruelty. (The way he killed Franz especially comes to mind.) And yes, the anime Count's thoughts and motivations are very unclear to the audience -- so unclear in fact, that I don't think they ever truly became clear even in the end. I didn't understand that the real reason for his revenge was because he couldn't stand Albert's innocence, not necessarily because he couldn't forgive Mercedes and the others, until he said it outright in the drama CD. The anime Count seems much cruler in this respect because the whole reason for his revenge is to ruin Albert's life, while in the book he just wanted vengeance on Fernand/Danglars/Villefort and mostly left Albert and the younger generation alone. If you listen to the drama CD you can get much more background on the whole setup of Gankutsuou: not only did the Count want to ruin Albert's life, but he *set up* Albert's life so he could ruin it. He "tied the threads" between Albert and Franz and Eugenie, just so he could break them later. (He disguised himself as a priest in Paris and actually approached the characters way before the series actually starts.)
Anyway, I still much prefer the book Count. Besides, I think the reason why his motivations are too easy to read in the book is because the book is mostly from his point of view, while in the anime it was completely from Albert's. In the book we knew the whole story from the very beginning, and we also had much more access to his thoughts.
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