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The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas, 1844

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Edmond Dantès, a young sailor about to become captain and marry, is denounced as a Bonapartist agent by rivals and shut up without trial in the Château d'If. A fellow prisoner, the Abbé Faria, teaches him and tells him where a fortune lies hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. Dantès escapes, finds it, and returns to Paris as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo. Over many years he ruins the men who betrayed him, Danglars, Fernand and Villefort, until the cost of his revenge on the innocent makes him pull back.

Where it happens

  1. Marseille Port where the story opens in 1815 with the arrival of the Pharaon and Dantès's arrest.13
  2. Château d'If Prison island where Dantès is held and meets Abbé Faria.1
  3. Island of Monte Cristo Island where the treasure is hidden and Dantès takes the title of count.1
  4. Elba Napoleon's island of exile, whose departure on the opening day sets the political frame.1
  5. Paris Where Dantès enters high society as the Count and carries out his plan.1
  6. Rome Italian city where part of the novel unfolds during the Count's travels.1
  7. Nîmes Home of Pierre Picaud, whose 1807 story inspired the plot.1

Through time

  1. 1807Pierre Picaud, a Nîmes shoemaker, is wrongly jailed, the anecdote Dumas later builds on.1
  2. 1815The novel opens on 24 February with Napoleon leaving Elba and Dantès's ship arriving at Marseille.13
  3. 1838Jacques Peuchet retells the Picaud story from the police archives.1
  4. 1844Serial publication begins in the Journal des Débats on 28 August.1
  5. 1846Serialisation ends in January and the book appears in print.1

Who is in it, and behind it

Alexandre Dumas author

French novelist who wrote the book, with plot outlines from his collaborator Auguste Maquet.12

Auguste Maquet scribe

Ghostwriting collaborator whose plot outlines Dumas expanded into the novel.1

Edmond Dantès character

Sailor falsely accused of treason and jailed in the Château d'If, who later returns as the Count of Monte Cristo.1

Abbé Faria character

Fellow prisoner who educates Dantès and reveals the hidden treasure on Monte Cristo.1

Danglars character

Ship's supercargo and one of the three men who betray Dantès.1

Fernand character

Cousin and rival suitor of Dantès's fiancée, who joins the plot against him.1

Villefort character

Crown prosecutor who ensures Dantès's imprisonment to protect his own career.1

Haydée character

Dantès's former slave and lover, who leaves with him at the end.1

Gaspard Caderousse character

Marseilles tailor and neighbour who knew of the plot but stayed silent out of cowardice.1

Pierre Picaud subject

Nîmes shoemaker whose wrongful jailing, recorded in police archives, is a source for the plot.1

What it is about

Hope and patience

The closing letter reduces human wisdom to the two words wait and hope.13

Revenge and its limits

Dantès plans a cold revenge but pulls back once he sees the harm it does to the innocent.1

Justice outside the law

A man failed by the courts takes judgment into his own hands, which the novel tests rather than endorses.1

History as the frame

The plot runs from Napoleon's escape from Elba through the Restoration, so politics decides private fates.1

In its own words

On the 24th of February, 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples
I. The opening line fixes the date and the ship whose arrival starts everything. Read on
“No, my dear fellow!” replied Dantès, “I am not proud, but I am happy, and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride
III. Dantès at his happiest, just before the betrayal that ends it. Read on
no longer called Edmond Dantès⁠—he was now number 34
XIV. The moment a man becomes a prison number. Read on
e day you will receive a letter signed ‘Sinbad the Sailor.’ Do exactly what the letter bids you, however strange it may appear
XXIX. The first sign of the Count's disguises and his hidden hand. Read on
that the Count of Monte Cristo is living on the same floor with yourselves
XXXIV. A hotel keeper tells two young travelers who their neighbour in Rome is. Read on
You told me to wait and hope; do you know what you did, unfortunate adviser
CXVII. Villefort's world falls apart and the book's motto comes into focus. Read on

The shape of the book

117 chapters, 460,003 words. Point at a bar.

How it came to be here

Dumas wrote the novel for newspaper serial publication. It ran in the Journal des Débats from August 1844 to January 1846 and came out as a book in 1846, while Auguste Maquet helped him build the plot. Dumas drew on a police-archive story of a Nîmes shoemaker, Pierre Picaud, wrongly jailed and later avenging himself, which Jacques Peuchet had retold in 1838. The tale is set between 1815 and 1839, from Napoleon's escape from Elba to the reign of Louis Philippe. It is now counted among the classics of French and world fiction. The site carries the Chapman and Hall English translation.

Sources

  1. The Count of Monte Cristo (Wikipedia)
  2. Alexandre Dumas (Wikipedia)
  3. The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapman and Hall translation (Standard Ebooks)

Text: Standard Ebooks edition of the public-domain text. Standard Ebooks markup CC0 1.0; text public domain in the USA.

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