The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père, is an action-packed adventure novel in which the titular character uses subterfuge and disguise to avenge wrongs committed against him in his youth.

Quick Facts

FIRST PUBLISHED: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, 1844–46, serial (English translation, 1846)

TYPE OF WORK: Novel

TYPE OF PLOT: Adventure

TIME OF PLOT: 1815–38

LOCALE: France, Italy, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East

Principal Characters

• Edmond Dantèsa young sailor
• Mercédèshis sweetheart
• Fernand Mondegoa rival
• M. Danglarsan ambitious shipmate
• M. Villeforta deputy magistrate
• Valentinehis daughter
• Abbé Fariaa prisoner at Châteu D’If
• Caderoussean innkeeper
• M. Morrela shipping master
• Maximilianhis son
• AlbertMondego’s son
• HaidéeEdmond’s lover

The Story

Edmond Dantès, a competent and well-liked first mate, takes over command of the Pharaon after the ship’s captain dies. The ship sails safely into Marseilles harbor in 1815. The pleasant, unassuming young man is unaware that enemies surround him. M. Danglars, the agent of the ship’s owner, M. Morrel, is jealous of Morrel’s affection for Edmond and covetous of the young sailor’s impending appointment as captain of the Pharaon. A fisherman, Fernand Mondego, wishes to wed Mercédès, who is betrothed to Edmond.

Danglars and Fernand, under the guise of a jest, compose a note accusing Edmond of conspiracy. They write that Edmond, in carrying out the last orders of his captain, had unwittingly conveyed a letter to the Bonapartist committee in Paris, which is trying to restore the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte to power. Caderousse, a drunkard, witnesses the writing of the note, but keeps silent out of cowardice. On his wedding day, Edmond is arrested and taken before an ambitious deputy king’s attorney named M. Villefort, who, to protect himself from association with his Bonapartist father, Noirtier—implicated in the letter Edmond carries—has Edmond secretly imprisoned in solitary confinement within the dank dungeons of the imposing Château D’If.

Napoleon escapes from Elba to reign briefly again, but Edmond lies forgotten in his cell as his psyche undergoes a series of changes: from hope (because he knows he is innocent of any crime), to despair (because the future looks hopeless), to anger at the people who placed him in his predicament. The cannonading at Waterloo dies away. Years pass. Then, one night, Edmond hears the sound of digging from an adjoining cell. He breaks a water jug and uses a fragment of the pottery to assist in the excavation. Soon, a narrow tunnel is completed, and Edmond meets an old man, a fellow prisoner named Abbé Faria, whose misguided attempt to dig his way to freedom has led him to Edmond’s cell. Thereafter the two meet daily, and the old man teaches the uneducated Edmond history, mathematics, languages, and etiquette.

In Edmond’s fourteenth year of imprisonment Faria, mortally ill, tells Edmond where to find a tremendous fortune should he escape after the old man’s death. When death comes, Faria’s body is placed into a sack prior to being heaved into the sea. Edmond, desperate to escape, changes places with the dead man, whom he drags through the tunnel into his own bed. Jailers throw the sack into the sea. Edmond rips the cloth and swims through the darkness to an islet in the bay.

At daybreak a gang of smugglers rescues him. Edmond works with the smugglers until a stroke of luck brings him to the island of Monte-Cristo, where Faria’s fortune is supposedly concealed. He lands on the island with the crew of the ship and, feigning injury in a fall, persuades the crew to leave him behind until their return trip from a smuggling rendezvous. Edmond explores the island and finds the treasure hidden in an underground cavern. He stuffs his pockets with jewels and returns to the mainland to sell some of the precious stones and gain the money necessary to carry out his plans to bring the treasure from Monte-Cristo. Edmond buys a boat and a title and sets himself up as the fabulously wealthy count of Monte-Cristo, one of many aliases he will hold while putting together an elaborate plot to gain revenge against those who wronged him. Edmond soon learns that his father had died of starvation and that his intended bride, Mercédès, despairing of Edmond’s return, had married Fernand.

Disguised as a priest, Edmond visits Caderousse to seek information about those who caused his imprisonment. Villefort had gained a fortune and had risen in legal circles. Danglars is now a wealthy banker and baron. Fernand, formerly a humble fisherman, later a military general, has won wealth and a title in the Greek war and is now count de Morcerf. For this information, Edmond gives Caderousse a valuable diamond.

Edmond also learns that his old shipping master, Morrel, a true friend who frequently questioned the authorities about Edmond’s fate, has suffered the loss at sea of most of his ships and is on the verge of bankruptcy. In gratitude, because Morrel had helped him, Edmond saves Morrel’s shipping business and befriends Morrel’s son, Maximilian.

Edmond—as the count of Monte-Cristo—moves to Paris, where he dazzles the upper echelons of the city’s society with his mysterious background, fabulous wealth, and impeccable social graces. He and his protégé, a beautiful girl named Haidée, an enslaved Albanian he bought during his travels in Greece, become the talk of the boulevards. He is invited into all the best homes and salons. Meanwhile, he slowly plots the ruin of those who caused him to be sent to prison.

Caderousse is the first to be destroyed. His greed had awakened with Edmond’s gift of the diamond. Soon, Caderousse commits robbery and murder and is condemned to the galleys. He escapes with the assistance of Edmond in another guise as a wealthy Englishman, but Caderousse does not use the opportunity to become an honest citizen. Instead, he attempts to rob Monte-Cristo. An escaping accomplice mortally wounds him. As Caderousse lies dying, Monte-Cristo reveals his true identity.

In Paris, Monte-Cristo ingratiates himself with banker Danglars, who loses heavily by following the investing example of the count, and so faces bankruptcy. The next victim is Fernand, who gained his wealth by betraying Pasha Ali in the Greek revolution of 1823. Monte-Cristo persuades Danglars to send to Greece for confirmation of Fernand’s operations there. Fernand is exposed, and at a trial conducted by his peers, Haidée, daughter of the pasha, confronts him with the story of her father’s betrayal.

Albert, son of Mercédès and Fernand, challenges Monte-Cristo to a duel to avenge his father’s disgrace. Monte-Cristo, an excellent shot, intends to make his revenge complete by killing the young man, but Mercédès visits him and begs for her son’s life. Aware of Monte-Cristo’s true identity, she intercedes with her son as well. When the duelists meet, Albert publicly declares that his father’s downfall is justified and apologizes to Monte-Cristo. Fernand, with no way to salvage his name, kills himself. Mercédès and her son renounce their ill-gotten fortune and leave Paris, almost penniless.

Monte-Cristo has also become an intimate of Madame Villefort and encourages her desire to possess the wealth of her stepdaughter, Valentine. The count has slyly directed Madame Villefort in the use of poisons, and the depraved woman murders three people. When Valentine, too, is poisoned, Maximilian Morrel, son of the shipping master and in love with Valentine, goes to Monte-Cristo for help. Monte-Cristo vows to save the young girl, but Madame Villefort has marked her for death, and Valentine apparently dies of poisoning. Despite this seemingly distressing turn of events, Monte-Cristo promises future happiness to a deeply depressed Maximilian, who is like a son to him.

Danglars’s masculine daughter, Eugénie, rejects several potential matrimonial matches. Disguised as a man, she runs off with her female piano teacher to seek her fortune. Danglars, facing ruin for misappropriating funds, deserts his wife and flees the country to escape prosecution. When Villefort discovers his wife’s treachery and crimes, he threatens her with exposure. She then poisons herself and her young son, Edward, for whose sake she had poisoned the others. Monte-Cristo reveals his true name to the already unhinged Villefort, who subsequently goes completely insane. Edmond’s revenge is complete.

Monte-Cristo sails to his rocky island with Maximilian, who is suicidal because he believes his beloved Valentine is dead, but she is not dead. Monte-Cristo has rescued Valentine through the use of a death-simulating drug and has spirited her to safety from her tomb and away from the turmoil that arose in the wake of the count’s machinations against his enemies. Now he reunites the two lovers, who become beneficiaries of the count’s immense wealth. Edmond and Haidée, who professes her love for him, sail away, never to be seen again.

In Popular Culture

Dozens of screen adaptations were made of Dumas's famous novel between the early 1900s and the early 2020s. Among the more notable were the 1943 film by Robert Vernay, a 1964 British miniseries directed by Peter Hammond, a 1998 French television series starring Gérard Depardieu, and a 2002 Kevin Reynolds movie, which proved a commercial failure. Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière's largely faithful adaptation starring Pierre Niney was screened out of competition at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 2024.

The novel has also fueled the popularity of the Château d'If off the coast of Marseilles, France, as a tourist destination.

Bibliography

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Florent, Adriana Coelho. "Death and Resurrection on the If Island: Revisiting Episodes of The Count of Monte Cristo." Global Perspectives on Literary Tourism and Film-Induced Tourism. Edited by Rita Baleiro and Rosária Pereira. IGI Global, 2022. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=3102725&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 1 July 2024.

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