1846 EARLY Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas French CLASSIC Literature 2v
A classic revenge
novel of the famous Alexandre Dumas, Count of Monte-Cristo.
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte
de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by French author Alexandre Dumas (père)
completed in 1844. The story takes
place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical
events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of
Louis-Philippe of France. It begins just before the Hundred Days period (when
Napoleon returned to power after his exile). The book is considered a literary classic
today and has become a fixture of Western civilization’s literature.
Main author: Alexandre Dumas
Title: Le comte de Monte-cristo
Published: Paris : Michel Lévy frères, 1846
Language: French
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The Count of Monte Cristo
(French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by French author
Alexandre Dumas (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most
popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it is
expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste
Maquet.[1] The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the
Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon
Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins just
before the Hundred Days period (when Napoleon returned to power after his
exile). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an
adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance,
mercy, and forgiveness. It centres around a man who is wrongfully imprisoned,
escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about getting revenge on those
responsible for his imprisonment. However, his plans have devastating
consequences for the innocent as well as the guilty. In addition, it is a story
that involves romance, loyalty, betrayal, and selfishness, shown throughout the
story as characters slowly reveal their true inner nature. The book is
considered a literary classic today. According to Luc Sante, "The Count of
Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as
inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, Noah's flood, and the
story of Little Red Riding Hood."[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Background to the plot
2 Plot
2.1 Summary
2.2 Edmond Dantès
2.3 The Count of Monte Cristo
3 Characters
3.1 Edmond Dantès and his aliases
3.2 Dantès' allies
3.3 Morcerf family
3.4 Danglars family
3.5 Villefort family
3.6 Morrel family
3.7 Other characters
4 Publication
4.1 English translations
4.2 In Japan
5 Reception and legacy
6 Historical background
6.1 A chronology of The Count of Monte Cristo and Bonapartism
7 Selected notable adaptations
7.1 Film and television
7.2 Literary adaptations
7.3 Sequels (books)
7.4 Plays and musicals scripts
7.5 Audio adaptations
7.6 Video games
8 Notes
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Background to the plot[edit]
Dumas wrote[3] that the idea
of revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo came from a story in a book compiled by
Jacques Peuchet, a French police archivist, published in 1838 after the death
of the author.[4] Dumas included this essay in one of the editions from
1846.[5] Peuchet told of a shoemaker, Pierre Picaud, living in Nîmes in 1807,
who was engaged to marry a rich woman when three jealous friends falsely
accused him of being a spy for England. Picaud was placed under a form of house
arrest in the Fenestrelle Fort, where he served as a servant to a rich Italian
cleric. When the man died, he left his fortune to Picaud, whom he had begun to
treat as a son. Picaud then spent years plotting his revenge on the three men
who were responsible for his misfortune. He stabbed the first with a dagger on
which were printed the words "Number One", and then he poisoned the
second. The third man's son he lured into crime and his daughter into prostitution,
finally stabbing the man himself. This third man, named Loupian, had married
Picaud's fiancée while Picaud was under arrest.
In another of the "True
Stories", Peuchet describes a poisoning in a family. This story, also
quoted in the Pleiade edition, has obviously served as model for the chapter of
the murders inside the Villefort family. The introduction to the Pleiade
edition mentions other sources from real life: Abbé Faria existed and died in
1819 after a life with much resemblance to that of the Faria in the novel. As
for Dantès, his fate is quite different from his model in Peuchet's book, since
the latter is murdered by the "Caderousse" of the plot. But Dantès
has "alter egos" in two other Dumas works; in "Pauline"
from 1838, and more significantly in "Georges" from 1843, where a
young man with black ancestry is preparing a revenge against white people who
had humiliated him.
Plot[edit]
This article's plot summary
may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing
unnecessary details and making it more concise. (February 2016)
Summary[edit]
On the day of his wedding to
Mercédès, Edmond Dantès, First Mate of the Phaeron, is accused of treason,
arrested, and imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, a grim island
fortress off Marseilles. A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, correctly deduces that
his jealous rival, Fernand Mondego, envious crewmate, Danglars, and
double-dealing Magistrate, Villefort, betrayed him. Faria inspires his escape
and guides him to a fortune in treasure. As the powerful and mysterious Count
of Monte Cristo, he arrives from the Orient to enter the fashionable Parisian
world of the 1830s and avenge himself on the men who conspired to destroy him.
Edmond Dantès[edit]
The main character Edmond
Dantès was a merchant sailor prior to his imprisonment.
In 1815, Edmond Dantès, a
young merchant sailor who has recently been granted the succession of his
captain Leclère, returns to Marseille to marry his Catalan fiancée Mercédès.
Leclère, a supporter of the exiled Napoléon I, found himself dying at sea and
charged Dantès to deliver two objects: a package to General Bertrand (exiled
with Napoleon Bonaparte on Elba), and a letter from Elba to an unknown man in
Paris. On the eve of Dantès' wedding to Mercédès, Fernand Mondego (Mercédès'
cousin and a rival for her affections) is given advice by Dantès' colleague
Danglars (who is jealous of Dantès' rapid rise to captain) to send an anonymous
note accusing Dantès of being a Bonapartist traitor. Caderousse (Dantès'
cowardly and selfish neighbor) is drunk while the two conspirators set the trap
for Dantès and stays quiet as Dantès is arrested, then sentenced. Villefort,
the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, destroys the letter from Elba when he
discovers that it is addressed to his own father, Noirtier (who is a
Bonapartist), since if this letter came into official hands, it would destroy
his ambitions and reputation as a staunch Royalist. To silence Dantès, he
condemns him without trial to life imprisonment.
After six years of imprisonment
in the Château d'If, Dantès is on the verge of suicide when he befriends the
Abbé Faria ("The Mad Priest"), a fellow prisoner who had dug an
escape tunnel that ended up in Dantès' cell. Over the next eight years, Faria
gives Dantès an extensive education in language, culture, and science. Knowing
himself to be close to death, Faria tells Dantès the location of a treasure on
the island of Monte Cristo. When Faria dies, Dantès takes his place in the
burial sack. When the guards throw the sack into the sea, Dantès swims to a
nearby island. He is rescued by a smuggling ship that stops at Monte Cristo.
After recovering the treasure, Dantès returns to Marseille. He later purchases
the island of Monte Cristo and the title of Count from the Tuscan government.
Traveling as the Abbé Busoni,
Dantès meets Caderousse, now living in poverty, whose intervention might have
saved Dantès from prison. He gives Caderousse a diamond that can be either a
chance to redeem himself or a trap that will lead to his ruin. Learning that
his old employer Morrel is on the verge of bankruptcy, Dantès buys Morrel's
debts and gives Morrel three months to fulfill his obligations. At the end of
the three months and with no way to repay his debts, Morrel is about to commit
suicide when he learns that his debts have been mysteriously paid and that one
of his lost ships has returned with a full cargo, secretly rebuilt and laden by
Dantès.
The Count of Monte
Cristo[edit]
The coat of arms of the count
are described in the original novel as "une montagne d’or, posant sur une
mer d’azur, avec une croix de gueules au chef".
Reappearing as the rich Count
of Monte Cristo, Dantès begins his revenge on the three men responsible for his
unjust imprisonment: Fernand, now Count de Morcerf and Mercédès' husband;
Danglars, now a baron and a wealthy banker; and Villefort, now procureur du
roi. The Count appears first in Rome, where he becomes acquainted with the
Baron Franz d'Épinay, and Viscount Albert de Morcerf, the son of Mercédès and
Fernand. Dantès arranges for the young Morcerf to be captured by the bandit
Luigi Vampa before rescuing him from Vampa's gang. The Count then moves to
Paris and dazzles Danglars with his wealth, persuading him to extend him a
credit of six million francs. The Count manipulates the bond market and quickly
destroys a large portion of Danglars' fortune. The rest of it begins to rapidly
disappear through mysterious bankruptcies, suspensions of payment, and more bad
luck in the Stock Exchange.
Villefort had once conducted
an affair with Madame Danglars. She became pregnant and delivered the child in
the house that the Count has now purchased. To cover up the affair, Villefort
told Madame Danglars that the infant was stillborn. Villefort then smothered
the child, and thinking him to be dead, tried to bury him behind the house.
While Villefort was burying the child, he was stabbed by the smuggler
Bertuccio, who found the child and brought him back to life. Bertuccio's
sister-in-law brought the child up, giving him the name "Benedetto."
Benedetto takes up a life of crime as he grows into adolescence. He decides to
rob his adoptive mother (Bertuccio's sister-in-law) and ends up killing her,
then runs away. The Count learns this story from Bertuccio, who later becomes
his servant.
Meanwhile, Benedetto has
grown up to become a criminal and is sentenced to the galleys with Caderousse,
who had sold the diamond, but killed both the buyer and his wife out of greed.
After the two are freed by Dantès, using the alias "Lord Wilmore",
Benedetto is sponsored by the Count to take the identity of "Viscount
Andrea Cavalcanti" and is introduced by him into Parisian society. Andrea
then ingratiates himself to Danglars, who betroths his daughter Eugénie to
Andrea (who are both also half-siblings) after cancelling her engagement to
Albert, son of Fernand. Meanwhile, Caderousse blackmails Andrea, threatening to
reveal his past. Cornered by "Abbé Busoni" while attempting to rob
the Count's house, Caderousse begs to be given another chance, but Dantès
forces him to write a letter to Danglars exposing Cavalcanti as an impostor and
allows Caderousse to leave the house. The moment Caderousse leaves the estate,
he is stabbed by Andrea. Caderousse dictates a deathbed statement identifying
his killer, and the Count reveals his true identity to Caderousse moments
before Caderousse dies.
Years before, Ali Pasha of
Janina had been betrayed to the Turks by Fernand. After Ali's death, Fernand
sold Ali's wife Vasiliki and his daughter Haydée into slavery. While Vasiliki
died shortly afterwards, Haydée was found by Dantès and becomes the Count's
ward. The Count manipulates Danglars into researching the event, which is
published in a newspaper. As a result, Fernand is brought to trial for his
crimes. Mercédès is the only person to recognize the Count as Dantès. When
Albert blames the Count for his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel,
Mercédès goes to the Count and begs him to spare her son. During this
interview, she learns the truth of his arrest and imprisonment. She later
reveals the truth to Albert, which causes Albert to make a public apology to
the Count. Albert and Mercédès disown Fernand, who is confronted with Dantès'
true identity and commits suicide. Albert and Mercédès renounce their titles
and wealth and depart to begin new lives.
Valentine, Villefort's
daughter by his late first wife, stands to inherit the fortune of her
grandfather (Noirtier) and of her mother's parents (the Saint-Mérans), while
Villefort's second wife Héloïse seeks the fortune for her son Édouard. The
Count is aware of Héloïse's intentions and introduces her to the technique of
poison. Héloïse fatally poisons the Saint-Mérans, so that Valentine inherits
their fortune. Valentine is disinherited by Noirtier in an attempt to prevent
Valentine's impending marriage with Franz d'Épinay. The marriage is cancelled
when d'Épinay learns that his father (believed assassinated by Bonapartists)
was actually killed by Noirtier in a duel. Afterwards, Valentine is reinstated
in Noirtier's will. After a failed attempt on Noirtier's life, Héloïse targets
Valentine so that Édouard will get the fortune. However, Valentine is the prime
suspect in her father's eyes in the deaths of the Saint-Mérans and Noirtier's
servant, Barrois. On learning that Morrel's son Maximilien is in love with
Valentine, the Count saves her by making it appear as though Héloïse's plan to
poison Valentine has succeeded and that Valentine is dead. Villefort learns
from Noirtier that Héloïse is the real murderer and confronts her, giving her
the choice of a public execution or committing suicide.
Fleeing after Caderousse's
letter exposes him, Andrea is arrested and returned to Paris, where Villefort
prosecutes him. While in prison awaiting trial, Andrea is visited by Bertuccio,
who tells him the truth about his father. At his trial, Andrea reveals that he
is Villefort's son and was rescued after Villefort buried him alive.Villefort
admits his guilt and flees the court. He rushes home to stop his wife's suicide
but is too late; she has poisoned her son as well. Dantès confronts Villefort,
revealing his true identity, but this drives Villefort insane. Having not
intended to kill the innocent young boy, Dantès tries to resuscitate Édouard
but fails, causing him to question if he has gone too far.
After the Count's
manipulation of the bond market, Danglars is left with a destroyed reputation
and 5,000,000 francs he has been holding in deposit for hospitals. The Count
demands this sum to fulfil their credit agreement, and Danglars embezzles the hospital
fund. Abandoning his wife, Danglars flees to Italy with the Count's receipt and
50,000 francs. While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by the Count's agent Luigi
Vampa and is imprisoned. Forced to pay exorbitant prices for food and nearly
starved to death, Danglars signs away his ill-gotten gains. Dantès anonymously
returns the stolen money to the hospitals. Danglars finally repents his crimes.
Dantès forgives him and allows him to leave with his freedom and his 50,000
francs.
Maximilien Morrel, believing
Valentine to be dead, contemplates suicide after her funeral. Dantès reveals
his true identity and explains that he rescued Morrel's father from bankruptcy
years earlier; he then tells Maximilien to reconsider his suicide. On the
island of Monte Cristo, Dantès presents Valentine to Maximilien and reveals the
true sequence of events. Having found peace, Dantès leaves the newly reunited
couple his fortune and departs for an unknown destination to find comfort and a
new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him. The reader is left
with a final thought: "all human wisdom is contained in these two words,
'Wait and Hope'".s