Search results
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers.
- Alexandre Dumas
- 1844
- Edmond Dantes (The Count of Monte Cristo, the Abbe Busoni, the Envoy, Lord Wilmore, Sinbad the Sailor) Edmond Dantes, the novel’s protagonist, is a French sailor who is wrongfully imprisoned at age 19, escapes, and then spends his life getting meticulous revenge on the men who wronged him.
- Mercedes (de Morcerf) Initially Dantes’s betrothed, Mercedes marries her cousin Fernand when she believes Dantes will never return from prison. Mercedes is utterly devoted to Dantes; she never wanted to be with Fernand, but she relents to his… read analysis of Mercedes (de Morcerf)
- Old Dantes / Dantes’ Father. Old Dantes is Dantes’ beloved father. After his son is thrown in prison for an indefinite amount of time, Old Dantes dies in poverty, despite Mercedes and Old Morrel trying to help.
- Fernand (de Morcerf) One of the plotters who places Dantes in prison, Fernand begins life as a lowly fisherman in the Catalan neighborhood of Marseille.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Baron Franz d'Epinay in The Count of Monte Cristo, written by masters of this stuff just for you.
- Edmond Dantès. The protagonist of the novel. Dantès is an intelligent, honest, and loving man who turns bitter and vengeful after he is framed for a crime he does not commit.
- The Count of Monte Cristo. The identity Dantès assumes when he emerges from prison and inherits his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that comes from an existence based solely on vengeance.
- Lord Wilmore. The identity of an eccentric English nobleman that Dantès assumes when committing acts of random generosity. Lord Wilmore contrasts sharply with Monte Cristo, who is associated with Dantès’s acts of bitterness and cruelty.
- Abbé Busoni. Another of Dantès’s false personas. The disguise of Abbé Busoni, an Italian priest, helps Dantès gain the trust of the people whom the count wants to manipulate because the name connotes religious authority.
- Overview
- Summary
- Legacy
The Count of Monte Cristo, Romantic novel by French author Alexandre Dumas père (possibly in collaboration with Auguste Maquet), published serially in 1844–46 and in book form in 1844–45. The work, which is set during the time of the Bourbon Restoration in France, tells the story of an unjustly incarcerated man who escapes to find revenge.
The novel opens in 1815 as the Pharaon arrives in Marseille. The ship’s owner, Monsieur Morrel, learns from the young first mate, Edmond Dantès, that the captain died on the journey and that Dantès took over. The ship’s accountant, Danglars, is bothered that the Pharaon stopped at Elba, but Dantès explains that the captain left a package to be delivered to one of Napoleon’s marshals who is in exile with Napoleon on the island. Morrel makes Dantès captain of the ship, to Danglars’s displeasure. On visiting his father, Dantès learns that a neighbour, Gaspard Caderousse, took most of his father’s resources in payment of a debt. Dantès then goes to see his fiancée, Mercédès, and finds her in the company of Fernand Mondego, who is in love with her. After leaving, Mondego encounters Danglars and Caderousse, and a decision is made to falsely accuse Dantès of treason. In a letter to the crown prosecutor, Danglars alleges that Dantès is a Bonapartist and is carrying a letter from Napoleon to the Bonapartist committee in Paris.
Britannica Quiz
The Literary World (Famous Novels)
Dantès is arrested, but the assistant prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort, discovers that Dantès is not a Bonapartist agent and is prepared to release him. However, after learning that the young captain has a letter from Napoleon to de Villefort’s father, who is a Bonapartist, he sends Dantès to the Château d’If, an island prison where he remains for many years. One day another inmate, Abbé Faria, arrives in Dantès’s cell through a tunnel he has been digging in an attempt to escape. Faria deduces that Danglars and Mondego framed Dantès as well as why de Villefort keeps Dantès imprisoned. He spends a few years teaching Dantès, and they plan another escape attempt. Faria tells Dantès about a treasure hidden on the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo and then dies. Dantès sews himself inside Faria’s burial shroud and is flung into the sea. He frees himself and is rescued by a crew of smugglers. Later he finds the treasure on Monte Cristo.
Dantès then sets about gaining revenge for his long unjust imprisonment. He disguises himself as an Italian priest and visits Caderousse, who divulges that Danglars and Mondego are both wealthy and that the latter has married Mercédès. Upon hearing that Morrel has fallen on hard times, Dantès secretly solves his financial problems.
Ten years later, in Rome, Dantès, now calling himself the count of Monte Cristo, contrives to meet Albert, the son of Mondego (now the count of Morcerf) and Mercédès. Albert is unhappily engaged to Danglars’s daughter. Dantès subsequently buys a house in Auteuil, outside Paris. Later he tells Haydée, a Greek slave whom he has purchased, that she is now free but must keep the details of her birth a secret. After Dantès arranges for Danglars to lose his fortune, he hosts a dinner party for the Danglarses and the de Villeforts; Maximilian Morrel (the son of Monsieur Morrel) and two convicts hired to play wealthy Italians are also present. It is revealed that Mrs. Danglars was once the mistress of de Villefort and that the younger convict is the son born of that union, whom de Villefort thought he had disposed of as a baby.
The ingenious plot involves concealment and revelation, use of poisonous herbs, and all manner of other things. Beyond the exciting narrative, Dumas focused on the corrupt financial, political, and judicial world of France at the time of the Bourbon Restoration as well as on the marginal figures, such as convicts, who inhabited it. Unfolding gradually, The Count of Monte Cristo offers an unusual reflection on happiness and justice, omnipotence, and the sometimes fatal haunting return of the past.
The Count of Monte Cristo, originally published serially, enthralled its readers, and Dumas adapted it for the stage shortly after its publication as a book. Numerous film and television miniseries versions of the adventure story appeared, among them a highly acclaimed 1964 British miniseries, a 1998 French miniseries starring Gérard Depardieu, a 1922 silent film with John Gilbert in the lead role, a 1954 French film featuring Jean Marais, and a 2002 American film with Jim Caviezel playing Dantès.
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure story that takes place during the historical events of 1815 to 1838. This piece tells the tale of a man who seeks revenge after his escape from prision and deals with the central themes of vengeance, justice, forgiveness, and mercy. Source: Dumas, A. (1844).
People also ask
What happens when Franz and Albert meet Monte Cristo?
Why does the Count of Monte Cristo want Albert?
Who plays Dantès in the Count of Monte Cristo?
Does Monte Cristo buy Peppino his freedom?
When Franz and Albert meet Monte Cristo, they are in awe of him and of his palatial quarters and his princely generosity. In addition, both men are startled by Monte Cristo's enthusiastic invitation to join him in witnessing a public execution from a window overlooking the execution site.
