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The Count of Monte Cristo, V1

by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas, developed with his collaborator Auguste Maquet and serialized in the Journal des Debats between 1844 and 1846. It follows Edmond Dantes, a… more

First published 1844 · 1276 pages · English

4 quotes ★ 4.33 (1,062,011) Classics

Quotes from the Book

Abbe Faria: Here is your final lesson - do not commit the crime for which you now serve the sentence. God said, Vengeance is mine. Edmond Dantes: I don't believe in God. Abbe Faria: It doesn't matter. He believes in you.
Celui-la seul qui a eprouve l'extreme infortune est apte a ressentir l'extreme felicite. Il faut avoir voulu mourir pour savoir combien el est bon de vivre.
... il n'y a ni bonheur ne malheur en ce monde, il y a la comparaison d'un etat a un autre, voila tout.
Ho l'impressione che l'uomo non possa essere felice così facilmente! La felicità è come quei palazzi delle isole incantate alle cui porte stanno a difesa i draghi: bisogna combattere per conquistarli.

Did you know?

  • The novel was serialized in the Paris newspaper Journal des Debats in eighteen parts from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846.
  • Dumas developed the story with his collaborator Auguste Maquet, who handled research and initial plot outlines but never received official co-author credit.
  • The plot was inspired by an anecdote in Jacques Peuchet's Memoirs from the Archives of the Paris Police, associated with a shoemaker named Pierre Picaud who was falsely imprisoned and later sought revenge.
  • Dumas visited the real island of Monte Cristo, off the coast of Tuscany, during an 1841 voyage and adopted its name for his novel.
  • The Chateau d'If, where Dantes is imprisoned, is a real 16th-century island fortress off Marseilles that served as a state prison for about 300 years.

About Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was a French novelist and playwright, one of the most widely read French authors, best known for historical adventure novels including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a general of mixed French and Afro-Caribbean descent.

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About the book

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas, developed with his collaborator Auguste Maquet and serialized in the Journal des Debats between 1844 and 1846. It follows Edmond Dantes, a young Marseilles sailor on the verge of marriage and promotion, who is falsely denounced as a Bonapartist traitor and imprisoned without trial in the island fortress of the Chateau d'If. There he befriends the learned Abbe Faria, who reveals the location of a vast hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo; after fourteen years Dantes escapes, claims the fortune, and reinvents himself as the mysterious and immensely wealthy Count of Monte Cristo.

Reborn under his new identity, the Count moves through Parisian high society to methodically expose and ruin the three men who conspired against him: Danglars, Fernand Mondego, and the magistrate Villefort. The novel is driven by themes of justice and vengeance, but also of hope, providence, and the ambiguous cost of retribution, as Dantes gradually confronts the innocent lives entangled in his elaborate schemes and the question of whether he has overstepped the role of divine instrument he believes himself to be.

One of the most enduringly popular works of the nineteenth century, the book grew out of an anecdote Dumas found in Jacques Peuchet's memoirs from the Paris police archives, later associated with the shoemaker Pierre Picaud. It has been translated into scores of languages and adapted repeatedly for film, television, and the stage, cementing the Count as an archetype of the wronged man who returns transformed to settle his accounts. This edition is the first volume of the novel, covering Dantes's betrayal, imprisonment, and the beginnings of his transformation.

Key characters

  • Edmond DantesWronged young sailor who becomes the Count of Monte Cristo
  • Abbe FariaLearned fellow prisoner who educates Dantes and reveals the treasure
  • MercedesDantes's fiancee, who later marries Fernand
  • Fernand MondegoRival for Mercedes who helps frame Dantes
  • DanglarsEnvious shipmate who instigates the false accusation
  • Gerard de VillefortAmbitious magistrate who imprisons Dantes to protect himself
  • CaderousseGreedy tailor and neighbor complicit in Dantes's downfall

Book details

First published
1844
Length
1276 pages
Reading time
77 hours
Goodreads rating
4.33 (1.1M ratings) →
First line
“On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples.”

Movie & TV adaptations

  • IMDb
    The Count of Monte Cristo 2002

    Feature film directed by Kevin Reynolds, starring Jim Caviezel

  • IMDb
    The Count of Monte-Cristo 2024

    French feature film adaptation

If you liked this, read…

  1. 1
    The Three MusketeersDumas's other great adventure novel of intrigue and honor
  2. 2
    Les MiserablesSweeping 19th-century French epic of injustice, redemption, and fate
The Count of Monte Cristo, V1 The Count of Monte Cristo, V1 Alexandre Dumas Get the book
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