The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by the French writer Alexandre Dumas, originally published in serial form between 1844 and 1846, which is reflected in the novel’s episodic structure, large cast of characters, and frequent shifts of scene. The novel has been translated into English several times, usually in abridged form. This guide follows the translation and abridgment by Lowell Blair, first published in 1956.

Content Warning: The source material includes suicide, suicidal ideation, murder, ableist language and attitudes, and drug use. It further includes racial tropes and representations inherent in Orientalism, a term popularized by 20th-century scholar Edward Said, who defines it as the West’s perception and subsequent definition and homogenization of the “non-West.”

Plot Summary

The novel follows Edmond Dantès, who transforms himself into the Count of Monte Cristo to enact revenge on the three men responsible for sending him to prison and preventing his marriage to Mercédès Herrera. At 19, Edmond, a sailor from Marseilles, is about to be promoted to captain by his employer, M. Morrel, and marry his fiancée, Mercédès.

Because of this, Edmond incurs the jealousy of Danglars, the purser on his ship, the Pharaon, and Fernand Mondego, a distant cousin of Mercédès who is in love with her. The two write an anonymous letter to the authorities denouncing Edmond as a Bonapartist conspirator, a claim based on Edmond’s stop at the island of Elba at the request of the dying captain of the Pharaon and Edmond’s possession of a letter from Napoleon. (This part of the novel takes place in the early spring of 1815, in the days leading up to Napoleon’s return from Elba).

Edmond does not know about this conspiracy, but Villefort, the young assistant prosecutor examining him, discovers that the letter is addressed to Villefort’s father, Noirtier, a prominent supporter of Napoleon. Villefort, about to marry into a Royalist family of great wealth, cannot afford to have his family linked to a Bonapartist plot. To ensure no one ever learns of the letter, he arranges for Edmond to be imprisoned for life in the Chateau d’If, a notorious prison on an island in the harbor of Marseilles.

During his imprisonment at the Chateau d’If, Edmond is befriended by a fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, who tunnels into Edmond’s cell while attempting to escape. Over the years, Faria educates Edmond, especially in languages and the preparation of drugs and poisons. He also shares with Edmond the secret of a treasure buried on the island of Monte Cristo centuries before by a Roman cardinal killed by the Borgias. He further helps Edmond ascertain those responsible for his imprisonment. When Faria dies, Edmond takes the place of Faria’s corpse and is thrown into the sea. Rescued by Italian smugglers, he goes to the island of Monte Cristo and finds the treasure.

Now wealthy and well-traveled, Edmond adopts the title of Count of Monte Cristo, and devotes himself to rewarding those loyal to him and taking revenge on those who wronged him. Disguised as an Italian priest, he learns from Caderousse, an old neighbor, that his elderly father died of hunger, despite the charity of M. Morrel, and that Mercédès eventually agreed to marry Fernand, who achieved success as a soldier and now lives in Paris as the Count de Morcerf. Danglars, a wealthy banker, also lives in Paris, as does Villefort, who is now an important prosecutor.

Monte Cristo first applies himself to rescuing the business of his old employer M. Morrel, who has suffered for his public support of a Bonapartist prisoner. In doing so, Monte Cristo makes use of another fictional persona he will turn to again: an English aristocrat working on behalf of a Roman bank, Thomson and French.

A few years later, in Rome, Monte Cristo befriends Albert de Morcerf, son of Mercédès and Fernand, and his friend, Franz d’Epinay. When Albert is kidnapped by Luigi Vampa, a smuggler and friend of Monte Cristo, Monte Cristo arranges Albert’s release and, in exchange, asks Albert to introduce him into Parisian society. Upon Albert’s introduction, the only one who recognizes Monte Cristo as Edmond Dantès is Mercédès, who tells no one.

Fernand is a close associate of Danglars, and Albert is expected to marry Danglars’s daughter, Eugénie, despite neither one’s desire to do so. Monte Cristo has also learned that, before her marriage to Danglars, Mme. Danglars was Villefort’s lover, who Villefort concealed in a house in the Parisian suburb of Auteuil when she became pregnant. Villefort attempted to bury the baby in the garden of the house in Auteuil, but he was attacked while doing so by a Corsican smuggler, Bertuccio, who was avenging Villefort’s refusal to investigate his brother’s murder.

In the present, Bertuccio has become Monte Cristo’s most trusted servant. After Monte Cristo rents the house in Auteuil as part of his planned revenge, Bertuccio confesses that he took the baby boy, along with his sister, and raised him under the name Benedetto. In addition to Bertuccio, Monte Cristo’s household includes Ali, a “Nubian” servant, and Haydée, a young Greek woman of mysterious origins, apparently purchased by Monte Cristo as an enslaved woman.

Through Albert, Monte Cristo learns that Danglars frequently makes risky trades on the financial market based on information provided to his wife by her lover, Lucien Debray. Monte Cristo also makes contact with the adult children of M. Morrel and becomes the friend of Maximilien Morrel, a gallant young soldier. Maximilien is secretly in love with Valentine de Villefort, the daughter of Villefort’s first marriage. The Villefort household also includes the second Mme. Villefort, her young son Edouard, and Villefort’s father, the Bonapartist Noirtier, now paralyzed and speechless after a stroke. Valentine loves Maximilien, but her father and stepmother have arranged a marriage to Franz d’Epinay, Albert’s friend.

Monte Cristo arranges for Danglars to experience a series of financial setbacks. He also encourages Mme. Villefort’s interest in poison, as she resents the fact that Valentine, rather than Edouard, will inherit the family fortune. He hires two men to play Italian noblemen, father and son. The young man playing the son, Andrea de Cavalcanti, is in fact Benedetto, Villefort and Mme. Danglars’s son born outside of marriage. Benedetto/Andrea, a criminal, is recognized by Caderousse, now himself an escaped convict, having turned to murder and theft after his encounter with Monte Cristo.

Monte Cristo arranges a dinner party at the house in Auteuil, where he reveals enough knowledge of the house’s past to show Villefort and Mme. Danglars that he knows their secret. Monte Cristo also encourages Danglars to see Andrea as a better match for his daughter than Albert and prompts Danglars to investigate Fernand de Morcerf’s past as a mercenary in Greece.

Meanwhile, Villefort loses both his in-laws from his first marriage to sudden illnesses. His father, Noirtier, prevents Valentine’s marriage to Franz by revealing that he killed Franz’s father in a duel many years before. Valentine and Maximilien agree to marry, with Noirtier’s blessing, but their happiness is interrupted by the illness and death of Barrois, Noirtier’s longtime servant. The family doctor tells Villefort that he suspects poison in all three deaths, and that the poison that killed Barrois was intended for Noirtier. As Valentine will inherit from all her grandparents, she is the logical suspect.

Caderousse, unsatisfied with his earnings from extorting Benedetto, breaks into Monte Cristo’s house in Paris, who has been forewarned by Benedetto, and confronts him. Caderousse flees but is attacked and stabbed by Benedetto. Just before Caderousse dies, Monte Cristo reveals to him that he is actually Edmond Dantès.

Danglars, having followed up on Monte Cristo’s hints about Morcerf’s past, accuses Morcerf of betraying Ali Pasha, his employer in Greece, and selling the Pasha’s wife and daughter into slavery. Haydée confronts Morcerf publicly and reveals that she is the Pasha’s daughter, brought out of enslavement by Monte Cristo. Albert, outraged by the public humiliation of his father, challenges Monte Cristo to a duel. Monte Cristo agrees but apologizes instead, after Mercédès begs him to spare her son’s life. Albert and Mercédès leave Paris. Monte Cristo confronts Morcerf and reveals his true identity. Morcerf shoots himself.

Danglars has arranged for his daughter, Eugénie, to marry Andrea, but the signing of the wedding contract is interrupted by the police, who arrest Andrea/Benedetto for the murder of Caderousse. Benedetto flees Paris but is soon apprehended. Bertuccio visits Benedetto in prison and tells him the secret of his parentage.

Valentine falls ill, an apparent victim of the same poison that killed her grandparents. Monte Cristo, shocked to learn that Villefort’s daughter is also Maximilien’s fiancée, assures her everything will be all right and administers a drug that puts her into a deathlike trance on the same night that the real poisoner—her stepmother—attempts to give her a fatal dose. Villefort, realizing his wife is a murderer and believing that she has killed his daughter, gives her a choice between suicide and exposure.

In court that same day, Villefort is confronted by Benedetto, who exposes Villefort as his father. Returning home in a state of shock, Villefort finds that his wife has killed both herself and Edouard. Monte Cristo visits and reveals his true identity to Villefort. Villefort tells Monte Cristo to look at the bodies of his wife and child and asks if vengeance is worth such a price. He then begins to behave irrationally. Monte Cristo, horrified, wonders if he has gone too far.

Danglars, ruined financially by Monte Cristo, flees to Rome, where he is kidnapped by the same smuggler who kidnapped Albert. After Danglars has experienced much hardship, Monte Cristo agrees to have Danglars released if he expresses true repentance, which he does. Back on the island of Monte Cristo, Monte Cristo reunites Maximilien with Valentine, who has been living with Haydée. Monte Cristo announces his intention to leave all of them, but Haydée declares her love for him and insists on accompanying him. Before leaving, Monte Cristo gives away his fortune and property to Maximilien and Valentine as a wedding gift.