The Count ofMonte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

• AUTHOR: Alexandre Dumas• PUBLISHED: 1844• SETTING: The story takes place in France, Italy

islands in the Mediterranean and the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days through to the reign of Louis-Phillippe of France)

ALEXANDRE DUMAS• ALEXANDRE DUMAS WAS BORN in 1802 in the village of Villers-

Cotterêts, fifty miles northeast of Paris. His father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been a general under Napoleon, and died in 1806 leaving the family almost penniless.

• Dumas taught himself to read and as a child he was especially fond of adventure stories and mythology. He was determined to become an author himself and in 1820 made his way to Paris to do so.

• His first play, Henry III and His Court, thrust Dumas into the limelight as one of the forerunners of the emergent French Romantic movement, which emphasized excitement, adventure, and high emotion in an attempt to rebel against the conservative climate of the Restoration period that followed the French Revolution. Like his Romantic colleagues, Dumas believed in the principles of social equality and individual rights, and he tried to infuse his dramatic works with these principles. Dumas went further than writing about his beliefs, however. He took an active role in the Revolution of 1830. As a result he was not popular with the new king, and left France in exile.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS• When he returned to Paris, he continued to write frequently. In 1844,

the same year he published The Three Musketeers, Dumas began the serialization of The Count of Monte Cristo. He continued writing prolifically for most of his life, publishing his last novel, The Prussian Terror, in 1867, three years before his death.

• Dumas also found the time to live like one of his dashing, dramatic, reckless heroes. He was constantly engaged in love affairs, foreign adventures, and exorbitant spending. He was also a generous man, granting money and gifts to virtually anyone who asked. Dumas’s self-indulgent lifestyle and excessive generosity eventually took a toll on his finances. By the time he suffered a stroke in 1870, he was far from a rich man, despite the fact that he had earned millions of dollars in his lifetime. He died in December 1870 at the home of his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas the younger. Dumas’s greatest gift was his ability to grant epic proportion to existing stories

Historical Context• The novel takes place during the years following the fall of Napoleon’s

empire. The story begins in 1815 and ends in 1844. Though most of the action takes place in Paris, key scenes are also set in Marseilles, Rome, Monte Cristo, Greece, and Constantinople.

• The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel set firmly in history, with many key plot points based on external political events. The key figure in French politics during the first quarter of the nineteenth century was Napoleon Bonaparte, who, though he does not appear in the novel, plays such a significant role that he can almost be counted as one of the major characters.

• Napoleon was a general who rose to prominence during the French Revolution, which occurred in 1789. He saved the revolutionary government from an angry mob and led the French army to victories over Austria, Italy, and Egypt, claiming all of these lands for France. In 1799, Napoleon led a coup against the existing government of France and formed a consulate, installing himself as its dictatorial leader.

Major Characters• Edmond Dantès - a young man who is wrongfully improsoned; later known as the Count of

Monte Cristo; sometimes called Abbe Busoni, Lord Wilmore, or Sinbad the Sailor• Danglars- an employee of Morrel; later a Parisian banker• Mercedes- Edmond’s beautiful and good fiancée• Abbé Faria - A priest and brilliant thinker whom Dantès meets in prison. Abbé Faria becomes

Dantès’s intellectual father: during their many years as prisoners, and bequeaths to Dantès his vast hidden fortune.

• Fernand Mondego - Dantès’s rival for Mercédès’s affections. • Baron Danglars - A greedy, envious cohort of Mondego. • Caderousse - A lazy, drunk, and greedy man who is somewhat involved in the plot against

Dantès. • Gérard de Villefort - The blindly ambitious public prosecutor responsible for sentencing Dantès

to life in prison. • Monsieur Morrel - The kind, honest shipowner who was once Dantès’s boss. Morrel does

everything in his power to free Dantès from prison and tries to save Dantès’s father from death. His one true friend.

• Louis Dantès - Dantès’s father. • Maximilian Morrel - The son of Monsieur Morrel. Brave and honorable like his father,

Maximilian becomes Dantès’s primary beneficiary. • Albert de Morcerf - The son of Fernand Mondego and Mercédès. Unlike his father, Albert is

brave, honest, and kind. • Valentine Villefort - Villefort’s saintly and beautiful daughter. • Haydée - The daughter of Ali Pacha; Haydée is sold into slavery after her father is betrayed by

Mondego and murdered. Dantès purchases Haydée’s freedom.

The Age of ProgressThe 19th Century

– A Steady Acceleration of Science– The Belief that Material Progress would lead to universal

well-being and happiness– Belief that they are about to become the greatest culture

the world has seen• The Plight of the Poor– As the century progressed, the evils caused by

industrialization increased and the gap between aristocrats and the impoverished factory laborer and peasants widened.

– Also, major gap between the rich and powerful nations of Europe and their subjects in their colonial empires.

CHAPTER # 13• Napoleon quickly recaptures all of France. Now that

Bonapartism is no longer considered a crime, Monsieur Morrel approaches Villefort multiple times to intercede on Dantès’s behalf, but he is always placated with promises. Danglars, unaware that Villefort has an intense personal interest in keeping Dantès locked away, fears that Dantès will be released and then will seek revenge. Danglars resigns from Morrel’s service and moves to Madrid. Fernand comforts Mercédès and wins her gratitude, but has to leave to join Napoleon’s army. In the meantime, Dantès’s father dies of misery over his son’s imprisonment. Morrel pays for the old man’s funeral and settles the small debts he has incurred. After only one hundred days in power, Napoleon is deposed again, and Louis XVIII reassumes the throne.

• Once Dantes is in the sea he must collect his thoughts and strength. He forces himself to swim to an abandoned isle several miles from the prison. Once there he falls asleep on jagged rocks. A Genoese merchant ship picks him up. Dantes tells them his ship has just been wrecked, for a ship did wreck upon the rocks, yet everyone aboard died. The Genoese find it odd that he has a long beard. The date is February 28, 1829, fourteen years after Dantes was incarcerated. Dumas describes the changes that Dantes' face has undergone. Dantes' face is no longer smiling, but instead glances of hatred dart from his eyes. Dantes joins the crew of the ship and becomes a smuggler aboard the Jeune-Amelie. He passes the abandoned Isle of Monte Cristo at least twenty times, without opportunity to land. Finally, after several months a smuggling expedition will take the boat there. Dantes is overjoyed.

summary• The novel begins with the handsome young sailor Edmond

Dantes. He has just returned from a journey aboard the Pharaon. The Pharaon's shipowner, M. Morrel, rushes out to meet the ship. He finds that the captain has died en route, and Dantes has assumed the post with admirable skill. He thus plans to make Dantes officially the next captain of the ship.

• Dantes future is thus promising. His father's financial situation as well as his own will be greatly ameliorated. In addition, Dantes has plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes who has awaited his return from sea with great anxiety and love

Analysis• Dantes' struggle to overcome the rough waves of the sea is a

symbol of rebirth. He emerges from prison a new man. This chapter shows the change that has occurred in Dantes during his fourteen years as prisoner. He no longer is the naïve youth from the story's beginning. Not only has his countenance changed, but also he is stronger and wiser. He has the wisdom to hide his identity from the Genoese smugglers. He becomes one of them because he no longer respects the law. The law is corrupt, for it unjustly had him incarcerated. Dantes sees himself as above the law. He also has the patience and wisdom not to attempt to find the treasures of Monte Cristo right away. Fate goes his way when the smugglers independently decide to land there for an expedition.

• "Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."

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