The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Maquet
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Maquet
117 chapters·54h 16m listening·Also in Romanian
4.34from 1,077,867 ratingson Goodreads
On the day he is to be married and made captain, the sailor Edmond Dantès is denounced by three men who each have a reason, and buried in an island fortress without trial. Fourteen years later a fellow prisoner leaves him an education and the location of a fortune. He comes back to Paris as a stranger nobody recognises, and begins.
About the book
First published in serial form from 1844 to 1846, The Count of Monte Cristo begins in Marseille, where Edmond Dantès appears on the verge of professional and personal happiness. A conspiracy born from jealousy and self-interest leads to his arrest, while political fear gives an ambitious official reason to keep him imprisoned. Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet build an expansive adventure around imprisonment, hidden identities, wealth, loyalty and revenge. The story moves through different levels of French and Mediterranean society, connecting private betrayals with political change. At its centre is the question of what happens when a person gains the power to answer past injustice on his own terms.
Characters
Edmond Dantès — Protagonist
A young Marseille sailor whose promising future is destroyed by a conspiracy and unjust imprisonment.
Mercédès — Dantès’s fiancée
The Catalan woman Dantès plans to marry, devoted to him when his sudden arrest interrupts their future.
Abbé Faria — Fellow prisoner
An educated Italian priest imprisoned near Dantès who becomes his teacher, confidant and intellectual guide.
Fernand Mondego — Rival suitor
A Catalan fisherman who loves Mercédès and bitterly resents her engagement to Dantès.
Danglars — Ship’s supercargo
A calculating colleague of Dantès whose jealousy is sharpened by the young sailor’s expected promotion.
Gérard de Villefort — Deputy prosecutor
An ambitious deputy prosecutor whose political and family interests become entangled with Dantès’s case.
Caderousse — Neighbour
A neighbour of Dantès who knows more about the conspiracy than he is willing or able to prevent.
About the author
Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Maquet
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) and Auguste Maquet (1813–1888) wrote together for a decade, and the books everyone knows as Dumas's came out of that partnership: Maquet worked up the history and drafted the plots, Dumas wrote the version that was published. Dumas was the grandson of an enslaved woman in Saint-Domingue and the son of one of Napoleon's generals, and he produced serial fiction at industrial speed for the newspapers of his day. Maquet sued for credit and a share of the proceeds in 1858 and largely lost. The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers are both theirs.