The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo begins in Marseille in 1815. Edmond Dantès, a young and honest sailor, is about to become a ship's captain and marry his beloved Mercédès when jealous rivals and an ambitious public prosecutor conspire against him. Accused of supporting the exiled Napoleon, he is thrown without trial into the grim island fortress of the Château d'If. There, after years of despair, he befriends a fellow prisoner, the learned Abbé Faria, who educates him and reveals the location of a hidden treasure. Years later a wealthy and enigmatic count appears in Parisian high society with plans of his own.

Dumas built a sprawling adventure full of disguises, intrigue, poisonings, duels and dramatic reversals, but the novel is also a serious meditation on justice, revenge, forgiveness and the limits of human power. Its pace and inventiveness make it gripping, while its portrait of corruption in banking, the law and politics under the Restoration and July Monarchy still feels pointed.

The novel was serialised in the Journal des Débats between 1844 and 1846, with Dumas working alongside his collaborator Auguste Maquet. It was hugely popular in France and was quickly translated across Europe and beyond. It remains one of the most widely read adventure novels in the world and has inspired many stage, film, television and comic-book adaptations, as well as countless revenge stories.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a classic by Alexandre Dumas, first published in 1844. On BookClassics you can read it free online in English, French and Italian. A free audio excerpt is also available. You may also like The Black Tulip, The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After.

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