The Count of Monte Cristo

Le comte de Monte Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo) is a classic adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is often considered Dumas' best work, and is frequently included on lists of the best novels of all time. The writing of the work was completed in 1844, and released as an 18-part series over the next two years. Dumas collaborated with other authors in the writing.

Escape to Riches

While in prison, Dantès slowly begins to spiral into insanity. He begins by praying to God for his release, but after years he still suffers, at which point he attempts suicide by starvation. However, at his moment of death, his will to live is restored by the sounds of another prisoner digging. Soon after he encounters the prisoner, the Abbé Faria with whom he forms a deep friendship. Faria becomes his instructor in a number of subjects, ranging from history and mathematics to language and philosophy. As a result of his conversations with Faria, Dantès slowly begins to piece together the plots that put him in his current predicament. He and Faria work long hours on an escape tunnel, but the elderly and infirm Faria does not survive to see its completion. Knowing himself dying, Faria confides to Dantès the location of a great treasure on the islet of Monte Cristo. Dantès subsequently escapes by the simple expedient of taking the place of Faria's body, although he almost is killed when the gaolers, instead of burying the body as he assumed, attach heavy chains and throw it from a nearby cliff into the ocean.

Related Topics:
Abbé Faria - Monte Cristo

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Following his escape, Dantès, after three months among smugglers, retrieves the treasure and re-invents himself as the enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo. His long experience in prison has changed him physically, giving him the appearance of a vampire; mentally, giving him a much greater depth and breadth of knowledge; and socially, with his access to great wealth. Perhaps the greatest change is psychological, however; from an idealistic youth he has become a grimly intense man, near-obsessed with his plans to repay those who have done him both good and ill in kind.

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