Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

The Count of Monte Cristo 
Alexander Dumas, 1844
400-600 pp. (varies by publisher)


Summary 
Marseille, France, 1815. It is Edmond Dantes' wedding day. But his enemies have other plans, and Edmond is arrested and sent to the terrible island prison of Chateau d'If. For fourteen long years he waits for the right moment to escape. And now Edmond is a rich man, with many disguises, and a new name. The count of Monte Cristo begins his revenge. (From Bantam Books edition.)

A popular bestseller since its publication in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great page-turning thrillers of all time. Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, Dumas’s grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason.

The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal. As Robert Louis Stevenson declared, “I do not believe there is another volume extant where you can breathe the same unmingled atmosphere of romance." (From the Modern Library Classics edition.)

Author Bio
• Birth—July 24, 1802
• Where—Villers-Cotterets, France
• Death—December 5, 1870
• Where—Belgium

Alexandre Dumas (père) lived a life as romantic as that depicted in his famous novels. He was born on July 24,1802, at Villers-Cotterêts, France, the son of Napoleon’s famous mulatto general, Dumas.

His early education was scanty, but his beautiful handwriting secured him a position in Paris in 1822 with the du’Orléans, where he read voraciously and began to write. His first play, Henri III et sa cour (1829), scored a resounding success for its author and for the romantic movement. Numerous dramatic successes followed (including the melodrama Kean, later adapted by Jean-Paul Satre), and so did numerous mistresses and adventures.

He took part in the revolution of 1830 and caught cholera during the epidemic of 1832, fathered two illegitimate children by two different mistresses, and then married still another mistress. (The first of these two children, Alexandre Dumas, [fils], became a famous author also,) His lavish spending and flamboyant habits led to the construction of his fabulous Château de Monte-Christo, and in 1851 he fled to Belgium to escape creditors. He died on December 5, 1870, bankrupt but still cheerful, saying of death, “I shall tell her a story, and she will be kind to me.”

Dumas’s overall literary output reached over 277 volumes, but his brilliant historical novels made him the most universally read of all French novelists. With collaborators, mainly Auguste Maquet, Dumas wrote such works as The Three Musketeers (1843-44); its sequels, Twenty Years After (1845) and the great mystery The Man in the Iron Mask (1845-50); and The Count of Monte Cristo (1844).

L’action and l’amour were the two essential things in life and his fiction. He declared he “elevated history to the dignity of the novel” by means of love affairs, intrigues, imprisonments, hairbreadth escapes, and duels. His work ignored historical accuracy, Psychology, and analysis, but its thrilling adventure and exuberant inventiveness continue to delight readers, and Dumas remains one of the prodigies of nineteenth-century French literature. (From the Modern Library Classics edition.)

Book Reviews 
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Discussion Questions
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Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Count of Monte Cristo:

1. The central issue in The Count of Monte Cristo is the question of revenge. In the case of this book, is Dantes' quest for vengeance morally just? Can vengeance ever stand in for justice?

2. Discuss Villefort's decision to imprison Dantes. He believes Dantes has been unfairly accused, but at the same time he fears for his own father's life.

3. Talk about the role that the Abbe Faria plays in Dante's development. Why does Dantes consider him a second father?

4. Why does Dantes treat Caderrouse more lightly than he does Danglars and Mondego?

5 What truths do Julie and Emmanuel reveal to Dantes? What does he learn from them?

6. As he takes his leave from Maximillian, Dantes claims that "there is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more.” What does that statement mean—in the context of the story and in real life—and how does it reverberate throughout the novel?

7. Talk about Dantes' profound alienation when he escapes from prison and his gradual movement back into reconciliation with humanity. How does that development take place: what and the plot benchmarks who are characters who help him regain his humanity.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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