51 h 57 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when an honest man loses everything—and gains the power to make his enemies answer?
Edmond Dantès comes home to Marseille with a promotion and marriage within reach. Then envy and ambition close around him. Danglars plots against him, and Gérard de Villefort protects his own career at Edmond’s expense. Sent to prison without a trial, the young sailor loses his future with Mercédès.
In the stone and silence of the Château d’If, Edmond meets Abbé Faria, a scholar-priest with knowledge to share and a secret about treasure. Years later, a mysterious count enters Rome and Paris. Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet build an adventure of escape, disguise and patient revenge around a troubling question: who has the right to deliver justice?
What you’ll discover
- A life torn apart Feel the stakes of betrayal as Edmond’s hopes collide with other men’s envy.
- A teacher behind bars Meet Abbé Faria, whose lessons and secret offer Edmond something beyond his prison walls.
- Fortune, danger and disguise Follow an intricate plot through buried treasure, bandits, poison and a stranger’s carefully guarded purpose.
- Enemies with much to lose Enter wealthy Paris households where old wrongs meet money, ambition and a patient plan.
- Justice without a court Weigh the pull of revenge against the question of who may rightly judge another.
Who will love it
For readers who love big plots, revenge and classic adventure with moral weight. Prison escapes, buried treasure, poison and disguise meet questions about justice and the cost of revenge.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A happy sailor on the Marseille docks
- Envy writes a letter that ruins him
- A prosecutor buries the truth to save himself
- In prison, a priest becomes his teacher
- A daring escape and a buried fortune
- A mysterious count enters Rome and Paris
- Three houses, three old sins, one patient plan
- What it means to take justice into your own hands
- How Dumas builds a story you cannot put down
Who’s who
- Edmond DantèsA young, honest sailor from Marseille who is betrayed on the eve of his wedding and later returns under another name.
- MercédèsEdmond's fiancée, a young woman from the Catalan village, who loves him and must live with the consequences of his disappearance.
- Fernand MondegoMercédès' cousin, who loves her and envies Edmond, and who rises to wealth, rank and a new title.
- Abbé FariaAn old scholar-priest in the Château d'If who teaches Edmond and shares the secret of a treasure.
- CaderousseA tailor and neighbor who sees the plot against Edmond and stays silent, driven by weakness and greed.
- Albert de MorcerfA young, trusting Parisian aristocrat who meets the Count in Rome and brings him into society.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Read and hear The Count of Monte Cristo in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas; Auguste Maquet · 1844
On the docks of Marseille, envy threatens Edmond Dantès just as marriage and promotion seem within reach.
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In short
Imagine losing everything on the happiest day of your life, and then spending fourteen years in prison. The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, written with his collaborator Auguste Maquet and first printed in installments in a Paris newspaper.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A happy sailor on the Marseille docks
The story opens as the ship Pharaon sails into Marseille. Edmond Dantès, its young first mate, has taken command after the captain died at sea. The shipowner, Monsieur Morel, promises to make him captain. His father depends on him, and he is engaged to Mercédès, with the wedding days away.
Dumas shows that Edmond is good rather than perfect. He is trusting and happy in his good fortune. Danglars, the sour accountant, counts every slight. Fernand loves Mercédès himself. Caderousse, a greedy neighbor, knows more than he should.
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What is The Count of Monte Cristo about?
It tells of Edmond Dantès, a young sailor falsely accused and imprisoned for fourteen years. After escaping and finding a hidden treasure, he returns as a wealthy count to deal with the men who destroyed his life.
Is The Count of Monte Cristo based on a true story?
The plot is fiction, though Dumas drew on a police archive tale of a Paris shoemaker wronged by false friends. The novel was published in installments from 1844 to 1846, and it is set between 1815 and about 1838.
Who is the Count of Monte Cristo?
He is Edmond Dantès under a new identity. The title comes from the island of Monte Cristo, where he finds a treasure that lets him build a fortune, a noble name and a place in Paris society.
The author
Alexandre Dumas
1802–1870 · French novelist and playwright
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was a French novelist and playwright. He was born in Villers-Cotterêts, lived in Paris, and died in Puys, near Dieppe. He wrote The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1846), Twenty Years After (1845), and The Black Tulip (1850).
More by Alexandre Dumas; Auguste Maquet
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