The Count of Monte Cristo - (Vintage Classics) by Alexandre Dumas (Paperback)

About the Book

The Count of Monte Cristo (Paris, 1844-45), by French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas, is one of the most popular novels ever written. Set in Marseilles, Rome and Paris in the nineteenth century, it tells the story of Edmond Dantáes, a young sailor who is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned in a dungeon for fourteen years. A fellow prisoner tells him where to find treasure buried on a Mediterranean island called Monte Cristo. On Dantáes's escape, he acquires the treasure, gives himself the name Count of Monte Cristo, and ruthlessly goes about the slow destruction of his enemies.

Book Synopsis

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING PIERRE NINEY - Dumas's epic and timeless novel of justice, retribution, and self-discovery

On the eve of his wedding, a young sailor named Edmond Dantès is wrongly accused of treason and imprisoned for life in the Château d'If, a reputedly impregnable island fortress. After a daring escape, Dantès unearths a treasure revealed to him by another prisoner and devotes the rest of his life to tracking down and punishing the enemies who wronged him, in disguise as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo.

Set against the dramatic upheavals of the years after Napoleon, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most enduringly popular adventure novels ever written.

Review Quotes

"Dumas was...a summit of art. Nobody ever could, or did, or will improve upon Dumas's romances and plays."--George Bernard Shaw

"A piece of perfect storytelling."--Robert Louis Stevenson

About the Author

ALEXANDRE DUMAS was born in 1802 in France. His father, a general in Napoleon's army, died when Dumas was three years old, leaving Dumas and his mother impoverished. When he turned twenty-one, Dumas moved to Paris, where he worked for the powerful duc d'Orléans. He wrote popular plays and then novels, including The Three Musketeers. In 1851, he fled from his creditors to Brussels and then to Russia, and in 1861, he joined the fight to unite Italy, founding the revolutionary newspaper L'Indipendente. He died in 1870.