The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas, 1844Anonymous translation (1846)

Alexandre Dumas’s novel of Edmond Dantès, a young sailor of Marseilles who is falsely denounced by jealous rivals on the eve of his wedding and imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, and of the long revenge he plans against the men who betrayed him.

Start reading117 chapters, about 464,000 words

Famous quotes

“We are never quits with those who oblige us,” was Dantès’ reply; “for when we do not owe them money, we owe them gratitude.”
Volume One, Chapter 2In context
- Money
Man does not appear to me to be intended to enjoy felicity so unmixed; happiness is like the enchanted palaces we read of in our childhood, where fierce, fiery dragons defend the entrance and approach; and monsters of all shapes and kinds, requiring to be overcome ere victory is ours.
Volume One, Chapter 5In context
- Happiness
To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other.
Volume One, Chapter 17In context
I have been Heaven’s substitute to recompense the good⁠—now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!
Volume Two, Chapter 30In context
- Good & Evil
- Justice
Hatred is blind, rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.
Volume Two, Chapter 35In context
- Anger
- Justice
Moral wounds have this peculiarity,⁠—they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.
Volume Four, Chapter 86In context
- Emotion
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.
Volume Five, Chapter 117In context
- Happiness
- Life & Death
Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,⁠—‘Wait and hope.’
Volume Five, Chapter 117In context
- Hope
- Wisdom

Volume One

Chapter 1Marseilles—The Arrival
Chapter 2Father and Son
Chapter 3The Catalans
Chapter 4Conspiracy
Chapter 5The Marriage Feast
Chapter 6The Deputy Procureur du Roi
Chapter 7The Examination
Chapter 8The Château d’If
Chapter 9The Evening of the Betrothal
Chapter 10The King’s Closet at the Tuileries
Chapter 11The Corsican Ogre
Chapter 12Father and Son
Chapter 13The Hundred Days
Chapter 14The Two Prisoners
Chapter 15Number 34 and Number 27
Chapter 16A Learned Italian
Chapter 17The Abbé’s Chamber
Chapter 18The Treasure
Chapter 19The Third Attack
Chapter 20The Cemetery of the Château d’If
Chapter 21The Island of Tiboulen
Chapter 22The Smugglers
Chapter 23The Island of Monte Cristo
Chapter 24The Secret Cave
Chapter 25The Unknown
Chapter 26The Pont du Gard Inn
Chapter 27The Story

Volume Two

Chapter 28The Prison Register
Chapter 29The House of Morrel & Son
Chapter 30The Fifth of September
Chapter 31Italy: Sinbad the Sailor
Chapter 32The Waking
Chapter 33Roman Bandits
Chapter 34The Colosseum
Chapter 35La Mazzolata
Chapter 36The Carnival at Rome
Chapter 37The Catacombs of Saint Sebastian
Chapter 38The Rendezvous
Chapter 39The Guests
Chapter 40The Breakfast
Chapter 41The Presentation
Chapter 42Monsieur Bertuccio
Chapter 43The House at Auteuil
Chapter 44The Vendetta
Chapter 45The Rain of Blood
Chapter 46Unlimited Credit
Chapter 47The Dappled Grays

Volume Three

Chapter 48Ideology
Chapter 49Haydée
Chapter 50The Morrel Family
Chapter 51Pyramus and Thisbe
Chapter 52Toxicology
Chapter 53Robert le Diable
Chapter 54A Flurry in Stocks
Chapter 55Major Cavalcanti
Chapter 56Andrea Cavalcanti
Chapter 57In the Lucern Patch
Chapter 58M. Noirtier de Villefort
Chapter 59The Will
Chapter 60The Telegraph
Chapter 61How a Gardener May Get Rid of the Dormice that Eat His Peaches
Chapter 62Ghosts
Chapter 63The Dinner
Chapter 64The Beggar
Chapter 65A Conjugal Scene
Chapter 66Matrimonial Projects
Chapter 67The Office of the King’s Attorney
Chapter 68A Summer Ball
Chapter 69The Inquiry
Chapter 70The Ball
Chapter 71Bread and Salt
Chapter 72Madame de Saint-Méran
Chapter 73The Promise

Volume Four

Chapter 74The Villefort Family Vault
Chapter 75A Signed Statement
Chapter 76Progress of Cavalcanti the Younger
Chapter 77Haydée
Chapter 78We hear From Yanina
Chapter 79The Lemonade
Chapter 80The Accusation
Chapter 81The Room of the Retired Baker
Chapter 82The Burglary
Chapter 83The Hand of God
Chapter 84Beauchamp
Chapter 85The Journey
Chapter 86The Trial
Chapter 87The Challenge
Chapter 88The Insult
Chapter 89The Night
Chapter 90The Meeting
Chapter 91Mother and Son
Chapter 92The Suicide
Chapter 93Valentine
Chapter 94Maximilian’s Avowal
Chapter 95Father and Daughter

Volume Five

Chapter 96The Contract
Chapter 97The Departure for Belgium
Chapter 98The Bell and Bottle Tavern
Chapter 99The Law
Chapter 100The Apparition
Chapter 101Locusta
Chapter 102Valentine
Chapter 103Maximilian
Chapter 104Danglars’ Signature
Chapter 105The Cemetery of Père-Lachaise
Chapter 106Dividing the Proceeds
Chapter 107The Lions’ Den
Chapter 108The Judge
Chapter 109The Assizes
Chapter 110The Indictment
Chapter 111Expiation
Chapter 112The Departure
Chapter 113The Past
Chapter 114Peppino
Chapter 115Luigi Vampa’s Bill of Fare
Chapter 116The Pardon
Chapter 117The Fifth of October