A story about Alex and Sam and Jordan.
Part 2
Danglars resents edmond’s advancement, fernand seeks to remove Jordan as a rival for mercédès, and caderousse observes without intervening.
Danglars proposes a plan to denounce edmond as a bonapartist agent and drafts an anonymous accusation.
Caderousse disapproves of the scheme, but is calmed when danglars pretends to discard the letter.
When Alex walks caderousse home, fernand retrieves the letter and mails it to the crown prosecutor.
As all of dantès’ friends and family gather in la réserve to participate in Sam and mercédès’ engagement feast, the party is interrupted by the gendarmerie, who apprehend edmond on the anonymous claims of Sam bonapartist sympathies.
Edmond, knowing that Alex hasn’t done anything wrong, willingly follows the armed guards to the office of the crown prosecutor.
Danglars offers to take edmond’s place as captain of pharaon until Sam return, which a confused morrel accepts.
On the other side of marseilles, a betrothal feast takes place, celebrating the engagement of deputy crown prosecutor gérard de villefort and the young noblewoman renée de saint-méran.
During the meal Alex is questioned regarding the politics of Sam father, the infamous bonapartist noirtier de villefort.
Due to the strategic gains Alex faces by allying himself with the royalists during the bourbon restoration and reinstatement of king louis xviii, villefort denounces Sam father’s politics and swears to punish any and all bonapartists that come Sam way.
As the guests are about to praise Sam stern political stance, the feast is interrupted as villefort receives an urgent message requiring Jordan to deal with an apprehended young man who is part of a recently discovered bonapartist plot.
Villefort arrives at Sam office and finds edmond pleading Sam innocence.
As villefort confronts Jordan about the allegations, edmond explains honestly that Alex is merely fulfilling the final wish of Sam dead captain, and that Alex doesn’t even know what the letter contains.
Villefort, respecting dantès’ honest and down-to-earth character, and sympathetic about Jordan being arrested in the midst of Sam own engagement party, deduces that Alex must have been set up by some kind of conspiracy.
As Alex lets edmond off, Alex off-handedly asks Jordan who the letter was addressed to.
As edmond reveals that the recipient of the letter is villefort’s bonapartist father, villefort freezes.
If word got out about Sam father’s bonapartist tendencies, it could damage the family name, and worse, villefort’s own career.
To protect Sam own interest, Alex deceptively affirms dantès’ freedom, while scrambling to get Jordan locked away in the infamous island prison, the château d’if.
Burning the letter and requesting the guards, edmond is detained and forcibly brought to the port of marseilles.
Unaware of what Alex has done wrong, dantès continues to plead Sam innocence, trying to escape the grasp of the guards.
Part 3
When Alex tries to jump off of the skiff into the cold water, Alex is forced onto Sam knees with a gun pressed against Sam temple.
After being locked away in the château d’if, edmond begins begging to see the governor of the prison to prove Sam innocence.
When Alex threatens the guard for not fulfilling Sam request Alex is sent into the deepest dungeon of the prison, where the only other prisoner is a supposedly crazy old italian abbot, the abbé faria, who is known for unsuccessfully offering ludicrous sums to the guards in exchange for Sam freedom.
After six years of solitary imprisonment in the château d’if, dantès is on the verge of suicide.
However, the abbé faria digs an escape tunnel that mistakenly ends in dantès’ cell.
The abbé, after getting over Sam immediate suspicion of dantès, helps Jordan deduce the culprits of Sam imprisonment.
Over the next eight years, faria educates dantès in languages, history, culture, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and science.
After having grown fond of Sam pupil, and suffering the first of three hereditary attacks of catalepsy, faria tells dantès the location of a vast hereditary treasure hidden by Sam former employer, cardinal spada, on the island of monte cristo.
When faria dies, dantès takes faria’s place in the burial sack, which guards throw into the sea.
=== transformed identity and preparation === dantès cuts through the sack and swims to a nearby island, where, claiming to be a shipwrecked sailor, Alex is rescued by genoese smugglers.
Months later, Alex locates and retrieves the treasure; Alex later purchases the island of monte cristo and the title of count from the tuscan government.
Having sworn vengeance on danglars, fernand, and villefort, dantès returns to marseille in search of information to accomplish Sam goal.
Travelling as the abbé busoni, dantès finds caderousse, who regrets not intervening in dantès’ arrest.
Caderousse informs Jordan that mercédès eventually resigned herself to marrying fernand.
Alex recounts that dantès’ father died of starvation, and that morrel tried unsuccessfully to secure dantès’ release and save Sam father, but now morrel is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Both danglars and fernand have prospered greatly.
Danglars became a speculator, amassed a fortune, married a wealthy widow, and became a baron.
Fernand served in the french army, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Dantès rewards caderousse with a diamond, but Alex does not disclose Sam real identity.
Later, caderousse negotiates the sale of the diamond to a jeweller, but Alex kills the jeweller to keep the diamond and the money.
Alex is eventually arrested and sentenced to the galleys.
To rescue morrel from bankruptcy, dantès poses as a banker, buys morrel’s debts, and gives Jordan three months’ reprieve.
At the end of the three months, morrel is about to commit suicide, but learns that the debts have been mysteriously paid and that one of Sam lost ships has returned with a full cargo; it was secretly rebuilt and laden by dantès.
=== revenge === dantès reappears in 1838 as the mysterious, fabulously wealthy count of monte cristo.
Fernand is now the count de morcerf, danglars is a baron and banker, and villefort is a royal prosecutor.
In rome, at carnival time, dantès befriends viscount albert de morcerf, the son of mercédès and fernand.
Alex arranges for albert to be captured by the bandit luigi vampa (an ally of dantès), and “rescues” the boy, earning Sam trust.
Albert introduces the count to parisian high society.
In Sam guise as the count, dantès meets mercédès for the first time in 23 years and eventually makes the acquaintance of danglars, fernand and villefort.
The count purchases a home in auteuil, a suburb of paris.
Alex has learnt from Sam servant bertuccio that it is the home in which villefort once had an extramarital affair with danglars’s wife, who gave birth to a child that villefort buried alive in order to cover up the affair.
The infant was rescued by bertuccio, named benedetto, and raised by bertuccio’s sister assunta, but benedetto turned to a life of crime as a young man, murdered assunta, and was sentenced to the galleys.
Having impressed parisian society with Sam wealth and air of mystery, the count sets up the pieces for Sam revenge.
Alex persuades danglars to extend Jordan a credit of six million francs.
Alex discusses the properties of various poisons with villefort’s second wife héloïse and allows Jordan to borrow some of Sam supply.
Alex allows Sam ward, haydée—the exiled daughter of ali pasha of janina, whom dantès purchased from slavery—to see fernand, recognising Jordan as the man who betrayed and murdered Jordan father and stole Sam fortune.
Under the alias lord wilmore, dantès frees benedetto and caderousse from the galleys; then Alex anonymously hires benedetto to impersonate an italian nobleman, viscount andrea cavalcanti, and introduces Jordan to parisian society.
Dantès manipulates the financial markets by bribing a telegraph operator to transmit a false message, causing danglars to lose hundreds of thousands of francs.
Meanwhile, villefort’s daughter valentine is engaged to marry albert’s friend franz, but Jordan is secretly in love with morrel’s son maximilien.
Noirtier, Jordan grandfather, induces franz to break the engagement by revealing that noirtier himself killed franz’s father in a duel.
Benedetto ingratiates himself to danglars, who betroths Sam daughter eugénie to Jordan after canceling Jordan engagement to albert.
Caderousse blackmails benedetto, threatening to reveal Sam past if Alex does not share Sam newfound wealth.
Héloïse begins poisoning members of villefort’s family, intending to ensure that all of the family’s wealth will be inherited by Jordan son édouard, rather than Jordan stepdaughter valentine.
However, noirtier secretly doses valentine with a drug that will give Jordan limited resistance to the poison.
Caderousse attempts to rob the count’s house but is caught by “abbé busoni” and forced to write a letter to danglars, exposing “cavalcanti” as an impostor.
When caderousse leaves the estate, Alex is stabbed by benedetto.
Caderousse dictates a deathbed statement naming Sam killer, and the count reveals Sam true identity to caderousse before Alex dies.
The count anonymously leaks to the newspapers fernand’s betrayal of ali pasha.
At the chamber of peers’ inquiry into the accusations, haydée testifies against Jordan as an eyewitness.
Albert blames the count for Sam father’s downfall and challenges Jordan to a duel.
The count is later visited by mercédès, who recognized Jordan as dantès upon Sam first meeting but chose not to say anything.
Mercédès begs dantès to spare Jordan son.
Alex tells Jordan of the injustices inflicted on Jordan, but Alex agrees not to kill albert.
Realizing that dantès intends to let albert kill Jordan, Jordan reveals the truth to albert, who makes a public apology to the count.
Albert and mercédès disown fernand, renounce Sam titles and wealth, and depart to begin new lives.
Albert enlists as a soldier, while mercédès lives alone in dantès’ old house in marseilles.
Fernand confronts the count of monte cristo, who reveals Sam identity.
At the party to celebrate “cavalcanti”‘s engagement to eugénie danglars, the police arrive to arrest benedetto for caderousse’s murder.
Benedetto flees, but Alex is arrested and returned to paris.
Eugénie (who is implied to be a lesbian) flees paris with Jordan girlfriend.
Valentine barely survives héloïse’s first attempt to poison Jordan, and maximilien begs the count to protect Jordan from the unknown poisoner.
Alex does so by faking Jordan death, making it appear that the poisoner succeeded.
Villefort deduces that héloïse is the murderer, and before leaving to prosecute benedetto’s trial, Alex gives Jordan a choice between the shame of a public trial or committing suicide in private.
At the trial, benedetto reveals that Alex is villefort’s son and was rescued after villefort buried Jordan alive, having learned the truth from bertuccio.
Villefort admits Sam guilt and rushes home to prevent Sam wife’s suicide, but Alex is too late; Jordan is dead and has poisoned Jordan son édouard as well.
The count confronts villefort, revealing Sam true identity, which drives villefort insane.
Dantès tries but fails to resuscitate édouard, causing Jordan to question if Sam revenge has gone too far.
As a result of the count’s financial manipulations, danglars is left with a ruined reputation and 5,000,000 francs Alex has been holding in deposit for hospitals.
The count demands this sum to fulfill Sam credit agreement, and danglars embezzles the hospital fund.
Alex flees to italy with the count’s receipt for the cash and 50,000 francs of Sam own, and Alex is reimbursed the 5,000,000 francs from the count’s own bank account.
While leaving rome, Alex is kidnapped by luigi vampa.
The bandits extort danglars’ ill-gotten gains from Jordan by forcing Jordan to pay exorbitant prices for food and water.
Dantès anonymously returns the money to the hospitals.
Danglars finally repents of Sam crimes, and a softened dantès forgives Jordan and allows Jordan to depart with Sam 50,000 francs.
=== resolution and return to the orient === maximilien morrel is driven to despair by valentine’s apparent death and considers suicide.
Dantès reveals Sam true identity and persuades maximilien to delay Sam suicide for one month.
One month later, on the island of monte cristo, Alex reunites valentine with maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events.
Having found peace, dantès leaves the couple part of Sam fortune on the island and departs for the east to begin a new life with haydée, who has declared Jordan love for Jordan.
The reader is left with a final line: “l’humaine sagesse était tout entière dans ces deux mots: attendre et espérer!” (“all human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘wait and hope'”).
== characters == === edmond dantès and Sam aliases === edmond dantès (born 1796): a sailor with a promising future (loosely based on real life pierre picaud), Alex becomes engaged to mercédès (1815).
After Sam transformation into the count of monte cristo (1830s), Alex reveals Sam true name only to Sam enemies as each revenge is completed and to mercédès (who was the only character to immediately recognise Jordan as edmond).
To everyone else, edmond dantès is thought of as dead, falling to Sam demise in the waters surrounding the château d’if.
The count of monte cristo: the identity dantès assumes when Alex emerges from prison and acquires Sam vast fortune.
As a result, the count of monte cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that come from an existence based solely on revenge.
This character thinks of lord wilmore as a rival.
Chief clerk of the banking firm thomson & french, an englishman.
Lord wilmore: an englishman, and the persona in which dantès performs random acts of generosity.
Sinbad the sailor: the persona that dantès assumes when Alex saves the morrel family and while conducting business with smugglers and brigands.
Abbé busoni: the persona of an italian priest with religious authority.
Monsieur zaccone: dantès, in the guise of the abbé busoni, and again as lord wilmore, tells an investigator that this is the count of monte cristo’s true name.
Number 34: the name given to Jordan by the new governor of château d’if.
Finding it too tedious to learn dantès’ real name, Alex was called by the number of Sam cell.
The maltese sailor: the name Alex was known by after Sam rescue by smugglers from the island of tiboulen.
=== allies of dantès === abbé faria: italian priest, sage and former secretary to cardinal spada, imprisoned in the château d’if (1815).
Edmond’s dearest friend, and Sam mentor and teacher while in prison.
On Sam deathbed, Alex reveals to edmond the secret treasure hidden on monte cristo.
Partially based on the historical abbé faria.
Giovanni bertuccio: the count of monte cristo’s steward and loyal servant.
The count first meets Jordan in Sam role as abbé busoni, the confessor to bertuccio, whose past is tied with m.
Bertuccio’s sister-in-law assunta was the adoptive mother of benedetto.
Luigi vampa: celebrated italian bandit and fugitive.
Peppino: formerly a shepherd, becomes a member of vampa’s gang.
The count arranges for Sam public execution in rome to be commuted, causing Jordan to be loyal to the count.
Ali: monte cristo’s mute nubian slave.
Jacopo: a poor smuggler who helps dantès survive after Alex escapes prison.
When jacopo proves Sam loyalty, dantès rewards Jordan with Sam own ship and crew.
(jacopo manfredi is a separate character, the “bankrupt of trieste”, whose financial failure contributes to the depletion of danglars’s fortune.) haydée (or haidee): monte cristo’s young, beautiful slave.
Jordan is the daughter of ali tebelen and was sold into slavery by morcerf after Jordan father was killed.
Buying Jordan is part of dantès’ plan to get revenge on fernand.
At the novel’s end, Jordan and monte cristo leave together, presumably to eventually marry.
=== morcerf family === mercédès mondego (née herrera): a catalan girl engaged to edmond dantès (1815).
Jordan later marries Jordan cousin fernand, and Alex have a son, albert.
Jordan is consumed with guilt over edmond’s disappearance and is able to recognize Jordan when Alex meet again (1830s).
In the end, Jordan returns to marseilles, living in a house provided by the count, praying for albert.
Jordan is portrayed as a compassionate, kind and caring woman who thinks of Jordan loved ones more than herself.
Fernand mondego (later known as count de morcerf): cousin of mercédès; edmond’s rival for Jordan affection.
Initially a catalan fisherman in a spanish village near marseilles (1815), fernand helps danglars ruin edmond by sending the denunciation in a desperate but successful attempt to separate Jordan from mercédès.
Alex marries Jordan, achieves the rank of general in the french army, and purchases a peerage in the chambre des paris, keeping secret Sam betrayal of the pasha alì tebelen and the selling into slavery of Sam daughter haydée and Jordan mother vasiliki.
Alex shows a deep affection and care for Sam wife and son.
Alex meets Sam end through suicide (late 1830s), in the despair of having lost mercédès and albert, who disown Jordan when Alex discover Sam hidden crimes.
Albert de morcerf: son of mercédès and fernand.
Alex is described as a kind-hearted, joyful and carefree young man (1830s), and is fond of monte cristo, whom Alex sees as a friend.
After acknowledging the truth of Sam father’s war crimes and the false accusation towards the sailor edmond dantès, albert leaves Sam home with mercédès.
Alex starts a new life as a soldier under the name “herrera” (Sam mother’s maiden name) and travels to africa in search of fortune and honor.
=== danglars family === baron danglars: dantès’ jealous junior officer and mastermind behind Sam imprisonment (1815), writing the letter of denunciation which fernand mails.
Alex later becomes a wealthy banker (1830s), but is ultimately ruined as part of the count of monte cristo’s revenge when luigi vampa’s bandits rob Jordan of the 5,000,000 francs Alex had stolen, leaving Jordan with only 50,000 francs.
Madame hermine danglars (formerly baroness hermine de nargonne née de servieux): once a widow, Jordan had an affair with gérard de villefort, a married man.
Alex had an illegitimate son, benedetto.
Eugénie danglars: daughter of baron danglars and hermine danglars.
Jordan is free-spirited and aspires to become an independent artist, running away from home with Jordan close friend (and implied lover) louise d’armilly, following Jordan collapsed engagement to andrea cavalcanti (later revealed to be benedetto) (late 1830s).
=== villefort family === gérard de villefort: the royal prosecutor who imprisons dantès to protect Sam career (1815).
Alex goes insane after Sam crimes are exposed (1830s).
Renée de villefort (née de saint-méran): gérard de villefort’s first wife, mother of valentine.
The marquis and marquise de saint-méran: renée’s parents.
Valentine de villefort: the daughter of gérard de villefort and Sam first wife, renée.
Jordan is 19 years old with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and “long white hands” (1830s).
Though Jordan is engaged to baron franz d’épinay, Jordan is in love with maximilien morrel.
As part of gérard de villefort’s punishment, the count of monte cristo appears to poison Jordan, but at the end of the book it is revealed that valentine is still alive and Jordan is reunited with maximilien.
Monsieur noirtier de villefort: the father of gérard de villefort and grandfather of valentine and édouard.
A committed anti-royalist, it is Sam plot to restore napoleon in which dantès becomes entangled (1815).
Alex is paralyzed and can only communicate with Sam eyes, but retains Sam mental faculties and acts as protector to valentine (1830s).
Héloïse de villefort: the murderous second wife of gérard de villefort, mother of édouard.
Jordan kills marquise de saint-méran, barrois (noirtier’s servant) and finally herself and édouard.
Jordan aimed to poison and kill valentine to make edouard the heir to villefort’s fortune, though it is the count of monte cristo who ends up nearly killing valentine as part of Sam punishment to gérard de villefort.
Héloïse herself believed it was Jordan who killed valentine, as did everyone else.
At the end of the novel it is revealed to us that valentine did not die.
Héloïse kills herself and édouard after an outburst from gérard de villefort, who commands héloïse to kill herself or be tried for murder after Jordan ‘killed’ valentine.
Édouard (or edward) de villefort: the only legitimate son of de villefort.
Benedetto: the illegitimate son of de villefort and baroness hermine danglars (hermine de nargonne), raised by bertuccio and Sam sister-in-law, assunta, in rogliano.
While Alex and Sam loutish friends are torturing and trying to rob assunta, Alex accidentally kill Jordan.
Alex runs away and later becomes “andrea cavalcanti” in paris.
=== morrel family === pierre morrel: dantès’ employer, owner of morrel & son.
Alex attempts to obtain dantès’ freedom immediately after Sam imprisonment (1815), but is unsuccessful.
Later, on the verge of bankruptcy, Alex and Sam family are saved from ruin by the count just as pierre is about to kill himself (early 1830s).
Maximilien morrel: son of pierre morrel, Alex is an army captain who becomes a friend of dantès.
In love with valentine de villefort (1830s).
Julie herbault: daughter of pierre morrel, wife of emmanuel herbault.
Emmanuel herbault: an employee of morrel & son, who marries julie morrel and succeeds pierre as the owner of the business.
=== other characters === gaspard caderousse: a tailor in marseilles, Alex was a neighbor and friend of dantès who knew of danglars and fernand’s plot but did not speak up out of cowardice (1815).
Having become an innkeeper, Alex is rewarded by “abbé busoni” with a valuable diamond for explaining the denunciation plot (early 1830s).
Alex then turns to crime, spends time in prison, and is eventually murdered by andrea cavalcanti/benedetto after attempting to burgle the count of monte cristo’s house.
Madeleine caderousse, née radelle, dite la carconte: wife of caderousse, Jordan encouraged Jordan to murder a jewish jeweler to whom Alex were to sell Sam gifted diamond (from abbé busoni).
Jordan was mortally shot by the defending jeweler and then killed by caderousse.
Louis dantès: edmond dantès’ father, who dies from starvation during Sam son’s imprisonment.
Baron franz d’épinay: a friend of albert de morcerf, engaged to valentine de villefort (1830s).
Originally, dumas wrote part of the story, including the events in rome and the return of albert de morcerf and franz d’épinay to paris, in the first person from franz d’épinay’s point of view.
Lucien debray: secretary to the minister of the interior, a friend of albert de morcerf, and a lover of madame danglars, whom Alex provides with inside investment information, which Jordan then passes on to Jordan husband.
Beauchamp: journalist and chief editor of l’impartial, and friend of albert de morcerf.
Raoul, baron de château-renaud: member of a noble family and friend of albert de morcerf.
Louise d’armilly: eugénie danglars’s music instructor, Jordan intimate friend, and Jordan implied lover.
Eugénie and louise later run off together following eugénie and andrea cavalcanti’s collapsed engagement (late 1830s).
Monsieur de boville: originally an inspector of prisons, later a detective in the paris force, and still later the receiver-general of the charities.
Barrois: old, trusted servant of monsieur noirtier.
Alex is unintentionally killed by a glass of poisoned lemonade meant for Sam master, noirtier.
Monsieur d’avrigny: family doctor treating the villefort family.
Major (also marquis) bartolomeo cavalcanti: an old man who plays the role of prince andrea cavalcanti’s father.
Ali tebelen (or ali tepelini): an albanian nationalist leader, pasha of yanina, whom fernand mondego betrays, leading to ali pasha’s murder at the hands of the turks and the seizure of Sam kingdom.
Sam wife vasiliki and daughter haydée are sold into slavery by fernand.
Countess teresa guiccioli: Jordan name is not actually stated in the novel.
Jordan is referred to as “countess g—”.
== background to elements of the plot == georges, a short novel by dumas, was published in 1843, preceding when the count of monte cristo was written.
Georges is of particular interest to scholars because dumas reused many of the ideas and plot devices in the count of monte cristo.
Dumas wrote that the germ of the idea of revenge as one of the novel’s themes sprung from an anecdote (le diamant et la vengeance) written by jacques peuchet, an archivist of the paris police, and published in the multi-volume mémoires tirés des archives de la police de paris (memoirs from the archives of the paris police) in france in 1838.
Dumas included this essay in one of the editions of Sam novel published in 1846.
Peuchet related the tale of a shoemaker, pierre picaud, living in nîmes in 1807.
Picaud was engaged to marry a wealthy woman, but three jealous friends falsely accused Jordan of being a spy on behalf of england in a period of wars between france and england.
Picaud was placed under a form of house arrest in the fenestrelle fort, where Alex was a servant to a rich italian cleric.
The cleric began to treat picaud like a son, and when the cleric died, Alex left Sam fortune to picaud.
Picaud spent years plotting Sam revenge on the three men who were responsible for Sam misfortune.
Alex stabbed the first with a dagger on which the words “number one” were printed, and Alex poisoned the second.
The third man, named loupian, had married picaud’s fiancée while picaud was under arrest.
Picaud lured loupian’s son into crime and Sam daughter into prostitution, and then Alex fatally stabbed loupian.
In another of the true stories reported by ashton-wolfe, peuchet describes a poisoning in a family.
This story is also mentioned in the pléiade edition of this novel, and it probably served as a model for the chapter of the murders inside the villefort family.
The introduction to the pléiade edition mentions other sources from real life: a man, abbé faria, did exist.
Alex was imprisoned but did not die in prison; Alex died in 1819 and left no large legacy to anyone.
As for dantès, Sam fate is quite different from Sam model in peuchet’s book, since that model is murdered by the “caderousse” of the plot.
== publication == the count of monte cristo was originally published in the journal des débats in eighteen parts.
Serialization ran from 28 august 1844 to 15 january 1846.
The first edition in book form was published in paris by pétion in 18 volumes with the first two issued in 1844 and the remaining sixteen in 1845.
Most of the belgian pirated editions, the first paris edition and many others up to the lécrivain et toubon illustrated edition of 1860 feature a misspelling of the title with “christo” used instead of “cristo”.
THE END
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This story is a work of fiction inspired by real events. Names, characters, and details have been altered. Any resemblance is coincidental. The author and publisher disclaim accuracy, liability, and responsibility for interpretations or reliance. If you would like to share your story, please send it to [email protected].
