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Alexandre Dumas, pere
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Alexandre Dumas, père
French author [1802-1870]
born July 24, 1802, Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, Fr.
died Dec. 5, 1870, Puys, near Dieppe
Main
one of the most prolific and most popular French authors of the 19th
century. Without ever attaining indisputable literary merit, Dumas
succeeded in gaining a great reputation first as a dramatist and then as
a historical novelist, especially for such works as The Count of Monte
Cristo and The Three Musketeers. His memoirs, which, with a mixture of
candour, mendacity, and boastfulness, recount the events of his
extraordinary life, also provide a unique insight into French literary
life during the Romantic period. He was the father (père) of the
dramatist and novelist Alexandre Dumas, called Dumas fils.
Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie—born out of
wedlock to the marquis de La Pailleterie and Marie Cessette Dumas, a
black slave of Santo Domingo—was a common soldier under the ancien
régime who assumed the name Dumas in 1786. He later became a general in
Napoleon’s army. The family fell on hard times, however, especially
after General Dumas’s death in 1806, and the young Alexandre went to
Paris to attempt to make a living as a lawyer. He managed to obtain a
post in the household of the Duke d’Orléans, the future King
Louis-Philippe, but tried his fortune in the theatre. He made contact
with the actor François-Joseph Talma and with the young poets who were
to lead the Romantic movement.
Dumas’s plays, when judged from a modern viewpoint, are crude, brash,
and melodramatic, but they were received with rapture in the late 1820s
and early 1830s. Henri III et sa cour (1829) portrayed the French
Renaissance in garish colours; Napoléon Bonaparte (1831) played its part
in making a legend of the recently dead emperor; and in Antony (1831)
Dumas brought a contemporary drama of adultery and honour to the stage.
Though he continued to write plays, Dumas next turned his attention
to the historical novel, often working with collaborators (especially
Auguste Maquet). Considerations of probability or historical accuracy
generally were ignored, and the psychology of the characters was
rudimentary. Dumas’s main interest was the creation of an exciting story
set against a colourful background of history, usually the 16th or 17th
century.
The best known of his works are Les Trois Mousquetaires (published
1844, performed 1845; The Three Musketeers), a romance about four
swashbuckling heroes in the age of Cardinal Richelieu; Vingt ans après
(1845; “Twenty Years After”); Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1844–45; The
Count of Monte Cristo); Dix ans plus tard ou le Vicomte de Bragelonne
(1848–50; “Ten Years Later; or, The Vicomte de Bragelonne”); and La
Tulipe noire (1850; “The Black Tulip”).
When success came, Dumas indulged his extravagant tastes and
consequently was forced to write more and more rapidly in order to pay
his creditors. He tried to make money by journalism and with travel
books but with little success.
The unfinished manuscript of a long-lost novel, Le Chevalier de
Sainte-Hermine (The Last Cavalier), was discovered in the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris in the late 1980s and first published in 2005.
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The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
1802-1870
The Three Musketeers is the most famous of around two hundred
and fifty books to come from the pen of this prolific author and
his seventy-three assistants. Dumas worked with the history
professor Auguste Maquet, who is often credited with the premise
for, and even the first draft of Les Trois Mousquetaires,
although the text, like all his others, plays very fast and
loose with the historical narrative.
D'Artagnan, the hero, is a Gascon, a young man who embodies in
every aspect the hotheaded stereotype of the Bearnais people.
Armed only with a letter of recommendation to M.deTreville, head
of King Louis XlV's musketeers, and his prodigious skill with a
sword this incomparable youth cuts a swathe through
seventeenth-century Paris and beyond, seeking his fortune.The
enduring quality of Dumas's texts lies in the vitality he
breathes into his characters, and his mastery of the roman
feuilleton, replete as it is with teasers and cliffhangers. The
Three Musketeers is a romance par excellence, and the pace of
the narrative carries the reader on a delirious joumey. The
strength of the characters, from the "Three Musketeers"
themselves, to Cardinal Richelieu and the venomous "Milady,"
need scarcely be highlighted, so entrenched have they all become
in Western culture.The charisma of Dumas's swaggering young
Gascon certainly remains undimmed.
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La Reine Margot
Alexandre Dumas
1802-1870
Published shortly after The Three Musketeers, La Reine Margot
confirmed Alexandre Dumas as the master of historical romance.
History professor Auguste Maquet wrote the first draft, Dumas
then elaborating the book with dialogue and descriptive
passages. The violent action, vivid characters, and potential
for lavish Renaissance period decor have attracted several
filmmakers, most recently Patrice Chereau in 1994.
The novel is set in one of the most dramatic periods of French
history: the Religious Wars of the sixteenth century. The
country's nobility are split into warring factions, with
Catholics fighting the Protestant Huguenots. Proud, cultured, and
beautiful, Marguerite de Valois—the "Reine Margot"—is sister of
the Catholic King Charles IX. The novel opens in 1572 with her
arranged marriage to Huguenot leader Henri of Navarre. This
loveless wedding is the occasion for the St. Bartholomew's Day
massacre, in which Huguenots are slaughtered in their thousands.
The plot follows Margot's doomed romance with her Catholic
lover, amid the murderous intrigues of the French court. Torture,
execution, and poisoning ensure an ending littered with corpses.
La Reine Margot is the first volume of a loosely connected
trilogy known as the Valois Romances. The other two volumes are
rarely read today, but La Reine Margot has held its own through
the strength of its characterization and the vivacity of its
storytelling. Irresistibly readable, it also offers a painless
lesson in French history.
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The Count of Monte-Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
1802-1870
Alexandre Dumas'very well-known serialized novel begins with the
incarceration of the hero, Edmond Dantes, in the Chateau d'lf,
as a result of the denunciation by his rivals of his purported
Napoleonic allegiance just before Napoleon's return from Elba in
1815. During his fourteen-year imprisonment, the hero
fortuitously meets the Abbe Faria, who educates him and reveals
to him the secret of the great wealth hidden in the Island of
Monte-Cristo. Edmond is able to make a dramatic escape,
substituting himself for the Abbe's dead body, which—enclosed in
a bag—is thrown into the sea. The transformation of Edmond into
the Count of Monte-Cristo begins.
Now wealthy, the Count is able to make his denouncers suffer for
their evil slander. Each of them will be subjected to a series
of imaginative punishments, as the setting of the novel moves
from Rome and the Mediterranean to Paris and its surroundings.
The ingenious plots involve concealment and revelation, sign
language, use of poisonous herbs, and all manner of other
things. But beyond the exciting narrative, Dumas focuses on the
corrupt financial, political, and judicial world of France at
the time of the royal restoration, and the marginal figures,
such as convicts, that infiltrate it.
Finally, the Count wonders if his program of retribution has not
led him to usurp God's power in order to see justice done. This
apparently fantastic and passionate tale of revenge, is a
historical narrative in the manner of Walter 5cott; that is, one
that is not wholly accurate. Unfolding gradually, The Count of
Monte-Cristo offers an unusual reflection on happiness and
justice, omnipotence, and the sometimes fatal haunting return of
the past.
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THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO
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Тyре of work: Novel
Author: Alexandre Dumas, pere (1802-1870)
Type of plot: Historical romance
Time of plot: Nineteenth century
Locale: France
First published: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, 1844-1845 (English
translation, 1846)
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The Count of Monte-Cristo tells the story of a young man on the
threshold of a bright career and a happy marriage who is imprisoned in a
dungeon for years on a false political charge. When he escapes and finds
a treasure which makes him wealthy, he sets upon an implacable course of
revenge against his old enemies. If the characterizations are sometimes
set in conventional molds, the story is unforgettable for its
suspenseful plot and the intriguing figure of the Count.
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Principal Characters
Edmond Dantes (ed-mori' dan-tes'), a young man unjustly imprisoned in
the grim Chateau D'If. He escapes fourteen years later, after he has
learned where a vast fortune is amassed. He secures the fortune and
assumes the title of Count of Monte-Cristo. He then sets about avenging
himself on those who were instrumental in having him imprisoned.
M. Morrel (тэ-syoe' то-гёТ), a merchant and shipowner, the friend of
young Dantes and the benefactor of Edmond's father. He is later saved by
Monte-Cristo from bankruptcy and suicide.
M. Danglars (тэ-syoe' dan-glar'), an employee of M. Morrel. He helps to
betray Edmond Dantes to the authorities because of professional
jealousy. He later amasses a fortune which Monte-Cristo causes him to
lose. He is further punished by being allowed to starve almost to death
as he had allowed Edmond's father to starve.
Mercedes (тёг-sa-dez'), the betrothed of young Edmond Dantes. Believing
him to be dead, she marries his rival, Fernand Mondego. In the end she
leaves her husband's house, gives his fortune to charity, and lives on
the dowry Edmond had saved for her in his youth.
Louis Dantes (lwe' dan-tes'), Edmond's father. He dies of starvation
after his son is imprisoned.
Gaspard Caderousse (gas-par' ka-daroos'), a tailor, innkeeper, and
thief. One of Edmond's betrayers, he is killed while robbing Monte-Cristo's
house.
Fernand Mondego, Count de Morcerf (fer-nan' moii-ds-go', kont' dgmor-ser'),
a fisherman in love with Mercedes. He mails the letter which betrays
Edmond to the authorities. He later marries Mercedes, becomes a soldier
and a count. Monte-Cristo later brings about the revelation that Fernand
got his fortune by selling out the Pasha of Janina to the enemy. His
wife and son leave him and he commits suicide.
The Marquis and Marchioness de Saint-Meran (da san'ma-ran'), the father
and mother of M. Villefort's first wife, poisoned by his second wife.
Renee (гэ-па'), the daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness de Saint-Meran.
She married Villefort.
M. Villefort (тэ-syoe' vel-for'), a deputy prosecutor, later attorney
general, and a royalist. He causes Edmond to be imprisoned because he
fears involvement in a Napoleonic plot. Monte-Cristo later discovers an
attempted infanticide on the part of Villefort and causes this secret to
be revealed publicly at a trial Villefort is conducting. After this
public denunciation and the discovery that his second wife has poisoned
several members of his household, then her son and herself, Villefort
goes mad.
The Abbe Faria (a-ba' fa'rya, Edmond's fellow prisoner, who dies of a
stroke after educating Edmond and revealing to him the whereabouts of
the vast lost fortune of the extinct family of Spada in the caverns of
the isle of Monte-Cristo.
Emmanuel Herbaut (a-ma-nu-ёТ-ёг-Ьб'), a clerk in Morrel's business
establishment. He marries Julie Morrel.
Julie Morrel (zhu-le' тб-гёГ), the daughter of the merchant Morrel. She
finds the purse in which Monte-Cristo had put money to repay the loan
that Morrel had given his father, old Dantes, and thus saves her own
father from bankruptcy. She later marries Emmanuel Herbaut.
Maximilian Morrel (mak-se-mel-yan' тб-гёГ), the son of the merchant, a
soldier and a loyal friend of Monte-Cristo. He marries Valentine de
Villefort.
Viscount Albert de Morcerf (al-beV d3 mor-ser'), the son of Fernand and
Mercedes. He leaves his disgraced father's house, gives his fortune to
charity, and seeks his own fortune as a soldier.
Baron Franz d'Epinay (frans da-рё-па'), the friend of Albert, about to
be betrothed to Valentine de Villefort when the betrothal is called off
after Franz discovers that her grandfather had killed his father.
Luigi Vampa (lwe'je vam'pa), a Roman bandit and friend of Monte-Cristo.
He kidnaps Albert but frees him at Monte-Cristo's order. Later he also
kidnaps Danglars, robs, and almost starves him.
Peppino (pa-рё'пб), also known as Rocca Priori (ro'ka ргё-6-гё'), one of
Vampa'sband. Monte-Cristo saves him from being beheaded.
Countess Guiccioli (gwet'cho-le), the friend of Franz and Albert in Rome
and later in Paris.
Giovanni Bertuccio (jo-van'ne ber-toot'chyo), the steward of Monte-Cristo,
who reveals to his master Vil-lefort's attempted infanticide. Unknown to
Villefort, he saves the child's life.
Lucien Debray (lii-syan' ds-bre'), a friend of Albert, secretary to the
Internal Department, and the lover of Mme. Danglars.
M. Beauchamp (тэ-syoe' bo-shari'), Albert's friend, a newspaper editor.
Count Chateau-Renaud (sha-to' гэ-по'), another of Albert's friends.
Eugenie Danglars (oe-zha-пё' dan-glar'), the daughter of Danglars, about
to be betrothed, first to Albert, then to Andrea Cavalcanti. She later
runs away with her governess to go on the stage.
Assunta (a-siin'ta), Bertuccio's sister-in-law. She claims Villefort's
child from the foundling home where Bertuccio had placed it.
Benedetto (ba-na-da'to), also Andrea Cavalcanti (an-dra-a' ka-val-kah'te),
the illegitimate son of Villefort and Mme. Danglars. He does not know
who his parents are, and they believe him to be dead. He is a forger, a
thief escaped from the galleys, and the murderer of Caderousse. He
discovers that Villefort is his father and reveals this fact at the
trial. It is implied that the court will find "extenuating
circumstances" in his new trial.
Haidee (ё-da'), the daughter of Ali Tebelen, Pasha of Janina and
Basiliki, captured and sold as a slave by Fernand Mondego after he
betrays her father. She is bought by Monte-Cristo, and they fall in love
with each other.
Baptistin (ba-tes-taii'), the servant of Monte-Cristo.
Hermine Danglars (er-men' dan-glar'), Danglars' wife and the mother of
Benedetto and Eugenie.
Heloise de Villefort (a-16-ez' d9 veTfor'), the second wife of Villefort.
She poisons the Saint-Merans and tries to poison Noirtier and Valentine
so that her son may inherit their vast wealth. Her guilt discovered, she
kills her son and herself.
Edouard de Villefort (a-dwar' da vel-for'), the spoiled, irresponsible
son of Heloise and Villefort. He is killed by his mother.
Valentine de Villefort (va-lan-ten' d9 veTfor'), the daughter of
Villefort and Renee Saint-Meran Villefort. She is poisoned by the second
Mme. Villefort but is saved by Noirtier and Monte-Cristo after being
given a sleeping potion that makes her appear dead. After her rescue she
marries Maximilian Morrel.
Noirtier de Villefort (nwar-tya' da vel-for'), the father of Villefort
and a fiery Jacobin of the French Revolution. Completely paralyzed by a
stroke, he communicates with his eyes.
The Marquis Bartolomeo Cavalcanti (bar-to-lo-ma-o' ka-val-kan'te), the
name assumed by a man pretending to be Andrea Cavalcanti's father.
Barrois (ba-rwa'), a faithful servant of old Noirtier, poisoned by
drinking some lemonade intended for Noirtier.
Ali Tebelen (a-le tab-Ian'), the father of Haidee, betrayed by Fernand.
Louise d'Armilly (lwez' dar-тё-уё'), the governess to Eugenie Danglars.
Together they run away in hopes they can go on the stage as singers.
Lord Wilmore and Abbe Busoni (a-ba' bii-zo'-ne), aliases used by the
Count of Monte-Cristo.
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The Story
When Edmond Dantes sailed into Marseilles harbor that day in 1815, he
was surrounded by enemies. His shipmate, Danglars, coveted his
appointment as captain of the Pharaon. Ferdinand Mondego wished to wed
Mercedes, who was betrothed to Edmond.
Danglars and Ferdinand wrote a note accusing Edmond of carrying a letter
from Elba to the Bonapartist committee in Paris. Caderousse, a neighbor,
learned of the plot but kept silent. On his wedding day, Edmond was
arrested and taken before a deputy named Villefort, a political
turncoat, who, to protect himself, had Edmond secretly imprisoned in the
dungeons of the Chateau D'If. There Dantes' incarceration was secured by
the plotting of his enemies outside the prison, notably Villefort, who
wished to cover up his own father's connections with the Bonapartists.
Napoleon came from Elba, but Edmond lay forgotten in his cell. The
cannonading at Waterloo died away. Years passed. Then one night Edmond
heard the sound of digging from an adjoining cell. For days later, a
section of the flooring fell in, and Edmond saw an old man in the narrow
tunnel below. He was the Abbe Faria, whose attempt to dig his way to
freedom had led him only to Edmond's cell. Thereafter the two met daily,
and the old man taught Edmond history, mathematics, and languages. In
Edmond's fourteenth year of imprisonment, Faria, mortally ill, told
Edmond where to find a tremendous fortune should he escape after the old
man's death. When death did come, the abbe's body was placed in a sack.
Edmond conceived the idea of changing places with the dead man, whom he
dragged through the tunnel into his own bed. Jailers threw the sack into
the sea.
Edmond ripped the cloth and swam through the darkness to an islet in the
bay.
At daybreak he was picked up by a gang of smugglers with whom he worked
until a stroke of luck brought him to the island of Monte-Cristo, where
Faria's fortune awaited him. He landed on the island with the crew of
the ship. Feigning injury in a fall, he persuaded the crew to leave him
behind until they could return for him. Thus, he was able to explore the
island and to find his treasure hidden in an underground cavern. He
returned to the mainland and sold some small jewels to provide himself
with money enough to carry out his plans to bring his treasure from
Monte-Cristo. There he learned that his father had died and Mercedes,
despairing of Edmond's return, had married Ferdinand.
Disguised as an abbe, he visited M. Caderousse to seek information of
those who had caused his imprisonment. M. Villefort had gained fortune
and station in life. Dan-glars was a rich banker. Ferdinand had won
wealth and a title in the Greek war. For this information, Edmond gave
Caderousse a diamond worth fifty thousand francs.
He also learned that his old shipping master, M. Mor-rel, was on the
verge of bankruptcy. In gratitude, because Morrel had given the older
Dantes money to keep him from starvation, Edmond saved Morrel's shipping
business.
Edmond took the name of his treasure island. As the Count of Monte-Cristo,
he dazzled all Paris with his fabulous wealth and his social graces. He
and his mysterious protegee, a beautiful girl named Haidee whom he had
bought during his travels in Greece, became the talk of the boulevards.
Meanwhile he was slowly plotting the ruin of the four men who had caused
him to be sent to the Chateau DTf. Caderousse was the first to be
destroyed. Monte-Cristo had awakened his greed with the gift of a
diamond. Later, urged by his wife, Caderousse had committed robbery and
murder. Now, released from prison, he attempted to rob Monte-Cristo but
was mortally wounded by an escaping accomplice. As the man lay dying,
Monte-Cristo revealed his true name—Edmond Dantes.
In Paris, Monte-Cristo had succeeded in ingratiating himself with the
banker, Danglars, and was secretly ruining him. Ferdinand was the next
victim on his list. Ferdinand had gained his wealth by betraying Pasha
Ali in the Greek revolution of 1823. Monte-Cristo persuaded Danglars to
send to Greece for confirmation of Ferdinand's operations there.
Ferdinand was exposed, and Haidee, daughter of the Pasha Ali, appeared
to confront him with the story of her father's betrayal. Albert, the son
of Mercedes and Ferdinand, challenged Monte-Cristo to a duel to avenge
his father's disgrace. Monte-Cristo intended to make his revenge
complete by killing the young man, but Mercedes came to him and begged
for her son's life. Aware of Monte-Cristo's true identity, she
interceded with her son as well. At the scene of the duel, the young man
publicly declared his father's ruin had been justified. Mother and son
left Paris. Ferdinand shot himself.
Monte-Cristo had also become intimate with Madame Villefort and
encouraged her desire to possess the wealth of her stepdaughter,
Valentine, whom Maximilian Morrel, son of the shipping master, loved.
The count had slyly directed Madame Villefort in the use of poisons, and
the depraved woman murdered three people. When Valentine herself
succumbed to poison, Maximilian went to Monte-Cristo for help. Upon
learning that his friend Maximilian loved Valentine, Monte-Cristo vowed
to save the young girl. Valentine, however, had apparently died.
Nevertheless, Monte-Cristo promised future happiness to Maximilian.
Meanwhile Danglars' daughter, Eugenie, ran off to seek her fortune
independently, and Danglars found himself bankrupt. He deserted his wife
and fled the country. When Villefort discovered his wife's treachery and
crimes, he confronted her with a threat of exposure. She then poisoned
herself and her son Edward, for whose sake she had poisoned the others.
Monte-Cristo revealed his true name to Villefort, who subsequently went
mad.
Monte-Cristo, however, had not deceived Maximilian. He had rescued
Valentine while she lay in a drugged coma in the tomb. Now he reunited
the two lovers on his island of Monte-Cristo. They were given the
count's wealth, and Monte-Cristo sailed away with Haidee, never to be
seen again.
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Critical Evaluation
The Count of Monte-Cristo, Alexandre Dumas' best-known novel after The
Three Musketeers (1844), is, as improbable as it might seem, based on a
true story. Dumas, who has become almost legendary for his prolific
literary output of nearly three hundred volumes, maintained a corps of
collaborators who were engaged in searching through earlier writers of
memoirs for suitably exciting plots. Through this process, a volume
entitled Memoires tires des archives de la Police de Paris by Jacques
Peu-chet, the Keeper of the Archives at the Prefecture of Police, came
to Dumas' attention.
In Peuchet's memoirs, which contained a treasure of potential plots for
novels, was a record of a case of wrongful imprisonment and vengeance
which strongly appealed to the French author. In 1807, there had been
living in Paris a young shoemaker, Frangois Picaud, who was engaged to
marry Marguerite Vigoroux, a beautiful orphan with a fortune of one
hundred thousand gold francs. Four of Picaud's friends, jealous of his
good fortune, accused him of being an English agent. Picaud was spirited
away in the night by the police, who at the time were worried about
certain insurrectionary movements. The unfortunate man's parents and his
betrothed made inquiries, but failed to obtain any satisfaction and
resigned themselves to the inevitable. In 1814, with the fall of the
Empire, Picaud was released from the castle of Fenestrelle where he had
all that time been imprisoned. While in captivity, he had, with great
devotion, looked after an Italian prelate who had been imprisoned on a
political charge and had not long to live. The dying man bequeathed to
Picaud a treasure hidden in Milan. After his release, the shoemaker
recovered the treasure and returned under an assumed name to the
district in which he had been living. Making inquiries, he soon
discovered the plot against him by his jealous friends and spent ten
years of his life engaged in an elaborate plot against the perpetrators
of his suffering that resulted in the eventual destruction of his former
friends.
Dumas delighted in the idea of creating a character possessed of a
fabulous fortune and of making that character an avenger in some great
cause. This impulse was natural, for Dumas, despite his exuberant
exterior, harbored within himself many grievances against society at
large, and individual enemies in particular. His father had been
persecuted; he himself was harassed by creditors and slandered. He
shared with other major writers, who had been unjustly treated, that
longing for vengeance which has engendered so many masterpieces. The
experiences of Picaud gave him the story for which he had been longing.
Normal imagination, however, was not responsible for the stroke of
genius that produced the name "Count of Monte-Cristo," which has come to
be so romantically imbedded in the memories of countless readers. The
mysterious creative forces which cause the birth of great works had been
enriched one day when Dumas had gone boating among the islands which lie
about Elba and his guide pointed out a beautiful island named Monte-Cristo.
The Count of Monte-Cristo had a greater success than any book which
Dumas published prior to The Three Musketeers. Like most of Dumas' major
novels, it was first serialized in the daily newspaper. In this way, he
kept his public excited from one day to the next by means of romantic
love affairs, intrigues, imprisonments, hairbreadth escapes, and
innumerable duels. Dumas had great gifts of narrative and dialogue and a
creative imagination but only a limited critical sense and an even
smaller concern for historical accuracy. He did have a knack for seizing
situations and characters that would render a satisfactory historical
atmosphere. He wrote with a sincere gusto that action and love were the
two essential things in life and thus in fiction. His writing was never
complicated by analysis or psychological insights, and his best works,
such as The Count of Monte-Cristo and The Three Musketeers, can be read
with effortless enjoyment.
Critics point to the excessive melodrama of Dumas' work and his lack of
psychological perception and careless style. The characters are
one-dimensional, stranded in the conventional molds the author has set
for them. There is no change, no sudden insight, and no growth in the
players upon Dumas' stage. Despite many defects, however, this novel
remains a great work in literature, for it is a breathtaking experience,
a dramatic tale filled with mystery and intrigue. For thousands of
years, the unhappy human race has found release in cathartic tales such
as this one. The most popular characters have been the magician and the
dispenser of justice. The injured and weak live with the hope, which no
ill-success can weaken, of witnessing the coming of the hero who will
redress all wrongs, cast down the wicked, and at long last give the good
man his desserts.
At the time Dumas was writing, the magician had been confused with the
rich man, with great vaults filled with jewels, whose wealth permits him
to indulge his every whim and to use his treasure to provide justice for
the innocent man and to punish the guilty. Dumas dreamed of becoming
just such a distributor of earthly happiness, and The Count of Monte-Cristo
gave him the framework for which he was looking: The hero is an
implacable avenger who obtains his justice and disappears. The Count of
Monte-Cristo, then, finds its audience among people of all ages and of
all times who like a romantic adventure tale with a larger-than-life
hero.
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