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The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of
Monte Cristo.
Alexander Dumas.
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Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo.
Purchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at
About the author
office of the powerful duc d’Orléans.
While working in Paris, Dumas began to write articles for magazines
as well as plays for the theatre. In 1829 his first play was produced,
meeting with great public acclaim. The following year his second play
proved equally popular and as a result, he was financially able to work full
time at writing. However, in 1830, he participated in the revolution that
ousted King Charles X and replaced him on the throne with Dumas’
former employer, the duc d’Orléans, who would rule as Louis-Philippe,
the Citizen King .
Until the mid 1830s, life in France remained unsettled with sporadic
riots by disgruntled Republicans and impoverished urban workers
seeking change. As life slowly returned to normal, the nation began to
industrialize and with an improving economy combined with the end of
press censorship, the times turned out to be a very rewarding for the
skills of Alexandre Dumas.
After writing more successful plays, he turned his efforts to novels.
Although attracted to an extravagant lifestyle, and always spending more
than he earned, Dumas proved to be a very astute business marketer.
With high demand from newspapers for serial novels, in 1838, he simply
rewrote one of his plays to create his first serial novel. Titled “ Le
Capitaine Paul ,” it led to his forming a production studio that turned out
hundreds of stories, all subject to his personal input and direction.
In 1840, he married an actress, Ida Ferrier, but continued with his
numerous liaisons with other women, fathering at least three illegitimate
children. One of those children, a son named after him, would follow in
his footsteps, also becoming a successful novelist and playwright. Because
of their same name and occupation, to distinguish them, one is referred
to as Alexandre Dumas père , (French for father ) the other as Alexandre
Dumas, fils (French for son ).
Alexandre Dumas, père, wrote stories and historical chronicles of
high adventure that captured the imagination of the French public who
eagerly waited to purchase the continuing sagas.
His writing earned him a great deal of money, but Dumas was
frequently broke and in debt as a result of spending lavishly on countless
women and high living. A soft touch, the huge and costly château he built
was constantly filled with strangers who took advantage of his generosity.
Alexandre Dumas was born
Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie in
Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, near Paris,
France, the grandson of the Marquis
Antoine-Alexandre Davy de la
Pailleterie.
While his grandfather served the government of France as General
Commissaire in the Artillery in the colony of Santo Domingo, (today’s
Dominican Republic but at the time a part of Haiti), he married Marie-
Céssette Dumas, a black slave. In 1762, she gave birth to a son, Thomas-
Alexandre, and she died soon thereafter.
When the Marquis and his young son returned to Normandy, it was
at a time when slavery still existed, and the boy suffered as a result of
being half black. In 1786, Thomas-Alexandre joined the French army,
but to protect the aristocratic family’s reputation, he enlisted using his
mother’s maiden name. Following the Revolution in France, the Marquis
lost his estates but his mulatto son, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas,
distinguished himself as a capable and daring soldier in Napoleon
Bonaparte’s army, rising through the ranks to become a General by the
age of 31.
General Dumas married Marie-Louise Elizabeth Labouret and in
1802 she gave birth to their son, Alexandre Dumas, who would become
France’s most commercially successful author. General Dumas died in
1806 when Alexandre was only four, leaving a nearly impoverished
mother to raise him under difficult conditions. Unable to provide her son
with much in the way of education, it nonetheless did not hinder young
Alexandre’s love of books and he read everything he could get his hands
on. Growing up, his mother’s stories of his father’s brave military deeds
during the glory years of Napoleon, spawned Alexandre’s vivid
imagination for adventure and heroes. Although poor, the family still had
the father’s distinguished reputation and aristocratic connections and
after the restoration of the monarchy, twenty-year-old Alexandre Dumas
moved to Paris where he obtained employment at the Palais-Royal in the
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Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo.
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With King Louis-Philippe ousted in another revolt, he was not looked
upon as favorably by the newly elected President, Charles Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte and in 1851 Dumas finally had to flee to Brussels,
Belgium to escape his creditors. From there he traveled to Russia where
French was the second language and his writings were also enormously
popular.
Dumas spent two years in Russia before moving on to seek adventure
and fodder for more stories. In March of 1861, the kingdom of Italy was
proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. For the next three
years, Alexandre Dumas would be involved in the fight for a united Italy,
returning to Paris in 1864.
Despite Alexandre Dumas’ success and aristocratic connections, his
being of mixed-blood would affect him all his life. In 1843, he wrote a
short story that addressed some of the issues of race and the affects of
colonialism. Nevertheless, inbred racist attitudes impacted his rightful
position in France’s history long after his death on December 5, 1870.
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Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo.
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1
The Count of
Monte Cristo.
Chapter 1.
Marseilles — The Arrival.
On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de
la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna,
Trieste, and Naples.
As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and rounding the Chateau
d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and Rion is-
land.
Immediately, and according to custom, the ramparts of Fort
Saint-Jean were covered with spectators; it is always an event at
Marseilles for a ship to come into port, especially when this ship,
like the Pharaon, has been built, rigged, and laden at the old Phocee
docks, and belongs to an owner of the city.
The ship drew on and had safely passed the strait, which some
volcanic shock has made between the Calasareigne and Jaros islands;
had doubled Pomegue, and approached the harbor under topsails,
jib, and spanker, but so slowly and sedately that the idlers, with that
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3
instinct which is the forerunner of evil, asked one another what mis-
fortune could have happened on board. However, those experienced
in navigation saw plainly that if any accident had occurred, it was
not to the vessel herself, for she bore down with all the evidence of
being skilfully handled, the anchor a-cockbill, the jib-boom guys
already eased off, and standing by the side of the pilot, who was
steering the Pharaon towards the narrow entrance of the inner port,
was a young man, who, with activity and vigilant eye, watched every
motion of the ship, and repeated each direction of the pilot.
The vague disquietude which prevailed among the spectators
had so much affected one of the crowd that he did not await the
arrival of the vessel in harbor, but jumping into a small skiff, desired
to be pulled alongside the Pharaon, which he reached as she rounded
into La Reserve basin.
When the young man on board saw this person approach, he left
his station by the pilot, and, hat in hand, leaned over the ship's bul-
warks.
He was a fine, tall, slim young fellow of eighteen or twenty, with
black eyes, and hair as dark as a raven's wing; and his whole appear-
ance bespoke that calmness and resolution peculiar to men accus-
tomed from their cradle to contend with danger.
"Ah, is it you, Dantes?" cried the man in the skiff. "What's the
matter? and why have you such an air of sadness aboard?"
"A great misfortune, M. Morrel," replied the young man, — "a
great misfortune, for me especially! Off Civita Vecchia we lost our
brave Captain Leclere."
"And the cargo?" inquired the owner, eagerly.
"Is all safe, M. Morrel; and I think you will be satisfied on that
head. But poor Captain Leclere — "
"What happened to him?" asked the owner, with an air of con-
siderable resignation. "What happened to the worthy captain?"
"He died."
"Fell into the sea?"
"No, sir, he died of brain-fever in dreadful agony." Then turning
to the crew, he said, "Bear a hand there, to take in sail!"
All hands obeyed, and at once the eight or ten seamen who com-
posed the crew, sprang to their respective stations at the spanker
brails and outhaul, topsail sheets and halyards, the jib downhaul,
and the topsail clewlines and buntlines. The young sailor gave a look
to see that his orders were promptly and accurately obeyed, and then
turned again to the owner.
"And how did this misfortune occur?" inquired the latter, re-
suming the interrupted conversation.
"Alas, sir, in the most unexpected manner. After a long talk with
the harbor-master, Captain Leclere left Naples greatly disturbed in
mind. In twenty-four hours he was attacked by a fever, and died
three days afterwards. We performed the usual burial service, and he
is at his rest, sewn up in his hammock with a thirty-six pound shot
at his head and his heels, off El Giglio island. We bring to his widow
his sword and cross of honor. It was worth while, truly," added the
young man with a melancholy smile, "to make war against the En-
glish for ten years, and to die in his bed at last, like everybody else."
"Why, you see, Edmond," replied the owner, who appeared more
comforted at every moment, "we are all mortal, and the old must
make way for the young. If not, why, there would be no promotion;
and since you assure me that the cargo — "
"Is all safe and sound, M. Morrel, take my word for it; and I
advise you not to take 25,000 francs for the profits of the voyage."
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