An intricate web of melodrama awaits the reader as Edmond Dantes finally puts his cunning plan of revenge into action against Danglars, Fernand and Villefort, the three people responsible for sending him to prison for fourteen years. The year was 1815, in Marseilles, when he was falsely accused of treason and arrested on the day he was to be wed to his beloved Mercedes. Saved from eternal doom by fellow prisoner Abee Faria, who paves the way for his escape and bestows him with massive fortune, he returns around 1838 to take vengeance as the Count of Monte Cristo. Revenge is not the only thing that rules his good heart, however, as he uses his wealth to protect M. Morell (the one person who believed in his innocence and fought for his freedom) and his family.
'On the 24th of February, 1815, the watch-tower of Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples. The usual crown of curious spectators immediately filled the quay of Fort Saint-Jean, for at Marseilles the arrival of a ship is always a great event, especially when that ship, as was the case with the Pharaon, has been built, rigged, and laden in the dockyard of old Phocacea and belongs to a shipowner of their own town.'(opening lines)
"That is just what alarms me," said Dantes. "I cannot help thinking it is not man's lot to attain happiness so easily. Good fortune is like the palaces of the enchanted isles, the gates of which were guarded by dragons. Happiness could only be obtained by overcoming these dragons, and I, I know not how I have deserved the honour of becoming Mercedes' husband."(21)
'Perhaps you have no enemies, but you may have aroused feelings of jealousy. At the early age of nineteen you are about to receive a captaincy, you are going to marry a beautiful girl who loves you; these two pieces of good fortune may have been the cause of envy.'(33)
'Danglars alone felt no pang of remorse or restlessness: he was even happy, for had he not avenged himself on an enemy and assured for himself the position on board the Pharaon he was in danger of losing? He was one of those calculating men who was born with a pen behind their ears and an ink pot in place of a heart. He went to bed at the usual hour and slept peacefully.'(47)
'In spite of his prayers, however, Dantes still remained a prisoner.
His gloom gave way to wrath. He began to roar out blasphemies which made even his gaoler recoil with horror, and dashed himself in a paroxysm of fury against the walls of the prison. Then there recurred to his mind the informer's letter which Villefort had shown him. Each line of it was reflected on the walls in fiery letters. He told himself it was the hatred of men and not the vengeance of God that had thrust him into this dark abyss. He doomed these unknown men to the most cruel torments his fiery imagination was capable of conjuring up, but, even so, the most awful of these torments seemed to him too mild and too short for them, for after the torment would come death, and in death they would find, if not repose, at all events that insensibility which so nearly resembles repose.'(58-59)
'... that I have buried in a spot he knows and has visited with me -- that is, in the caves of the small isle of Monte Cristo -- all I possess in ingots, gold, money, jewels, diamonds, gems; that alone I know the existence of this treasure, which may amount to about two million Roman crowns and which he will find on raising the twentieth rock from the small creek to the East in a straight line.'(89)
'Now farewell to kindness, humanity, gratitude," said he. "Farewell to all the sentiments which rejoice the heart. I have played the part of Providence in recompensing the good, may the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked!'(154)
"It is fortunate that we still have some conscience left, otherwise we should be very unhappy." said Monte Cristo. "After any vigorous action it is conscience that saves us, for it furnishes is with a thousand and one excuses of which we alone are judges, and however excellent these reasons may be to lull as to sleep, before a tribunal they would most likely avail us little in preserving our lives."(242)
'At first sight the exterior of Monte Cristo's houae at Auteuil presented nothing magnificent, nothing of what one would have expected of a house chosen for such a grand personage as the Count of Monte Cristo. But no sooner was the door opened that the scene changed.... The library was divided into two parts and contained about two thousand books; one complete section was devoted to modern novels, and even one that had only been published the day before was to be seen in its place, proudly displaying its red and gold binding.'(274-275)
"My friends, you will no doubt admit," said he, "that, arrived at a certain degree of fortune, the superfluous takes the place of the necessary, and, as you ladies will admit, arrived at a certain degree of exaltation, the ideal takes the place of the real. Now to continue this argument, what is marvelous? That which we do not comprehend. What is truly desirable? That which we cannot have. Now to see things I cannot understand, to procure things impossible of possession, such is the plan of my life. I can realize it by two means: money and will."(279)
'It was an imposing sight to behold this old man, to all appearances a useless mass, now become the sole protector and support of two young handsome lovers just entering life. Imprinted on his face was a noble and remarkably austere expression which filled Morrel with awe. He related how he had learned to love her, and how in her unhappiness and solitude Valentine had welcomed his offer of devotion; he gave full information regarding his birth and position, and more than once when he questioned the paralytic's eye, it said to him: "that is well! Continue!"'(325)
"Behold my dear friend, how God punishes the most boastful and unfeeling for their indifference in the face of terrible disasters," he said. "I looked on unmoved and curious. I watched this grim tragedy developing, and, like one of those fallen angels, laughed at the evil committed by men under the screen of secrecy. And now my turn has come, and I am bitten by the serpent whose tortuous course I have been watching -- bitten to the core.'(425)
'Women have infallible instincts, and by means of an algebra unknown to man, they can explain the most marvelous things.'(467)
'He is a noble-hearted soul who realizes that every man owes a tribute to his country; some their talents, others their industry, others their blood.'(495)
'Live and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!'(508)
a Penguin book 2001 Edition
509 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 2011 Victorian Challenge
100+ Reading Challenge
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