Source plot synopsis — includes the ending
=== Marseille and Château d'If ===
Shortly before Napoleon's escape from his exile on Elba in 1815, Edmond Dantès, the young first mate of the merchant ship Pharaon, honours his dying captain's last wish: to retrieve a letter from Elba, to be conveyed to the Bonapartist Noirtier in Paris. When the Pharaon arrives in the port of Marseille, the ship's owner, Morrel, decides to promote Dantès to captain, provoking the distaste and jealousy of the supercargo, Danglars. Morrel, a Bonapartist sympathizer himself, provides Dantès with two weeks' furlough to marry his Catalan fiancée Mercédès Herrera and deliver the letter.
Mercédès' cousin, Fernand Mondego, is jealous of Dantès, desiring to marry Mercédès himself. He and Danglars meet to plan Dantès' downfall: they draft an anonymous letter denouncing Dantès as a Bonapartist. Dantès' neighbour Gaspard Caderousse, who also resents Dantès' success, objects to the plan, but is unable to prevent them from sending the letter to the crown prosecutor. Dantès' and Mercédès' engagement party is interrupted by Dantès' arrest; the cowardly Caderousse, despite knowing the charges are false, does not speak up.
Dantès is brought before the deputy crown prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort. Villefort is Noirtier's son, and knows that his political career would be ruined if it were known that his father is a Bonapartist. Therefore he destroys the letter and, despite believing Dantès to be innocent, silences him by sentencing him without trial to life imprisonment in the notorious Château d'If.
After six years of imprisonment Dantès is on the verge of suicide. However, another prisoner, the scholarly Italian priest Abbé Faria, digs an escape tunnel that mistakenly ends in Dantès' cell. The Abbé helps Dantès deduce the culprits of his imprisonment. Over the next eight years, Faria educates Dantès in languages, history, culture, mathematics, medicine, and science. Knowing himself to be close to death from catalepsy, Faria tells Dantès the location of a vast treasure hidden by his former employer on the island of Monte Cristo. When Faria dies, Dantès takes Faria's place in the burial sack, which the 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, he is rescued by Genoese smugglers. Months later, he locates and retrieves the treasure; he 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 his goal. Travelling as the Abbé Busoni, Dantès finds Caderousse, who regrets not intervening in Dantès' arrest. Caderousse informs him that Mercédès eventually resigned herself to marrying Fernand. He recounts that Dantès' father died of starvation, and that Morrel tried unsuccessfully to secure Dantès' release and save his 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 he does not disclose his real identity. Later, Caderousse negotiates the sale of the diamond to a jeweller, but he kills the jeweller to keep the diamond and the money. He is eventually arrested and sentenced to the galleys.
To rescue Morrel from bankruptcy, Dantès poses as a banker, buys Morrel's debts, and gives him 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 his 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. He arranges for Albert to be captured by the bandit Luigi Vampa (an ally of Dantès), and "rescues" the boy, earning his trust. Albert introduces the Count to Parisian high society. In his 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. He has learnt from his 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 his wealth and air of mystery, the Count sets up the pieces for his revenge. He persuades Danglars to extend him a credit of six million francs. He discusses the properties of various poisons with Villefort's second wife Héloïse and allows her to borrow some of his supply. He allows his ward, Haydée—the exiled daughter of Ali Pasha of Janina, whom Dantès purchased from slavery—to see Fernand, recognising him as the man who betrayed and murdered her father and stole his fortune. Under the alias Lord Wilmore, Dantès frees Benedetto and Caderousse from the galleys; then he anonymously hires Benedetto to impersonate an Italian nobleman, Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti, and introduces him 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 she is secretly in love with Morrel's son Maximilien. Noirtier, her 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 his daughter Eugénie to him after canceling her engagement to Albert. Caderousse blackmails Benedetto, threatening to reveal his past if he does not share his newfound wealth. Héloïse begins poisoning members of Villefort's family, intending to ensure that all of the family's wealth will be inherited by her son Édouard, rather than her stepdaughter Valentine. However, Noirtier secretly doses Valentine with a drug that will give her 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, he is stabbed by Benedetto. Caderousse dictates a deathbed statement naming his killer, and the Count reveals his true identity to Caderousse before he 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 him as an eyewitness. Albert blames the Count for his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel. The Count is later visited by Mercédès, who recognized him as Dantès upon their first meeting but chose not to say anything. Mercédès begs Dantès to spare her son. He tells her of the injustices inflicted on him, but he agrees not to kill Albert. Realizing that Dantès intends to let Albert kill him, she reveals the truth to Albert, who makes a public apology to the Count. Albert and Mercédès disown Fernand, renounce their 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 his identity. Fernand shoots himself.
At the party to celebrate "Cavalcanti"'s engagement to Eugénie Danglars, the police arrive to arrest Benedetto for Caderousse's murder. Benedetto flees, but he is arrested and returned to Paris. Eugénie (who is implied to be a lesbian) flees Paris with her girlfriend.
Valentine barely survives Héloïse's first attempt to poison her, and Maximilien begs the Count to protect her from the unknown poisoner. He does so by faking her death, making it appear that the poisoner succeeded. Villefort deduces that Héloïse is the murderer, and before leaving to prosecute Benedetto's trial, he gives her a choice between the shame of a public trial or committing suicide in private. At the trial, Benedetto reveals that he is Villefort's son and was rescued after Villefort buried him alive, having learned the truth from Bertuccio. Villefort admits his guilt and rushes home to prevent his wife's suicide, but he is too late; she is dead and has poisoned her son Édouard as well. The Count confronts Villefort, revealing his true identity, which drives Villefort insane. Dantès tries but fails to resuscitate Édouard, causing him to question if his 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 he has been holding in deposit for hospitals. The Count demands this sum to fulfill their credit agreement, and Danglars embezzles the hospital fund. He flees to Italy with the Count's receipt for the cash and 50,000 francs of his own, and he is reimbursed the 5,000,000 francs from the Count's own bank account. While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by Luigi Vampa. The bandits extort Danglars' ill-gotten gains from him by forcing him to pay exorbitant prices for food and water. Dantès anonymously returns the money to the hospitals. Danglars finally repents of his crimes, and a softened Dantès forgives him and allows him to depart with his 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 his true identity and persuades Maximilien to delay his suicide for one month. One month later, on the island of Monte Cristo, he reunites Valentine with Maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events. Having found peace, Dantès leaves the couple part of his fortune on the island and departs for the East to begin a new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him. 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'").
Shortly before Napoleon's escape from his exile on Elba in 1815, Edmond Dantès, the young first mate of the merchant ship Pharaon, honours his dying captain's last wish: to retrieve a letter from Elba, to be conveyed to the Bonapartist Noirtier in Paris. When the Pharaon arrives in the port of Marseille, the ship's owner, Morrel, decides to promote Dantès to captain, provoking the distaste and jealousy of the supercargo, Danglars. Morrel, a Bonapartist sympathizer himself, provides Dantès with two weeks' furlough to marry his Catalan fiancée Mercédès Herrera and deliver the letter.
Mercédès' cousin, Fernand Mondego, is jealous of Dantès, desiring to marry Mercédès himself. He and Danglars meet to plan Dantès' downfall: they draft an anonymous letter denouncing Dantès as a Bonapartist. Dantès' neighbour Gaspard Caderousse, who also resents Dantès' success, objects to the plan, but is unable to prevent them from sending the letter to the crown prosecutor. Dantès' and Mercédès' engagement party is interrupted by Dantès' arrest; the cowardly Caderousse, despite knowing the charges are false, does not speak up.
Dantès is brought before the deputy crown prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort. Villefort is Noirtier's son, and knows that his political career would be ruined if it were known that his father is a Bonapartist. Therefore he destroys the letter and, despite believing Dantès to be innocent, silences him by sentencing him without trial to life imprisonment in the notorious Château d'If.
After six years of imprisonment Dantès is on the verge of suicide. However, another prisoner, the scholarly Italian priest Abbé Faria, digs an escape tunnel that mistakenly ends in Dantès' cell. The Abbé helps Dantès deduce the culprits of his imprisonment. Over the next eight years, Faria educates Dantès in languages, history, culture, mathematics, medicine, and science. Knowing himself to be close to death from catalepsy, Faria tells Dantès the location of a vast treasure hidden by his former employer on the island of Monte Cristo. When Faria dies, Dantès takes Faria's place in the burial sack, which the 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, he is rescued by Genoese smugglers. Months later, he locates and retrieves the treasure; he 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 his goal. Travelling as the Abbé Busoni, Dantès finds Caderousse, who regrets not intervening in Dantès' arrest. Caderousse informs him that Mercédès eventually resigned herself to marrying Fernand. He recounts that Dantès' father died of starvation, and that Morrel tried unsuccessfully to secure Dantès' release and save his 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 he does not disclose his real identity. Later, Caderousse negotiates the sale of the diamond to a jeweller, but he kills the jeweller to keep the diamond and the money. He is eventually arrested and sentenced to the galleys.
To rescue Morrel from bankruptcy, Dantès poses as a banker, buys Morrel's debts, and gives him 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 his 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. He arranges for Albert to be captured by the bandit Luigi Vampa (an ally of Dantès), and "rescues" the boy, earning his trust. Albert introduces the Count to Parisian high society. In his 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. He has learnt from his 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 his wealth and air of mystery, the Count sets up the pieces for his revenge. He persuades Danglars to extend him a credit of six million francs. He discusses the properties of various poisons with Villefort's second wife Héloïse and allows her to borrow some of his supply. He allows his ward, Haydée—the exiled daughter of Ali Pasha of Janina, whom Dantès purchased from slavery—to see Fernand, recognising him as the man who betrayed and murdered her father and stole his fortune. Under the alias Lord Wilmore, Dantès frees Benedetto and Caderousse from the galleys; then he anonymously hires Benedetto to impersonate an Italian nobleman, Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti, and introduces him 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 she is secretly in love with Morrel's son Maximilien. Noirtier, her 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 his daughter Eugénie to him after canceling her engagement to Albert. Caderousse blackmails Benedetto, threatening to reveal his past if he does not share his newfound wealth. Héloïse begins poisoning members of Villefort's family, intending to ensure that all of the family's wealth will be inherited by her son Édouard, rather than her stepdaughter Valentine. However, Noirtier secretly doses Valentine with a drug that will give her 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, he is stabbed by Benedetto. Caderousse dictates a deathbed statement naming his killer, and the Count reveals his true identity to Caderousse before he 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 him as an eyewitness. Albert blames the Count for his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel. The Count is later visited by Mercédès, who recognized him as Dantès upon their first meeting but chose not to say anything. Mercédès begs Dantès to spare her son. He tells her of the injustices inflicted on him, but he agrees not to kill Albert. Realizing that Dantès intends to let Albert kill him, she reveals the truth to Albert, who makes a public apology to the Count. Albert and Mercédès disown Fernand, renounce their 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 his identity. Fernand shoots himself.
At the party to celebrate "Cavalcanti"'s engagement to Eugénie Danglars, the police arrive to arrest Benedetto for Caderousse's murder. Benedetto flees, but he is arrested and returned to Paris. Eugénie (who is implied to be a lesbian) flees Paris with her girlfriend.
Valentine barely survives Héloïse's first attempt to poison her, and Maximilien begs the Count to protect her from the unknown poisoner. He does so by faking her death, making it appear that the poisoner succeeded. Villefort deduces that Héloïse is the murderer, and before leaving to prosecute Benedetto's trial, he gives her a choice between the shame of a public trial or committing suicide in private. At the trial, Benedetto reveals that he is Villefort's son and was rescued after Villefort buried him alive, having learned the truth from Bertuccio. Villefort admits his guilt and rushes home to prevent his wife's suicide, but he is too late; she is dead and has poisoned her son Édouard as well. The Count confronts Villefort, revealing his true identity, which drives Villefort insane. Dantès tries but fails to resuscitate Édouard, causing him to question if his 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 he has been holding in deposit for hospitals. The Count demands this sum to fulfill their credit agreement, and Danglars embezzles the hospital fund. He flees to Italy with the Count's receipt for the cash and 50,000 francs of his own, and he is reimbursed the 5,000,000 francs from the Count's own bank account. While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by Luigi Vampa. The bandits extort Danglars' ill-gotten gains from him by forcing him to pay exorbitant prices for food and water. Dantès anonymously returns the money to the hospitals. Danglars finally repents of his crimes, and a softened Dantès forgives him and allows him to depart with his 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 his true identity and persuades Maximilien to delay his suicide for one month. One month later, on the island of Monte Cristo, he reunites Valentine with Maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events. Having found peace, Dantès leaves the couple part of his fortune on the island and departs for the East to begin a new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him. 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'").
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Count of Monte Cristo. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license