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Library/ The Count of Monte Cristo
Compendium Story so far
Reading position Whole book
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Generic location illustration for Château d'If
location

Château d'If

the Château d'If

The grim island fortress-prison off Marseilles where Dantès is buried alive without trial.

Story so far

The Château d'If is a black, frowning rock fortress rising from the sea off Marseilles, for three centuries a place of wild legend and now a prison reserved for political offenders. Here Edmond Dantès is rowed by night and thrust into a cell without inquiry or trial, on Villefort's secret order. When he demands to see the governor and threatens a jailer, he is dragged down into an underground dungeon among the mad.

Its thick walls, sentinels, and encircling ocean make it, by reputation, impregnable.

Appearance

A gloomy island fortress of high walls and grated windows on a black rock in the sea, its underground dungeons bare, reeking, and dripping with damp.

Role

Dantès's tomb-like prison for the long years of his suffering.

Relationships

Edmond Dantès — The innocent man imprisoned in its dungeons.
Villefort — The magistrate whose secret order consigns Dantès here.
Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 8
  • The grim island fortress-prison off Marseilles where Dantès is buried alive without trial.
Chapter 15
  • The grim island fortress-prison off Marseilles where Dantès is buried alive without trial.
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