Story so far
On the Island of Monte Cristo the Count of Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantès) brings his life's design to its close. Testing Maximilian Morrel's grief to its depths, he lets the young man believe he takes poison, then reveals the living Valentine de Villefort, whom he saved by feigned death—'Without me, you would both have died. May God accept my atonement in the preservation of these two existences.' He bestows on the couple nearly his whole fortune and estates as marriage gifts.
Offering Haydée her freedom and her father's name, he is undone by her confession of love; his frozen heart 'dilates,' and he accepts her devotion as heaven's pardon and reward—'through you I again take hold on life.' At dawn he sails away with Haydée, a white sail on the horizon, leaving Maximilian a letter that distills his hard-won wisdom: having thought himself 'for an instant equal to God,' he now bows to divine power, and counsels that since 'there is neither happiness nor misery... only the comparison of one state with another,' all human wisdom lies in two words—'Wait and hope.'
Appearance
A pale man of about thirty-five with dark hair thrown back, at times seeming to swell to twice his height like an avenging angel, his face softening to a father's tenderness.
Role
The avenger who ends his mission in mercy and love, restoring the lovers and sailing away renewed.
Relationships
Maximilian Morrel — His 'son,' whom he tests to the edge of death then restores to life and to the living Valentine.
Valentine de Villefort — The girl he saved by feigned death, whom he reunites with Maximilian and endows with his fortune.
Haydée — His ward, whose confessed love he accepts as pardon and reward, sailing away with her renewed.
Sources — 59 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
- Frank, gifted young mate of the Pharaon, adored by his crew and on the brink of a captaincy and marriage.
Chapter 5
- On his wedding day, the happy young sailor is arrested as a Bonapartist agent and led away.
Chapter 8
- Trusting Villefort's promise, Dantès is instead rowed to the Château d'If and cast into a dungeon.
Chapter 15
- After years of despair and a near-fatal hunger strike, Dantès is pulled back to life by the sound of a fellow prisoner digging.
Chapter 16
- The young prisoner, fired to new courage and ambition by the astonishing example of his fellow captive, the Abbé Faria.
Chapter 17
- Under Faria's teaching Dantès becomes a learned man, learns exactly who destroyed him, and swears vengeance.
Chapter 19
- Heir to Faria's treasure, Dantès is left utterly alone when the old abbé dies and his body is sewn into a burial sack.
Chapter 20
- Choosing life over suicide, he takes the dead Faria's place in the burial sack — and is flung into the sea, the château's cemetery.
Chapter 21
- Sewn into the dead abbé's shroud and hurled into the sea, Dantès cuts free and escapes, free after fourteen years and sworn to vengeance.
Chapter 22
- Shaved and remade by fourteen years' suffering, the unrecognizable Dantès becomes the smugglers' natural master, his heart hardening toward his goal.
Chapter 23
- Feigning a fall on Monte Cristo, Dantès gets himself left alone on the island and begins the hunt for Spada's treasure.
Chapter 24
- In the caves of Monte Cristo, Dantès blasts his way to Cardinal Spada's coffer and finds the treasure real beyond imagining.
Chapter 25
- Newly rich and unrecognizable, Dantès buys a yacht, rewards Jacopo, and returns incognito to Marseilles to find his father dead and Mercédès vanished.
Chapter 27
- Disguised as an Italian priest, Dantès draws the whole tale of his ruin from Caderousse and confirms who betrayed him.
Chapter 29
- Disguised as the English creditor, he saves Morrel from immediate ruin with a three-month reprieve and begins his benefactions in secret. Aliases: Lord Wilmore, Abbé Busoni, clerk of Thomson & French, Sinbad the Sailor.
Chapter 30
- As the mysterious 'Sinbad the Sailor', Dantès saves Morrel from ruin and suicide, then turns from reward to vengeance.
Chapter 31
- As 'Sinbad the Sailor', Dantès hosts a chance guest, Franz, in his hidden Monte Cristo palace, hinting darkly at a life of secret justice and revenge.
Chapter 35
- Now living at Rome as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, Dantès unveils his creed of vengeance and saves Vampa's man from the scaffold.
Chapter 37
- The Count frees Albert from Vampa with a word—yet shudders at taking the hand of his enemy Fernand's son.
Chapter 38
- Turning Albert's gratitude to his purpose, the Count secures an entrée into Parisian society and fixes a rendezvous for his revenge.
Chapter 40
- The Count makes his grand entrance into Paris society, punctual to the minute, and starts secretly at meeting Morrel's son.
Chapter 42
- The Count enters his enemies' home and buys a mysterious Auteuil house, probing the buried secrets of Morcerf, Mercédès, and his own steward.
Chapter 44
- In the Auteuil garden the Count coolly extracts his steward's confession, gaining Villefort's buried secret and confirming Caderousse's greed.
Chapter 46
- Master of a private fleet and limitless credit, the Count welcomes Haydée and crushes Danglars in a duel of wealth.
Chapter 48
- The Count stages a rescue to bind the Villeforts to him, then declares himself to Villefort an agent of Providence sent to punish.
Chapter 50
- Amid his campaign of vengeance the Count seeks solace with Haydée, then is overcome visiting the Morrels, who unknowingly speak his name.
Chapter 52
- Posing as a poison-savant, the Count arms Madame de Villefort's deadly curiosity, sowing ruin in his enemy's own house.
Chapter 54
- Toast of Paris, the Count plots an Auteuil dinner to entangle his enemies and prepares to launch the mysterious Cavalcantis into society.
Chapter 56
- The Count manufactures a false 'Count Cavalcanti' and his hired father, loosing two miscreants into society for his designs.
Chapter 60
- The Count nudges Villefort to rush Valentine's marriage and sets off to study a country telegraph—the first move in a scheme against Danglars.
Chapter 61
- The Count bribes a country telegraph clerk to send a false signal, wiping a million francs from Danglars's fortune.
Chapter 63
- Hosting an impossible Oriental feast at Auteuil, the Count leads his guests to the murder room and unveils the buried infant—torturing Villefort and the baroness.
Chapter 66
- The Count needles the ruined Danglars, dangles the Cavalcanti match, and plants the seed of Morcerf's exposure by sending him to probe Yanina.
Chapter 69
- To foil Villefort's inquiry, the Count receives the same investigator twice—once as the Abbé Busoni, once as Lord Wilmore—feeding him a spun-out false history.
Chapter 70
- At the Morcerf ball the Count is the 'lion' of Paris, pointedly refuses all food under his betrayer's roof, and coolly deepens Danglars's ruin.
Chapter 71
- Alone with Mercédès in the conservatory, the Count refuses her grapes and her offer of friendship, veiling his identity in a tale of a girl at Malta.
Chapter 76
- Calling on the Danglars, the Count quietly advances two ruins at once—nudging the baroness to hoard money and confirming his Yanina bait has hooked the banker.
Chapter 77
- The Count brings Albert home and, orchestrating every word, has Haydée recount Yanina's fall to the son of its betrayer—suppressing only Fernand's name.
Chapter 78
- Coolly shooting cards to pieces, the Count refuses to second Albert against Beauchamp and steers him toward Haydée—the very witness who will damn his father.
Chapter 82
- Warned of a burglary, the Count ambushes the intruder alone, unmasks Caderousse as 'Abbé Busoni,' extracts a letter exposing Andrea, and sends him to his fate.
Chapter 83
- As Caderousse dies, the Count takes his deposition against Benedetto, preaches God's justice, then whispers his true name—Edmond Dantès—before murmuring 'One!'
Chapter 85
- The Count whisks Albert to Normandy behind his flying horses—then watches, with grim compassion, as a second paper's exposure of Fernand reaches his guest.
Chapter 88
- Insulted at the Opera by Albert, the Count coldly accepts the glove and the duel, telling Morrel he will surely kill the son of his enemy by ten tomorrow.
Chapter 89
- Mercédès kneels and names him Edmond; he reveals Danglars's letter and his fourteen years' agony, then, conquered by her, spares her son and resolves to die himself.
Chapter 90
- Resigned to die, the Count settles his will and faces Albert on the field—only to receive, instead of fire, the young man's public apology, and reads God's hand in it.
Chapter 91
- By letter, the Count returns to Mercédès the betrothal treasure he buried at Marseilles twenty-four years ago—sparing her son's pride while sparing her poverty.
Chapter 92
- Reunited joyfully with Haydée, the Count faces Fernand's challenge, recites his every treason, and at last reveals himself—'Edmond Dantès'—driving his betrayer to suicide.
Chapter 94
- The Count, cold spectator of the Villefort poisonings, is 'bitten to the heart' when Morrel confesses he loves Valentine—and secretly takes the house next door to save her.
Chapter 96
- With icy composure at the betrothal feast, the Count produces the bloodstained waistcoat and letter that expose Andrea, timing the murder charge to shatter Danglars's contract.
Chapter 100
- For four sleepless nights the Count has slipped through the wall to swap poison for antidote, keeping Valentine alive; now he reveals himself and vows to save her for Maximilian.
Chapter 101
- Having let Valentine see her poisoner, the Count lays bare the whole plot, then gives her a pastille to feign a death that will carry her safely beyond her enemy's reach.
Chapter 103
- Summoned as the nearest priest, the Count returns in disguise as the Abbé Busoni to watch by Valentine's 'corpse,' bolting the doors to guard the girl only he knows still lives.
Chapter 104
- On the morning of Valentine's funeral, the Count calls on Danglars and coolly draws five millions against his unlimited credit—minutes before the charity receiver comes for that very deposit.
Chapter 105
- To save the suicidal Maximilian, the Count at last unmasks himself as Edmond Dantès before the grateful Morrels, and swears a month's stay of death against the promise of a miracle.
Chapter 111
- Unmasking before the ruined Villefort as Edmond Dantès, the Count recoils from the murdered child—feeling he has 'passed beyond the bounds of vengeance'—and resolves to save Maximilian, his last care.
Chapter 112
- Bidding the Morrels a tender farewell, the Count quits Paris in triumph and doubt, reaches Marseilles, and offers the grieving Mercédès consolation as the last of his enemies fall.
Chapter 113
- Revisiting his Château d'If dungeon, the Count hears his own legend told, recovers Faria's manuscript, conquers his doubt, and sets Morrel a final tryst on the fifth of October.
Chapter 116
- Watching from the shadows as Danglars is starved to repentance, the Count reveals himself as Edmond Dantès, pardons his last enemy, and spares his life—having restored the stolen millions to the poor.
Chapter 117
- On his island, the Count works his last miracle—restoring the living Valentine to Maximilian—accepts Haydée's love as his pardon, and sails away, leaving the words 'Wait and hope.'