Story so far
Valentine de Villefort, carried from her tomb-like trance by the Count of Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantès) and sheltered on the Island of Monte Cristo—where Haydée has become her beloved 'sister' and nursed her patience—is revealed at last to the dying-then-reviving Maximilian Morrel. 'Pale, and sweetly smiling,' she appears 'like an angel of mercy,' and when Maximilian wakes from the count's draught she turns his despair to rapture with her smile. Walking arm-in-arm with him on the seashore at dawn, she tells how the count entered her room, revealed the poison plot, and saved her by letting her simulate death.
The count's farewell letter names her Maximilian's bride and begs her to give the immense fortune reverting from her father—'now a madman'—and her brother, 'who died last September with his mother,' to the poor; learning of these horrors, she weeps, her happiness dearly bought. United forever with the man she loves and blessed by her grandfather Noirtier, who awaits them at Leghorn, Valentine steps into the future on the count's parting wisdom: 'Wait and hope.'
Appearance
A girl of nineteen restored from illness, pale but sweetly smiling, chestnut-haired and blue-eyed, radiant with the beauty of one risen as from the dead.
Role
The heroine revealed alive on the island, reunited with Maximilian and betrothed at last.
Relationships
Maximilian Morrel — Her love, to whom she is revealed alive and betrothed after his month of mourning her supposed death.
Edmond Dantès — Her savior, who feigned her death, sheltered her, and gives her in marriage with a vast fortune.
Haydée — Her beloved 'sister' on the island, who taught her to wait patiently for this day.
Noirtier — Her grandfather, who awaits at Leghorn to bless her before her marriage.
Sources — 13 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 51
- Villefort's gentle, persecuted daughter, secret love of Maximilian Morrel, betrothed against her will to Franz d'Épinay.
Chapter 57
- Villefort's gentle, persecuted daughter, secret love of Maximilian Morrel, betrothed against her will to Franz d'Épinay.
Chapter 58
- Pressed toward marriage with Franz d'Épinay, Valentine finds a fierce ally in her paralyzed grandfather, who demands a notary in secret revolt.
Chapter 72
- Struck down by grief at her grandfather's death, Valentine nurses her dying grandmother—who unknowingly presses the very marriage she dreads.
Chapter 73
- Torn between duty and love, Valentine promises Maximilian she will flee rather than wed Franz, and confides everything to her grandfather Noirtier.
Chapter 78
- Freed from the marriage by her grandfather, a joyful Valentine runs to Maximilian at the gate crying 'We are saved!'—and vows to marry him.
Chapter 79
- Valentine relays Noirtier's plan to leave the house and wait for her majority to wed Maximilian—then innocently hands Barrois the poisoned lemonade.
Chapter 80
- Absent and unaware, Valentine is denounced by d'Avrigny as the household poisoner—though the fleeing servants weep for her gentleness and her father shields her.
Chapter 93
- Sickening from the poison she unknowingly drinks, Valentine confides her giddiness to Maximilian and Noirtier, then collapses convulsing at the foot of the stairs.
Chapter 100
- Bedridden and feverish, Valentine mistakes the Count's midnight entrance for a vision—until he speaks Maximilian's name and reveals he has secretly kept her alive from poison.
Chapter 101
- Feigning sleep, Valentine watches her stepmother pour poison into her glass; learning the whole plot, she swallows the Count's pastille and surrenders herself to his desperate design.
Chapter 102
- The Count's pastille casts Valentine into a death so perfect that stepmother, nurse, and doctor all believe her a corpse—cold, pulseless, and pale as wax.
Chapter 117
- Hidden alive on the island by the Count since her feigned death, Valentine is revealed to the reviving Maximilian—reunited with her love and betrothed, though grieved by her family's ruin.