The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas mainly takes place in the south of France during the Bonaparte Era, when Napoleon had been exiled to the island of Elba, the king had returned to power, and when there were still many people who were loyal to Napoleon and wanted his return.
The story begins with the main character, a young sailor named Edmond Dantes, who had just come back from a long voyage. When he arrived to Marseilles, his hometown, the first thing he did was visit his father, a poor, generous, loving man and the only live member of his family. After visiting his old man, Edmond ran to Mercedes’, his fiancé’s, house. At that time, Edmund felt like the luckiest man in the world; he had even been told by Monsieur Morrel, the owner of the ship for which Edmond worked for, that there was a big possibility of him being promoted to captain of the ship! However, Edmond had secret enemies who were jealous of him and of his luck. The first secret enemy was Danglars, who was a pursuer of the ship and who also wanted the role of captain. The second was Caderousse, a tailor who was Danglars’ friend. Finally, the third secret enemy was a young Catalan named Fernand who was in love with his own cousin, Mercedes.
These evil men got together one day, and plotted a scheme to get rid of Edmund. They decided to declare him a Bonapartist by stating that they had seen Edmond take a letter from a man in Elba, which had the purpose of bringing Napoleon back to power.
Edmund, oblivious to all the evil surrounding him, was at his betrothal feast, when suddenly; the police came in and arrested him. Edmund was taken to an examination, where he was questioned by Villefort, the judge. In the beginning, Villefort told Edmond not to worry because the evidence was in Edmond’s favor. However, after having read the letter addressed to M. Noirtier which had been found between Edmond’s belongings, the judge appeared a little bit nervous, and abruptly change his mind about Edmond’s sentence. He told Edmond that this letter had been the main cause of his imprisonment; therefore he was going to burn the letter. Then, Mr. Villefort told Edmond that if he firmly denied the existence of the letter, Edmond would be saved.
Edmund spent one day in a small cell in Paris. The next day, was then taken to the Chateau d’If, a State prison only used for important political offenders which was on an island. Then, when Edmund asked why he was being taken there even if he had done nothing wrong and if the judge had promised him freedom; the only response he got from the guards was “We are forbidden to give you any explanation”. Edmund became really frustrated due to this injustice and was starting to go a little bit crazy inside his cell; he even thought about suicide through starvation since there was nothing else in his cell with which he could himself with.
Luckily, while in jail, Edmond had the pleasure of meeting Abbe Faria, an old Italian prisoner who was seeking freedom by digging a tunnel; but who had failed miserably since he had ended up in Edmond’s cell instead of out in the sea. The two men end up becoming great friends so the abbe teaches Edmond all he knows, and helps Edmond figure out the reason for his imprisonment. Before his death, the abbe reveals Edmond, the location of a huge treasure.
After the abbe dies, Edmond took the old man’s body through the tunnel into his own cell and placed himself inside the bag where the priest’s body was supposed to be, with nothing but a knife. The next day, the guards came in and threw him into the sea. Once inside the sea, he waited a couple of minutes so that he wouldn’t risk being seen by the guards; and after 14 years of imprisonment, escaped.
A couple of days later, Edmond went to the island of Monte Cristo for the treasure and changed his name to The Count of Monte Cristo. Then, he went to his father’s house but soon learnt that his father had died from starvation several years ago. The same day, he also learnt that Mercedes thought that Edmond had died, so she had married Fernand.
After a few sad days for Monte Cristo, he looked for those who had been good to him like Monsieur Morrel, and secretly helped them and their families by taking care of all their financial problems. After having completed this task, Monte Cristo decided to seek vengeance, by tracking down the men who had taken his freedom and his happiness away from him and making them pay.
In this part of the story, the author provides the reader with the most brilliant and complicated schemes any man could come up with.
Finally, at the end of the story, Monte Cristo married a young and beautiful princess. Then, he realized that he went a little bit far with some of his schemes so he asks his wife and friends for their forgiveness for taking lives and material possessions from people as he pleased.
I really enjoyed reading this book because I, as the reader, had to pay attention to all the details in the book which seemed insignificant in the beginning, but as the story went on, became more and more important. Therefore, it kept my imagination and my memory working throughout the whole story making this book very entertaining! The only question that I had after reading this story was whether Monte Cristo plotted his schemes while in prison or after, because they were extremely detailed and precise.