The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel by French author Alexandre Dumas (Alexandre Dumas père). It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. He completed the work in 1844. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.
The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean, and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book. An adventure story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness, it focuses on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune and sets about getting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. However, his plans have devastating consequences for the innocent as well as the guilty.
The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Luc Sante, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, Noah's flood, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood."
Reception and Legacy
The original work was published in serial form in the Journal des Débats in 1844. Carlos Javier Villafane Mercado described the effect in Europe: The effect of the serials, which held vast audiences enthralled ... is unlike any experience of reading we are likely to have known ourselves, maybe something like that of a particularly gripping television series. Day after day, at breakfast or at work or on the street, people talked of little else. George Saintsbury stated: "Monte Cristo is said to have been at its first appearance, and for some time subsequently, the most popular book in Europe. Perhaps no novel within a given number of years had so many readers and penetrated into so many different countries." This popularity has extended into modern times as well. The book was "translated into virtually all modern languages and has never been out of print in most of them. There have been at least twenty-nine motion pictures based on it ... as well as several television series, and many movies [have] worked the name 'Monte Cristo' into their titles." The title Monte Cristo lives on in a "famous gold mine, a line of luxury Cuban cigars, a sandwich, and any number of bars and casinos—it even lurks in the name of the street-corner hustle three-card monte."
Background to the plot
Dumas wrote that the idea of revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo came from a story in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, a French police archivist, published in 1838 after the death of the author. Dumas included this essay in one of the editions from 1846. Peuchet told of a shoemaker, Pierre Picaud, living in Nîmes in 1807, who was engaged to marry a rich woman when three jealous friends falsely accused him of being a spy for England. Picaud was placed under a form of house arrest, in the Fenestrelle Fort where he served as a servant to a rich Italian cleric. When the man died, he left his fortune to Picaud whom he had begun to treat as a son. Picaud then spent years plotting his revenge on the three men who were responsible for his misfortune. He stabbed the first with a dagger on which were printed the words, "Number One", and then he poisoned the second. The third man's son he lured into crime and his daughter into prostitution, finally stabbing the man himself. This third man, named Loupian, had married Picaud's fiancée while Picaud was under arrest. In another of the "True Stories" Peuchet describes a poisoning in a family. This story, also quoted in the Pleiade edition, has obviously served as model for the chapter of the murders inside the Villefort family. The introduction to the Pleiade edition mentions other sources from real life: the Abbé Faria existed and died in 1819 after a life with much resemblance to that of the Faria in the novel. As for Dantès, his fate is quite different from his model in Peuchet's book, since the latter is murdered by the "Caderousse" of the plot. But Dantès has "alter egos" in two other Dumas works; in "Pauline" from 1838, and more significantly in "Georges" from 1843, where a young man with black ancestry is preparing a revenge against white people who had humiliated him.
Historical background
The success of Monte Cristo coincides with France's Second French Empire. In the book, Dumas tells of the 1815 return of Napoleon I, and alludes to contemporary events when the governor at the Château d'If is promoted to a position at the castle of Ham. The attitude of Dumas towards "bonapartisme" was conflicted. His father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas became a successful general during the French Revolution. When new racial-discrimination laws were applied in 1802, the general was dismissed from the army and became profoundly bitter toward Napoleon. In 1840 the ashes of Napoleon I were brought to France and became an object of veneration in the church of Les Invalides, renewing popular patriotic support for the Bonaparte family.
In "Causeries" (1860), Dumas published a short paper, "État civil du Comte de Monte-Cristo", on the genesis of the Count of Montecristo. It appears that Dumas had close contacts with members of the Bonaparte family while living in Florence in 1841. In a small boat he sailed around the island of Monte-Cristo accompanied by a young prince, a cousin to Louis Bonaparte, who was to become emperor of France ten years later. During this trip he promised the prince that he would write a novel with the island's name in the title. At that time the future emperor was imprisoned at the citadel of Ham – a name that is mentioned in the novel. Dumas did visit him there although he does not mention it in "Etat civil". In 1840 Louis Napoleon was sentenced to life in prison, but escaped in disguise in 1846, while Dumas's novel was a great success. Just in the manner of Dantès, Louis Napoleon reappeared in Paris as a powerful and enigmatic man of the world. In 1848, however, Dumas did not vote for Louis Napoleon. The novel may have contributed, against the will of the writer, to the victory of the future Napoleon III.
A chronology of The Count of Monte Cristo and Bonapartism
During the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas:
- 1793: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas is promoted to the rank of general in the army of the First French Republic.
- 1794: He disapproves of the revolutionary terror in Western France.
- 1795-97: He becomes famous and fights under Napoleon.
- 1802: Black officers are dismissed from the army. The Empire re-establishes slavery.
- 1802: Birth of his son, Alexandre Dumas père.
- 1806: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas dies, still bitter about the injustice of the Empire.
During the life of Alexandre Dumas:
- 1832: The only son of Napoleon I dies.
- 1836: Alexandre Dumas is famous as a writer by this time (age 34).
- 1836: First putsch by Louis Napoleon, aged 28, fails.
- 1840: A law is passed to bring the ashes of Napoleon I to France.
- 1840: Second putsch of Louis Napoleon. He is imprisoned for life and becomes known as the candidate for the imperial succession.
- 1841: Dumas lives in Florence and becomes acquainted with King Jérôme and his son, Napoléon.
- 1841-44: The novel is conceived and written.
- 1846: The novel is a European bestseller.
- 1846: Louis Napoleon escapes from his prison.
- 1848: French Second Republic. Louis Napoleon is elected its first president but Dumas does not vote for him.
- 1857: Dumas publishes État civil du Comte de Monte-Cristo
Plot summary
Edmond Dantès
In 1815 Edmond Dantès, the young and successful merchant sailor recently granted his own command by his dying captain Leclère, returns to Marseille to marry his fiancée Mercédès. Leclère, a supporter of the exiled Napoléon I, has charged Dantès to deliver two objects: a package to Maréchal Bertrand (exiled with Napoleon Bonaparte on Elba), and a letter from Elba to an unknown man in Paris. On the eve of his wedding to Mercédès, Fernand (Mercédès' cousin and a rival for her affections) and Danglars (who is jealous of Dantès' rapid rise to captain), upon the suggestion of Caderousse (a neighbour of Dantès), send an anonymous note accusing Dantès of being a Bonapartist traitor. Villefort, the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, while initially sympathetic to Dantès, destroys the letter from Elba when he discovers that it is addressed to his father who is a Bonapartist. In order to silence Dantès, he condemns him without trial to life imprisonment.
During his fourteen years imprisonment in the Château d'If, Dantès befriends the Abbé Faria ("The Mad Priest"), a fellow prisoner who is trying to tunnel his way to freedom, and who claims knowledge of a massive treasure and continually offers to reward the guards well if they release him. Faria gives Dantès an extensive education. He also explains to Dantès how Danglars, Fernand, and Villefort would each have had their own reasons for wanting Dantès in prison. After years of friendship, and knowing himself to be close to death, Faria tells Dantès the location of the treasure, on Monte Cristo. When Faria dies, Dantès uses his burial sack to stage an escape to a nearby island, and is rescued by a smuggling ship. After several months of working with the smugglers, he goes to Monte Cristo. Dantès fakes an injury and convinces the smugglers to temporarily leave him on Monte Cristo, then makes his way to the hiding place of the treasure. After recovering the treasure, he returns to Marseille, where he learns that his father has died in poverty. He buys a yacht, hides the rest of the treasure on board and buys both the island of Monte Cristo and the title of Count from the Tuscan government.
Returning to Marseille, Dantès plans his revenge but first helps several people who were kind to him before his imprisonment. Traveling as the Abbé Busoni, he meets Caderousse, now living in poverty, whose intervention might have saved Dantès from prison. Dantès learns that his other enemies have all become wealthy since Dantès was betrayed. He gives Caderousse a diamond that can be either a chance to redeem himself, or a trap that will lead to his ruin. Learning that his old employer Morrel is on the verge of bankruptcy, Dantès, in the guise of a senior clerk from a banking firm, buys all of Morrel's outstanding debts and gives Morrel an extension of three months to fulfill his obligations. At the end of the three months and with no way to repay his debts, Morrel is about to commit suicide when he learns that all of his debts have been mysteriously paid and that one of his lost ships has returned with a full cargo, secretly rebuilt and laden by Dantès.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Disguised as the rich Count of Monte Cristo, Dantès takes revenge on the three men responsible for his unjust imprisonment: Fernand, now Count de Morcerf and Mercédès' husband; Danglars, now a baron and a wealthy banker; and Villefort, now Prosecutor/procureur du roi — all are now living in Paris. The Count appears first in Rome, where he becomes acquainted with the Baron Franz d'Épinay, and Viscount Albert de Morcerf, the son of Mercédès and Fernand. Dantès arranges for the young Morcerf to be captured by the bandit Luigi Vampa before rescuing him from the same. Dantès then moves to Paris, and with Albert de Morcerf's introduction, becomes the sensation of the city. Due to his knowledge and rhetorical power, even his enemies, who do not recognize him, find him charming and all desire his friendship. The Count dazzles the crass Danglars with his seemingly endless wealth, eventually persuading him to extend him a credit of six million francs, and withdraws 900,000. Under the terms of the arrangement, the Count can demand access to the remainder at any time. The Count manipulates the bond market, through a false telegraph signal, and quickly destroys a large portion of Danglars' fortune. The rest of it begins to rapidly disappear through mysterious bankruptcies, suspensions of payment, and more bad luck on the Stock Exchange.
Villefort had once conducted an affair with Madame Danglars. She became pregnant and delivered the child in the house in which he was living at that time. After suffocating the infant, Villefort had tried to secretly bury it in a box on the grounds of the house but while doing so, he was stabbed by Bertuccio, his sworn enemy, who rescued the infant and brought him back to life. Bertuccio's sister-in-law brought the child up, giving him the name "Benedetto". The Count learns of this story from Bertuccio, who later becomes his servant. He purchases the house and hosts a dinner party there, to which he invites, among others, Villefort and Madame Danglars. During the dinner, the Count announces that, while doing landscaping, he had unearthed a box containing the remains of an infant and had referred the matter to the authorities to investigate. This puzzles Villefort, who knew that the infant's box had been removed and so the Count's story could not be true, and also alarms him that perhaps he knows the secret of his past affair with Madame Danglars and may be taunting him.
Meanwhile, Benedetto has grown up to become a criminal and is sentenced to the galleys with Caderousse. After the two are freed by "Lord Wilmore", Benedetto is sponsored by the Count to take the identity of "Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti" and is introduced by him into Parisian society at the same dinner party, with neither Villefort nor Madame Danglars suspecting that Andrea is their presumed dead son. Andrea then ingratiates himself to Danglars who betroths his daughter Eugénie to Andrea after cancelling her engagement to Albert, son of Fernand. Meanwhile, Caderousse blackmails Andrea, threatening to reveal his past. Cornered by "Abbé Busoni" while attempting to rob the Count's house, Caderousse begs to be given another chance, but Dantès grimly notes that the last two times he did so, Caderousse did not change. He forces Caderousse to write a letter to Danglars exposing Cavalcanti as an impostor and allows Caderousse to leave the house. The moment Caderousse leaves the estate, he is stabbed in the back by Andrea. Caderousse manages to dictate and sign a deathbed statement identifying his killer, and the Count reveals his true identity to Caderousse moments before Caderousse dies.
Years before, Ali Pasha, the ruler of Janina, had been betrayed to the Turks by Fernand. After Ali's death, Fernand sold his wife Vasiliki and his daughter Haydée into slavery. Haydée was found and bought by Dantès and becomes the Count's ward. The Count manipulates Danglars into researching the event, which is published in a newspaper. As a result, Fernand is brought to trial for his crimes. Haydée testifies against him, and Fernand is disgraced. Mercédès, still beautiful, is the only person to recognize the Count as Dantès. When Albert blames the Count for his father's downfall and publicly challenges him to a duel, Mercédès goes secretly to the Count and begs him to spare her son. During this interview, she learns the entire truth of his arrest and imprisonment. She later reveals the truth to Albert, which causes Albert to make a public apology to the Count. Albert and Mercédès disown Fernand, who is confronted with Dantès' true identity and commits suicide. The mother and son depart to build a new life free of disgrace. Albert enlists as a soldier and goes to Africa in order to rebuild his life and honour under a new name, and Mercédès begins a solitary life in Marseille.
Villefort's daughter by his first wife, Valentine, stands to inherit the fortune of her grandfather (Noirtier) and of her mother's parents (the Saint-Mérans), while his second wife, Héloïse, seeks the fortune for her son Édouard. The Count is aware of Héloïse's intentions, and "innocently" introduces her to the technique of poison. Héloïse fatally poisons the Saint-Mérans, so that Valentine inherits their fortune. Valentine is disinherited by Noirtier in an attempt to prevent Valentine's impending marriage with Franz d'Épinay. The marriage is cancelled when d'Épinay learns that his father (believed assassinated by Bonapartists) was killed by Noirtier in a duel. Afterwards, Valentine is reinstated in Noirtier's will. After a failed attempt on Noirtier's life, which instead claims the life of Noirtier's servant Barrois, Héloïse then targets Valentine so that Édouard will finally get the fortune. However, Valentine is the prime suspect in her father's eyes in the deaths of the Saint-Mérans and Barrois. On learning that Morrel's son Maximilien is in love with Valentine, the Count saves her by making it appear as though Héloïse's plan to poison Valentine has succeeded and that Valentine is dead. Villefort learns from Noirtier that Héloïse is the real murderer and confronts her, giving her the choice of a public execution or committing suicide by her own poison.
Fleeing after Caderousse's letter exposes him, Andrea gets as far as Compiègne before he is arrested and returned to Paris, where Villefort prosecutes him. While in prison awaiting trial, Andrea is visited by Bertuccio who tells him the truth about his father. At his trial, Andrea reveals that he is Villefort's son and was rescued after Villefort buried him alive. A stunned Villefort admits his guilt and flees the court. He rushes home to stop his wife's suicide but is too late; she has poisoned her son as well. Dantès confronts Villefort, revealing his true identity, but this, combined with the shock of the trial's revelations and the death of his wife and son, drives Villefort insane. Dantès tries to resuscitate Édouard but fails, and despairs that his revenge has gone too far. It is only after he revisits his cell in the Château d'If that Dantès is reassured that his cause is just and his conscience is clear, that he can fulfill his plan while being able to forgive both his enemies and himself.
After the Count's manipulation of the bond market, Danglars is left with only a destroyed 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. Abandoning his wife, Danglars flees to Italy with the Count's receipt, hoping to live in Vienna in anonymous prosperity. While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by the Count's agent Luigi Vampa and is imprisoned the same way that Albert was. Forced to pay exorbitant prices for food, Danglars eventually signs away all but 50,000 francs of the stolen five million (which Dantès anonymously returns to the hospitals). Nearly driven mad by his ordeal, Danglars finally repents his crimes. Dantès forgives Danglars and allows him to leave with his freedom and the money he has left.
Maximilien Morrel, believing Valentine to be dead, contemplates suicide after her funeral. Dantès reveals his true identity and explains that he rescued Morrel's father from bankruptcy, disgrace and suicide years earlier. He persuades Maximilien to delay his suicide. On the island of Monte Cristo one month later, Dantès presents Valentine to Maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events. Having found peace, Dantès leaves for an unknown destination to find comfort and a new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him.
Characters
Edmond Dantès and his aliases
- Edmond Dantès (born 1796): A sailor with good prospects, fiancé to Mercédès. After his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo, he reveals his true name to his enemies as each revenge is completed.
- English Chief Clerk of the Thomson and French banking firm
- Lord Wilmore: An Englishman, and the persona in which Dantès performs random acts of generosity.
- Sinbad the Sailor: The persona that Dantès assumes when he saves the Morrel family and assumes while mixing with smugglers and brigands.
- Abbé Busoni: The persona of religious authority.
- Monsieur Zaccone: Dantès, in the guise of the Abbé Busoni, and again as Lord Wilmore, tells an investigator that this is the Count of Monte Cristo's true name.
Dantès' allies
- Abbé Faria: Italian priest and sage.
- Giovanni Bertuccio: The Count of Monte Cristo's steward and very loyal servant; foster father of Benedetto.
- Luigi Vampa: celebrated Italian bandit and fugitive.
- Peppino: Formerly a shepherd, he is later a bandit and full member of Vampa's gang.
- Haydée (also transliterated as Haidée): The daughter of Ali Pasha of Yanina, bought out of slavery by the Count.
- Ali: Monte Cristo's mute Nubian slave.
- Baptistin: Monte Cristo's valet-de-chambre.
- Jacopo: A poor smuggler who helps Dantès win his freedom. When Jacopo proves his selfless loyalty, Dantès rewards him with his own ship and crew.
Morcerf family
- Mercédès Mondego (née: Herrera): Dantès' fiancée at the beginning of the story.
- Fernand Mondego: Count de Morcerf, Dantès' rival and cousin of Mercédès. Eventually marries her.
- Albert de Morcerf: Son of Mercédès and the Count de Morcerf, friend of Monte Cristo.
Danglars family
- Baron Danglars: Dantes' jealous junior officer at the beginning of the story, then later a wealthy banker.
- Madame Hermine Danglars (formerly Baroness Hermine de Nargonne née de Servieux): She had an affair with Gérard de Villefort. They had an illegitimate son Benedetto.
- Eugénie Danglars: Daughter of Baron Danglars.
Villefort family
- Gérard de Villefort: Royal prosecutor who imprisons Dantès, later becoming acquaintances as Dantès enacts his revenge.
- Renée de Villefort, née de Saint-Méran: Gérard de Villefort's first wife, mother of Valentine.
- Le Marquis de Saint-Méran and La Marquise de Saint-Méran: Renée's parents.
- Valentine de Villefort: The daughter of Gérard de Villefort and his first wife, Renée. In love with Maximilien Morrel. Engaged to Baron Franz d'Epinay until the engagement is broken off by Noirtier. She is 19 years old with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and "long white hands"
- Monsieur Noirtier de Villefort: The father of Gérard de Villefort and grandfather of Valentine, Édouard (and, without knowing it, Benedetto). A committed anti-royalist.
- Héloïse de Villefort: The murderous second wife of Gérard de Villefort, mother of Edouard.
- Édouard de Villefort. The only legitimate son of Villefort.
- Benedetto: The illegitimate son of de Villefort and Baroness Hermine Danglars (Hermine de Nargonne), raised by Bertuccio and his sister-in-law, Assunta, Rogliano. Becomes "Andrea Cavalcanti" in Paris.
Morrel family
- Pierre Morrel: Dantès's employer, owner of Morrel & Son.
- Maximilien Morrel: Son of Pierre Morrel, an army captain who becomes a friend of Dantès. In love with Valentine de Villefort.
- Julie Herbault: Daughter of Pierre Morrel, wife of Emmanuel Herbault.
- Emmanuel Herbault: an employee of Morrel & Son, who marries Julie Morrel and succeeds to the business.
Other characters
- Gaspard Caderousse: Originally a tailor, a neighbour and friend of Dantès but who betrays him and turns to crime.
- Louis Dantès: Edmond Dantès' father, who dies of starvation while Edmond is in prison.
- Baron Franz d'Épinay: A friend of Albert de Morcerf, first fiancé of Valentine de Villefort.
- Lucien Debray: Secretary to the Minister of the Interior, a friend of Albert de Morcerf, and a lover of Madame Danglars.
- Beauchamp: Journalist and friend of Albert de Morcerf.
- Raoul, Baron de Château-Renaud: Member of a noble family and friend of Albert de Morcerf.
- Louise d'Armilly: Eugénie Danglars' music instructor & her intimate friend.
- Monsieur de Boville: originally an inspector of prisons, later a detective in the Paris force.
- Barrois: Old, trusted servant of Monsieur de Noirtier.
- Monsieur d'Avrigny: Family doctor treating the Villefort family.
- Major (also Marquis) Bartolomeo Cavalcanti: Old man who plays the role of Prince Andrea Cavalcanti's father.
- Ali Tebelen (Ali Tepelini in some versions): An Albanian nationalist leader, Pasha of Yanina, whom Mondego betrays, leading to Ali Pasha’s murder at the hands of the Turks and the seizure of his kingdom. Pasha’s wife and his daughter Haydée are sold into slavery.
Publication
The Count of Monte Cristo was originally published in the Journal des Débats in eighteen parts. Publication ran from August 28, 1844 to January 15, 1846. It was first published in Paris by Pétion in 18 volumes (1844-5). Complete versions of the novel in the original French were published throughout the nineteenth century. The most common English translation was originally published in 1846 by Chapman and Hall. Most unabridged English editions of the novel, including the Modern Library and Oxford World's Classics editions, use this translation, although Penguin Classics published a new translation by Robin Buss in 1996. Buss' translation updated the language, is more accessible to modern readers, and reverted content that was modified in the 1846 translation because of Victorian English social restrictions (for example, references to Eugénie's lesbian traits and behavior) to Dumas' original version. Other English translations of the unabridged work exist, but are rarely seen in print and most borrow from the 1846 anonymous translation. Alexandre Dumas wrote a set of three plays that collectively told the story of The Count of Monte Cristo: Monte Cristo (1848), Le Comte de Morcerf (1851), and Villefort (1851). The book itself went on to inspire the plot for a wide array of novels, from Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur (1880), a Science Fiction retelling in Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination[citation needed], to Stephen Fry's contemporary The Stars' Tennis Balls.
Connection to Revenge
The ABC series Revenge was billed as a reimagining of Dumas' novel prior to its premiere, though the similarities are not many in terms of characters and setting. They do however both feature a protagonist who has disguised themselves as someone wealthy (and also other people) after serving time in jail in order to get revenge on a number of people who were responsible for using the law against them (though Edmond Dantes is avenging his own false imprisonment while Emily is avenging that of her father, which changed her life as well).
Selected notable adaptations
Film and TV
- 1934: The Count of Monte Cristo (1934 film), directed by Rowland V. Lee
- 1940: The Son of Monte Cristo, directed by Rowland V. Lee
- 1942 El Conde de Monte Cristo, directed by Chano Urueta and starred by Arturo de Córdova
- 1946: The Return of Monte Christo, directed by Henry Levin
- 1950: The Prince of Revenge, Egyptian movie, directed by Henry Barkat
- 1956: The Count of Monte Cristo (TV series), TV series based on further adventures of Edmond Dantes after the end of the novel
- 1958: Vanjikkottai Valiban Cinema of India Tamil cinema language film was based on this novel
- 1964: The Count of Monte Cristo, BBC television serial starring Alan Badel and Natasha Parry
- 1975: The Count of Monte Cristo (1975 film), starring Richard Chamberlain, directed by David Greene
- 1977: "The Great Vendetta", Hong Kong adaption, in which the background of the story is changed in Southern China during the Republican Era, television serial starring Adam Cheng
- 1988: The Prisoner of Castle If, Soviet miniseries starring Viktor Avilov and Aleksei Petrenko
- 1998: The Count of Monte Cristo (1998 miniseries), television serial starring Gérard Depardieu
- 1999: Forever Mine Film starring Joseph Fiennes, Ray Liotta and Gretchen Mol, loosely but clearly based upon The Count of Monte Cristo, directed/written by Paul Schrader
- 2002: The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film), directed by Kevin Reynolds
- 2004: Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (巌窟王 Gankutsuoo, literally The King of the Cave) Japanese animation adaptation. Produced by Gonzo, directed by Mahiro Maeda
- 2006: Vingança (telenovela), directed by Rodrigo Riccó and Paulo Rosa, SIC Portugal
- 2006: Montecristo (Argentine telenovela), starring Pablo Echarri and Paola Krum
- 2010: Ezel (TV series), a Turkish television series billed as an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo.
- 2011: Revenge (2011 TV series), a television series billed as an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Literary adaptations
- 2000: The Stars' Tennis Balls, Stephen Fry
Sequels (books)
- 1853: A Mão do finado, Alfredo Hogan
- 1881: The Son of Monte Cristo, Jules Lermina
- 1869: The Countess of Monte Cristo, Jean Charles Du Boys, also 1934 and 1948
- 1946: The Wife of Monte Cristo
Plays and musicals scripts
- 2000: Monte Cristo by Karel Svoboda (music) and Zdenek Borovec (lyrics), Prague
- 2003: The Count of Monte Cristo (Граф Монте-Кристо) by Alexandr Tumencev and Tatyana Ziryanova
- 2006: Monte Cristo - The musical by Jon Smith and Leon Parris
- 2008: Monte-Cristo by Roman Ignatyev (composer) and Yuli Kim (lyrics), Moscow
- 2009: The Count of Monte Cristo by Frank Wildhorn
- 2009: The Count of Monte Cristo, by Ido Ricklin
- 2010: The Count of Monte Cristo, Rock Opera by Pete Sneddon
- 2012: The Count of Monte Cristo by Richard Bean, Royal National Theatre
Live Broadcast
The Royal National Theatre's production of The Count of Monte Cristo will be broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on 17 January 2013 as part of the National Theatre Live programme.