The Count of Monte Cristo

During the Hundred Days of Napoleon’s second reign, Villefort’s father, Noirtier, uses his power at the Bonapartist court to protect his Royalist son. Villefort postpones his marriage to Mlle de Saint-Méran for political reasons, figuring he will need to marry a Bonapartist if Napoleon remains in power but not wanting to break ties with the Saint-Mérans in case the Bourbon monarchy is restored. In the brief period of Napoleonic rule, Danglars (who wrote the letter denouncing Edmond) fears Edmond will be released and seek revenge. He leaves Marseilles for Madrid.

Morrel repeatedly appeals to Villefort for Edmond’s release, until the restoration of Louis XVIII makes this too dangerous politically. Once Louis XVIII is back on the throne, Villefort advances quickly in his career and marries Mlle de Saint-Méran. Fernand fights for Napoleon, and remains devoted to Mercédès, who is grateful for his support while she mourns Edmond. Five months after the restoration of the monarchy, Edmond’s father dies in Mercédès’s arms. Morrel pays for M. Dantès’s funeral and covers his debts, despite the political risk involved in helping the family of a Bonapartist prisoner.

As the years pass, Edmond falls deeper into despair. He turns first to religion for consolation, then begins brooding on the anonymous letter that led to his imprisonment and imagining the forms of vengeance he could inflict on the men responsible for his downfall. Imagining their deaths leads him to imagine his own, and he looks for ways to kill himself. He settles on starvation and starts throwing his food through the bars of his window.

Weakened by hunger and seemingly near death, Edmond hears a scraping noise from behind the wall. The sound continues for hours, and then days, leading Edmond to conclude that he hears a fellow prisoner trying to escape. Edmond begins eating again so he can test his conclusion and make contact with his fellow prisoner. He begins digging at the wall behind his bed, first with a shard of broken pottery and then with the metal handle of a saucepan. He finds the way blocked by a beam, but the wall is thin enough that the prisoner in the adjoining cell hears his cries and begins a conversation.

The other man reveals that he has been a prisoner since 1811 and that he has been tunneling toward Edmond’s cell in the mistaken belief it was an outer wall. The other prisoner has been tracking time, and tells Edmond that six years have passed since Edmond’s imprisonment, but he is surprised to learn from Edmond of Napoleon’s downfall. He assures Edmond that the two of them will escape, or live in prison as comrades. A day later, the prisoner breaks through the wall and enters Edmond’s cell.

The prisoner identifies himself as Abbé Faria, an Italian priest jailed for promoting the unification of Italy. Edmond realizes that Faria is the priest the jailers describe as erratic. Faria tells Edmond that since he has spent six years of his 12 years of imprisonment attempting to tunnel out only to find himself in Edmond’s cell, he feels there is little hope of escape. In addition to crafting his tunneling tools, Faria has managed to make his own paper and ink. He offers to show Edmond the book he has just finished writing, a treatise on the unification of Italy. Back in Faria’s cell, he shows Edmond other things he has made, including a knife, an oil lamp and matches, a rope ladder, and a bone needle.

Edmond tells Faria the story of his life, including the anonymous denunciation that sent him to prison. Faria helps Edmond to figure out that it must have been Danglars who denounced him, with the likely assistance of Fernand. Faria knows Noirtier from his contact with Bonapartists in Italy, and knows his full name was Noirtier de Villefort. He deduces that Villefort is Noirtier’s son. Edmond realizes what has been done to him and by whom. Alone in his cell, he swears an oath of vengeance.

Faria undertakes Edmond’s education, teaching him modern languages, mathematics, history, and science. A year passes, and the two begin work on another escape plan, but on the night of its execution, Faria becomes ill. He warns Edmond that he is about to suffer a second attack of a mysterious ailment the third attack of which will likely kill him. The ailment manifests as a death-like seizure. Before the seizure begins, Faria instructs Edmond to wait until he appears to be dead and then administer a few drops of red liquid hidden in Faria’s cell.

Edmond revives Faria as instructed, but Abbé is now partially paralyzed, which means he would be unable to swim to safety if they escape their island prison. He must therefore resign himself to remaining in prison. Edmond offers to carry Faria on his shoulder, then vows to stay with him when Faria dismisses that plan as unrealistic. Faria accepts Edmond’s promise and announces that he will tell Edmond something of great importance in the morning.

The next day, Edmond returns to Faria’s cell and finds him holding a half-burnt piece of paper covered in strange writing. When Faria tells Edmond the paper is a treasure map, Edmond fears that the old man is irrational after all. Eventually Faria forces Edmond to listen to his story.

Faria relates how he formerly worked as a secretary for Cardinal Spada, the last member of a great Roman family. Several centuries before, during the reign of Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), the pope and his son, born out of wedlock, Cesare Borgia plotted to enrich themselves by raising two of the richest men in Rome—one of them a Spada—to the rank of cardinal, in exchange for generous payments from both. After making the men cardinals, they planned to poison them both and seize their family fortunes. The new Cardinal Spada, anticipating their plan, hides his fortune and attempts to warn the nephew and heir. After Spada and his nephew die, the Borgias find only the books Spada intended to leave to his nephew, including a gold-cornered breviary (a book of daily prayers and rituals).

Centuries later, the current Cardinal Spada, Faria’s employer, still searches the family library for clues to the missing fortune. When he dies, he leaves his books to Faria. When Faria uses a blank piece of paper found in the old breviary to light a fire, he discovers the partially burnt paper is in fact covered with writing in invisible ink made visible by the heat. He has found the earlier Cardinal Spada’s final testament bequeathing his fortune to his nephew, warning him of the Borgia’s plans, and revealing the hiding place of the family treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. Faria has painstakingly recreated the burnt portion of the letter and shares both with Edmond. He tells Edmond that he regards Edmond as his own son, and if they escape and recover the treasure, they will share it equally.

One night, Edmond awakens to hear Faria calling from his cell. Edmond discovers that the third attack of Faria’s illness has begun. Faria bids farewell to Edmond and gives him his blessing. Edmond doses Faria with the red liquid again, as instructed, but Faria dies. His body is discovered by the jailers, who alert the governor. Before declaring Faria officially dead, the governor requires a doctor to apply burning irons to his body to prove he is not just unconscious. At last, Faria’s body is laid out and sewn into its shroud.

Edmond, visiting the body, thinks briefly of suicide and then decides to take Faria’s place inside the shroud. He places the old man’s body in his own bed, then sews himself into the shroud, planning to dig his way out of the grave after burial. Instead, the jailers who come to dispose of the body tie a cannonball to his feet and throw him into the sea.