The Facts of the Matter: The Count of Monte Cristo Revealed

One of my all time favorite books is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It is definitely a swash-buckling adventure full of exciting twists and fantastic turns. It's themes of revenge, mercy, forgiveness and justice reveal themselves to the reader in an emotional and exciting way. Dumas, like many writers of his time period, knew how to use a story to alert people to social injustices going on around them. He knew how to tell a story, and this was a particularly good story.   

 
Edmond Dantes, a young man of 19 who has an incredibly charmed life despite his poverty, has just been made Captain of the Pharaon and is getting ready to marry his true love, the beautiful Mercedes. However, two jealous acquaintances and an ambitious magistrate manage to tear Edmond away from his happy prospects on his very wedding day. Accused of being a traitor, Edmond is thrown into prison at the Chateau D'If. While there he meets an Italian priest who befriends and educates the formerly illiterate young Dantes. The Abbe Faria tells Edmund of a great treasure hidden on the small island of Monte Cristo and they plan to retrieve it once they've escaped.

 
The Abbe dies before their plans can be completed, so Edmond escapes alone (with a little help from the dead Faria), and after some adventure finally makes it to Monte Cristo to claim the treasure bequeathed to him by the Abbe. Once he has possession of the treasure, his sole motive is revenge on those who falsely imprisoned him for 14 years and tore him away from his love, Mercedes.  Using his wealth and various disguises, the plot thickens...
 
This story was originally published in a French paper in 18 parts from August 1844 to January 1846. I wonder if people waited for the next installment of Monte Cristo the way people today waited for the next Harry Potter or Twilight Saga book. Did people camp out outside the printers to get the first copy of the paper? Did they discuss it amongst themselves, everyone with some idea of what was going to happen next? Did they know the facts? Or did they think it just another great story revealing the major flaws in the French justice system?

The island of Monte Cristo

 
About twenty years before he wrote the novel, Dumas was hunting on one of the Tuscan Islands, or Seven Sisters as they are sometimes called (since there are seven of them). A companion pointed out the island of Montecristo to him off in the distance. Dumas was so enchanted by the name that he vowed to someday write a book with "Monte Cristo" in the title.
 
In 1838 a book of true stories taken from Paris police files was published. One of the files was about a young shoemaker named Pierre Picaud. On the verge of his wedding in 1807 to a wealthy orphan, a few jealous friends pulled a cruel prank on him. They wrote a letter to the commissar accusing Pierre of being an English spy against Napoleon. He was thrown into a fortress prison where he languished for 7 years. While there he met a dying Italian priest who told him where to find a buried treasure. When he finally was released, Pierre found the treasure and used it along with various disguises to wreak his revenge on those who had ruined his life. Dumas got his hands on this story and the rest is history.
 
Mark Twain said, "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." I've read my Signet Classics paperback copy almost to pieces, but I've always skipped the introduction. When I picked it up for a reread a couple of months ago I decided it was time to read the introduction written by Robert Wilson. I was floored. Never once had it occurred to me that this story could in any way be factual. Of course all the details were Dumas' own, but that even the plot could have happened? It just didn't seem plausible. So I dug. Not too deep, but I searched around looking for something to refute it, to say that Dumas made this exaggerated claim to make the story seem even more exciting. Nothing. While there wasn't much to find, all the sources said the same thing. It happened.
Will this change your perspective the next time you read the book or see one of the movies?

Thanks to the Classics Circuit for letting me host today's stop in the  "Paris in the Spring: Alexandre Dumas" tour. Be sure to click the link to read more about Dumas and his many writings.