Translator
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo follows Edmond Dantès, a young Marseille sailor whose promising future is wrecked in 1815 when jealous acquaintances and a self-protecting magistrate send him to the Château d'If without trial. After years in prison, a daring escape and a fortune he was not expecting, he reappears in Paris and Rome as a mysterious, wealthy count, patiently dismantling the lives of the men who betrayed him. Serialized in a Paris newspaper in the 1840s, it is a landmark of historical fiction that combines adventure, courtroom intrigue, romance and moral argument about justice and vengeance. This Penguin Classics edition presents Robin Buss's complete English translation, which makes it a practical choice among classic novels to read for anyone ready for a long, absorbing story.