We all love a good revenge drama! Revenge has been a theme in popular culture as long as stories have been around. From the Old Testament to Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Sweeney Todd, we have been entertained and shocked by stories of the victims of injustice meting out justice of their own to those that done ‘em wrong. There are two varieties of the revenge drama. There’s the ‘hot’ variety where the wronged person outright kills/maims/ruins their foe. From the cold, dark, damp horror of Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, to the father-son encounter in Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue", to the eye-popping, cranium-slicing, heart-stopping mayhem of Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004), the avengee knows the avenger has returned, why they have returned, and what they are going to do next. Then there is the ‘cold’ revenge tale. “Revenge is dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold” says the antihero of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), a black comedy from Ealing Studios in which a distant heir to a dukedom kills off the entire family (all played by Alec Guinness) to avenge their treatment of his mother without reveling either himself or his plan to most of them. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) contains a large dose of cold revenge in Andy’s redemption, particularly where the prison warden is concerned. But for ice-cold revenge, look no further than the granddaddy of revenge dramas: Alexandre Dumas’ 1844/45 serialized novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of Edmund Dantès, a brave, young sailor who returns to Marseilles after a long voyage, just days before Napolean Bonapart’s 1815 return from exile on Elba. At the docks, the ship’s owner Morrell promotes Dantès to Captain, a fortuitous development that will allow Dantès to marry his sweetheart, Mercédès. Unwittingly, Dantès has returned with a letter from Elba addressed to a Bonapartist in Paris announcing the exiled Emperor’s imminent return. Three “friends” of Dantès write a letter to the local authorities telling them where they can find the treasonous letter: Fernand (who wants Mercédès), Danglers (who wants Dante’s new job) and Caderousse (who is too drunk and lazy to stop the other two.) Villaforte, the local Royal Prosecutor and a staunch Royalist, questions Dantès regarding the letter from Elba. While he believes Dantès has been set up, Villaforte recognizes the address on the letter as that of his Bonapartist father in Paris. He burns the letter, condemns Dantès to the life imprisonment, rushes to Paris to warn the King of the coming return of Napolean, and reaps the rewards for his service to the King.
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| Edmund and Faria in Chateau D'If in The Count of Monte Christo (2002) |
Without explanation, Dantès is taken to Chateau D’If, a terrifying island prison where political opponents disappear forever. He is locked into a cold, dark cell with nothing but straw for a bed. For his first years of imprisonment, Dantès is alone, bereft of hope. When a hole appears in his cell floor, he meets his neighbor, Abbé Faria, who has miscalculated the direction to the prison walls. Faria is called the “Mad Priest” because he claims to know the whereabouts of an enormous treasure – which in fact he does! Hearing Dantès story, Faria deduces why Dantès was imprisoned and who is responsible. Dantès vows revenge. Over the years, Faria educates Dantès in languages, history, arts and sciences. During Dantès’ fourteenth year in prison, Faria is fatally injured. With the treasure map in hand, Dantès trades places with Faria’s corpse in the burial sack and is thrown into the sea. After swimming to a nearby island, Dantès befriends a group of Italian smugglers. On the uninhabited island of Monte Cristo, Dantès finds the hidden treasure, and prepares to take his revenge.
At this point in the novel, the point-of-view changes to a number of characters who encounter four mysterious strangers: “Sinbad the Sailor”, a leader of a band of smugglers; Abbé Busoni, an Italian monk; Lord Wilmore, an English nobleman; and the Count of Monte Cristo, a wealthy and resourceful aristocrat of unknown origin. The reader, of course, recognizes these strangers to be Edmund Dantès in various disguises as he inveigles his way back into the lives of his old associates. In Marseilles, Dantès learns that Fernand is now Count de Morcerf and has married Mercédès, Danglers is a successful banker, and Villefort is the King’s Prosecutor. Morrell the shipowner is on the edge of ruin and suicide when “Sinbad the Sailor” pays off his debts and rebuilds his lost ship. The Abbé Busoni gives a destitute Caderousse a huge diamond which will ironically lead to the latter’s downfall. Baron Franz d'Épinay, a young Parisian aristocrat, is entertained by “Sinbad the Sailor” in an opulent grotto on the Isle of Monte Cristo. In Rome, The Count of Monte Cristo saves Franz’s friend Albert de Morcerf, the son of Mercédès and Fernand, from a suspiciously familiar band of smugglers. Albert invites the Count to come to Paris where his grateful parents can’t wait to introduce the intriguing Count to all their friends.
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| The Count charms Paris elite in The Count of Monte Christo (2002) |
Through a complex web of social introductions, real estate transactions, and horse trades, the Count of Monte Cristo becomes entwined in the lives of his prey. He learns of dark secrets that he can use against his victims. Danglers has increased his wealth through fraudulent insider stock deals. Count de Morcerf’s gallant service in the Turkish war wasn’t quite so gallant. Villaforte’s second wife lusts for an inheritance that will not go to her or her son unless certain members of her family die first. Villaforte and Madame Danglers once had an affair that resulted in Villaforte burying a baby alive. The Count uses these facts to slowly put the screws to his victims. Danglers loses a fortune when the Count tampers with the telegraph from Spain. The Count brings a Greek princess to Paris who has first-hand knowledge that Morcerf betrayed her people to the Turks. The Count introduces the new Madame Villaforte to a poison which turns up in the Villaforte family decanters with deadly results. The Count discovers the baby that Villaforte buried survived and is now a convict on a prison galley. “Sir Wilmore” brings the man to Paris where he reveals his parentage in Villaforte’s courtroom with all of Paris watching. In the middle of all this drama is a love story between Villaforte’s daughter Valentine and Morrell’s son Maximillien, which will only play out if the Count can save Valentine from her stepmother’s poison. In the novel’s climax, the Count drives his enemies to death, ruin, or madness. When a child is killed, the Count sees that he has gone too far and that he too is a victim of his own revenge.
As I just learned, it is impossible to summarize The Count of Monte Cristo. (Here is a Wikipedia graphic that summarizes the relationships of 27 characters - even then, Caderousse and his wife are missing). There are many movie, stage, and television adaptations, none of which come close to capturing the complexity and detail of the novel. Although well over 1000 pages, the novel is surprisingly free of filler. The plot relentlessly races along with noble heroes, terrific villains, exotic locales, thrilling action, shocking twists, and masterful storytelling. After reading the unabridged novel, I picked up a 400-page, abridged edition at the library and was shocked to see what was left out. That edition’s introduction claims that the modern reader simply doesn’t have the time to read a 1000 page novel. Nonsense. We invest hundreds of hours in television shows that can’t hold a candle to The Count of Monte Cristo. If you want to experience THE best revenge story of all time, read the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo. Just make sure you have cleared your calendar.
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