The main character is the Count of Monte Cristo. Acting characters. Edmond learns about the treasure

This article talks about an adventure novel that was created in 1844-1845. The topic of our story today is the characteristics of its heroes and a summary. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a work authored by A. Dumas (father). This is a recognized classic of French literature. Many of his works, including “The Count of Monte Cristo,” receive the most positive reviews from readers. First, we will introduce you to a brief summary, and then move on to the characteristics of the heroes of the work that interests us.

Let's imagine the main character of the novel that (the father) wrote. He is Dantes, a Marseilles sailor from the ship Pharaoh. He stopped by during the next flight to Elba, where he met with Marshal Bertrand, who instructed Edmond (this is the name of the main character) to deliver a letter to Paris. Dantes also met Napoleon Bonaparte here. Edmond agreed to deliver the letter, thereby fulfilling the last will of the captain of the ship "Pharaoh", who died shortly before. Morrel, the owner of the ship, upon arrival in Marseille, decided to appoint Dantes in charge.

Denunciation of Edmond

Edmond was going to marry Mercedes, a Catholic from a neighboring village. However, Fernand, her cousin, also wants to throw in his lot with this girl. Accountant Danglars (Edmond suspects him of deception) begins to fear for his place. Danglars, Fernand and the tailor Caderousse, Dantes' envious neighbor, meet in a tavern. Danglars comes up with a plan to inform Dantes that he is supposedly a Bonapartist subordinate. To do this, he writes an anonymous letter to the prosecutor, but Caderousse is against this plan. Therefore, Danglars has to pretend that he destroyed the denunciation. He tells Fernand to deliver a letter to the prosecutor, which Mercedes’ cousin does.

Arrest and imprisonment in the castle

During the wedding with his chosen one, Dantes is arrested. Caderousse understands everything, but remains silent, because he is afraid that they will think that he is involved in a political matter. The main character is taken to Villefort, the assistant royal prosecutor, who is trying to conduct the case honestly. He is about to release the innocent man, but learns that Dantes was supposed to deliver the letter to his father Noirtier, a Bonapartist. Villefort realizes that if this fact becomes known, his career could end. Therefore, he decides to sacrifice Edmond in this situation. Villefort burns the letter, and Edmond is sent without trial to the Chateau d'If, in custody. He himself rushes to Paris in order to warn about the impending coup of King Louis XVIII.

Fateful meeting

We continue to describe the summary. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a work that is very interesting to read. Events keep you in suspense until the very end. Alexandre Dumas (father) further talks about how, after several years in prison, Dantes decides to commit suicide. He starts throwing food out the window. However, a few days later, when he was almost dying, Edmond suddenly heard someone digging the ground near his cell. The main character begins to dig a tunnel on his side.

He meets a scholar-clergyman from Italy, Abbot Faria. The abbot is considered crazy because he always talks about how there is a multimillion-dollar treasure, and only he knows where it is. Faria's personality makes a huge impression on the main character. This already elderly man is full of hope and love for life. He works all the time: he writes scientific papers, even while in prison, makes tools and steadily prepares his escape. Faria, after listening to the story of the protagonist, restores the course of events. He reveals to Dantes the culprits and the reason for his imprisonment. Edmond swears an oath to take revenge on his enemies. He asks Faria to become his mentor in life and teacher in science. We will not dwell on this in detail, describing the summary. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a voluminous work, so we can only talk about the main events.

Edmond learns about the treasure

The Abbot and Edmond prepare to escape together. When everything is ready, Faria suddenly has a seizure. The right side of the abbot's body is affected by paralysis. The main character refuses to escape alone and decides to stay with Faria. They communicate, the abbot teaches Edmond foreign languages ​​and sciences. In addition, he reveals to the main character the secret of the treasure, which is buried on the island. Monte Cristo. Faria learned about it when he served as a librarian for one of the descendants of Cardinal Spada, who hid his wealth from Pope Alexander VI and Caesar Borgia, his son.

Edmond's escape, meeting with smugglers

The abbot dies after another seizure. When preparing to bury the deceased in the evening, the guards sew his body into a bag. Dantes, who came to say goodbye to the deceased, is struck by an idea. Edmond Dantes decides to transfer the body of the abbot to his cell, and, having ripped open and sewed up the bag with the help of tools made by Fabia, he takes his place. The main character is thrown into the sea like a dead man. With difficulty Edmond gets out of the bag. He manages to swim to the neighboring island. Thus leaves main character Castle If. Local smugglers pick him up in the morning. Dantes meets new comrades. He was rated as a skilled sailor by their captain. Dantes, once free, learns that he spent 14 years in prison.

Edmond finds treasure, gifts smugglers

No one lives on the island of Monte Cristo. It is used as a transit point by smugglers from the work, authored by Alexandre Dumas ("The Count of Monte Cristo"). Edmond pretends to be sick and, using this trick, remains on the island, where he finds a buried treasure. Having become rich, the main character did not forget those who were kind to him. He told his fellow smugglers that he had received an inheritance and rewarded them all generously.

The main character begins an investigation

After this, Edmond decides to start his own investigation in order to find out what happened after his arrest with his fiancee, father, friends and enemies. He visits Caderousse under the guise of a priest, who allegedly fulfills Dantes' last will and bequeaths the diamond to his friends: Mercedes, Danglars, Fernand and Caderousse. The latter runs a tavern. When he sees a diamond, he is overwhelmed by greed and forgets about caution. Caderousse tells Edmond the truth about his arrest, as well as what happened after that. Dantes's father fell into despair and died of hunger, Mercedes was also very sad.

Morrel tried to fight for Dantes' release and supported his father. Caderousse also said that Mercedes married Fernand, and Monsieur Morrel, Edmond's former master, was practically ruined. Fernand and Danglars are now rich. They belong to high society and must be happy. Danglars became a millionaire banker and has the title of baron. Fernand is now a general, peer of France, Count de Morcerf.

Rescue of Morrel

Edmond returns to Marseille. Here he learns that Morrel is really on the verge of ruin. He only hopes for the return of the Pharaoh with its cargo, the ship on which Dantes once sailed. However, news arrives that the ship sank in a storm (although the captain and crew miraculously escaped). Dantes finds out about all this when he comes to the armorer under the guise of agent Morrel. The protagonist, on behalf of himself, gives the last reprieve to Morrel. It is already coming to an end, and he cannot pay. Morrel, in order to avoid shame, decides to commit suicide. At the last moment, however, the canceled bills are brought in, and the new Pharaoh enters the port. Morrel and his family were saved. Dantes is watching them from afar. Out of gratitude, he closed Morrel's account, and now wants to take revenge on his enemies.

The mysterious Count of Monte Cristo

9 years pass. Alexandre Dumas continues to describe further events. The Count of Monte Cristo, eccentric and mysterious, succeeds Edmond Dantes. This is just one of the images that the main character created. He is also known to some as Abbot Busoni, Lord Wilmore and others. Italian smugglers and robbers, whom he was able to unite and subjugate, as well as many travelers and sailors, know the main character under the name Sinbad the Sailor. Over the past years, he has already visited many parts of the world and significantly expanded his education. The Count of Monte Cristo, in addition, learned to skillfully manipulate people. He is the owner of a fast boat. And in the caves on the island of Monte Cristo he has a hidden underground palace. Here he receives travelers.

Dantes, disguised as a count, enters French high society. He is intrigued and fascinated by his unusual lifestyle and wealth. The main character has a mute servant Ali, about whom he says that if he disobeys him, he will be killed. The count's affairs are managed by Giovanni Bertuccio, a Corsican smuggler who has his own scores to settle with Villefort. Meanwhile, Villefort had already become the royal prosecutor of Paris. The Count, in addition, maintains Hayde, a slave, whom he treats at first as a daughter. This is the daughter of Pasha Ali-Tebelin, who was treacherously killed by Fernand.

Execution of the revenge plan

The main character begins to gradually implement his plan of revenge. He believes that the death of enemies is insufficient payment for the suffering caused. The count views himself as an instrument of Providence, an instrument of justice. He inflicts subtle blows on his victims. As a result, Fernand is disgraced, his wife and son leave him, and he ultimately commits suicide. Villefort goes crazy and loses his entire family. Danglars goes bankrupt and flees France. The robbers who obey Monte Cristo take him prisoner in Italy. They rob Danglars of the last remnants of his fortune. The Count, however, was already tired of revenge. He realized that justice for the criminals caused irreparable harm to many innocent people. The consciousness of this fell heavily on the conscience of the protagonist. Therefore, he releases Danglars and even allows him to take 50 thousand francs with him.

Final Events

Now we have come to the end, describing the summary. "The Count of Monte Cristo" ends with the hero, who realized that he loves Hyde not with a father's love, sailing away with her on a ship. He leaves the island of Monte Cristo with all its riches as a gift to Maximilian, Morrel's son, and also to Valentina de Villefort, his beloved, daughter of the prosecutor.

Count of Monte Cristo (Edmond Dantes)

Monte Cristo (aka E. Dantes) is the main character of the work written by A. Dumas (father). The history of its real prototype was gleaned by the author from the archives of the Paris police. The victim of a prank, the shoemaker was imprisoned in a castle. Here he courted a prisoner, a prelate, who bequeathed him a large fortune. The shoemaker, finding himself free, took revenge on his enemies, but died himself at the hands of the last survivor. The name Monte Cristo was inspired by the name of a small island located near Elba.

It should be noted that by the end of the work, when the guilty are mercilessly punished, neither Monte Cristo himself nor the reader experiences the necessary satisfaction (with the exception, perhaps, of the youngest reader for whom this image is intended). The main character of the novel undergoes such a dramatic transformation that he acts unrecognized among the people who knew him before. The motive of internal transformation is the structuring motive of his character. We can only talk about an implicit, dotted “shine through” of Edmond’s direct unselfishness through the image of the calculating and cold avenger Monte Cristo. He can be combined typologically with such characters as Joseph the Beautiful and Odysseus, who were met by loved ones after many years and were not recognized by them. Mercedes, unlike Penelope, could not wait for her lover and decided that he was dead. And unlike Jacob, the old father did not endure separation from his son. Dumas's hero is reborn, not matured. Edmond's gullibility and simplicity are transformed into romantic mystery and demonism. In addition, his way of being changes: Edmond lives a natural life, and the Count of Monte Cristo, whose character is described in some detail in the novel, manages the lives of other people without having his own.

Danglars

This is an accountant who served on the Pharaoh. This man is envious. It was he who initiated the denunciation of Dantes. It can be said that Baron Danglars is the most fallen hero of all in the novel, but he did not feel remorse. He managed to leave Marseille. Danglars supplied supplies for the French army during the Spanish War and became rich from it. The hero's only love was money. That is why Monte Cristo used this weakness of his as revenge. The robber Luigi Vampa, a friend of the count, at his request, kidnapped Danglars and began to starve him, offering the hero to buy food for millions. When Danglars had no money left, the count decided to let him go. Thus, this character was the first of those to be spared by the main character. However, he was the last person who deserved to be forgiven by the Count of Monte Cristo. The book that Alexandre Dumas wrote makes you think about the reasons for this.

Gaspard Caderousse

Who was the neighbor of the main character and his father. Gaspard is one of the participants in the denunciation of Dantes. But he can be justified by the fact that he was drunk and therefore did not take the writing of the denunciation seriously, believing that it was a joke. Later the hero became the owner of the tavern. Greed forced him to kill a man and become a criminal. Edmond several times in different guises gave Caderousse a chance to improve. In fact, he didn’t even take revenge on him, but only gave him the right to choose, which was a test for him. The Count of Monte Cristo, as revenge, presented Caderousse with a choice - to leave his criminal past or continue his wicked path. He could not refuse the profit and decided to rob the count, but fell from Benedetto, his “friend,” with whom he committed the robbery.

Gerard de Villefort

This hero of the work is an assistant royal prosecutor. He put Edmond in prison only because he had a letter from Napoleon, which was addressed to Villefort's father. He then rose to the position of Crown Prosecutor. This hero's past was flawed, which the Count of Monte Cristo took advantage of for revenge. Gerard had a love affair with Madame Danglars. She gave birth to an unwanted child. Villefort buried him in the garden of a house located in Auteuil. Monte Cristo first bought this house. Then, inviting the light of Paris, he showed the audience a re-enactment of the night when the child was buried alive. With his help, Benedetto became a defendant, and it turned out that he was the son of Villefort. Gerard's wife turned out to be a poisoner. All this led to Villefort going crazy.

Fernand Mondego

This hero is a fisherman, Mercedes' cousin. He was in love with her, so he decided to betray Edmond. After this, Fernand became a recruit. He managed to rise to the rank of general and also receive the title of count. When Greece rebelled against Turkey, Fernand betrayed Ali-Tibelin, Pasha of Ioannina. Monte Cristo's revenge was sophisticated. He announced the circumstances under which Ali-Tibelin died. This led to the contempt of Albert and Mercedes. Fernand's story ended with a shot to the temple.

Abbot Faria

The novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" introduces us to another interesting character. This is an Italian priest who became a second father for Edmond. He was his cellmate at the Chateau d'If. Faria is a sage who taught Dantes everything. Everyone thought he was crazy because he was offering treasure for his freedom. And only Edmond learned that these treasures actually existed.

Pierre Morrel

Of course, the positive hero in the work “The Count of Monte Cristo” is Morrel. Pierre (that was his name) is Edmond's best friend, the owner of the ship "Pharaoh". Dumas portrayed him as a noble man ("The Count of Monte Cristo"). When Dantes was arrested, he went to Villefort several times to plead for him. When Morrel did not have the money to pay off his debts, he was ready to wash away the shame with his blood. However, Dantes saved him. Pierre was sure that he should thank Edmond for saving his honor, although he came to him under the guise of an agent of a banking house.

So, you have met the main characters of the novel. The Count of Monte Cristo is a book worth reading. It will be especially interesting to young readers. Many of them are simply delighted with the work of Alexandre Dumas - “The Count of Monte Cristo”. This novel is known throughout the world for a reason.

We have described only briefly the work “The Count of Monte Cristo”. We omitted parts that are not so important for the development of the plot. However, this retelling gives an idea of ​​the main events of the novel.

Now he gradually begins to carry out his plan of revenge. Believing that the death of his enemies would be insufficient payment for his sufferings, and also considering himself as an instrument of divine justice, an instrument of Providence, he gradually strikes blows at his victims; As a result, the disgraced Fernand, whose wife and son left him, commits suicide, Caderousse dies due to his own greed, Villefort loses his entire family and goes crazy, and Danglars goes bankrupt and is forced to flee France. In Italy, he is captured by robbers subordinate to Monte Cristo; they rob him of the last remnants of his once enormous fortune. So, Caderousse and Fernand are dead, Villefort is mad, and the life of the beggar Danglars is in the balance.

But the count was already tired of revenge - in the last days he realized that by taking revenge on those whom he considered criminals, he had caused irreparable harm to many innocent people, and the consciousness of this lay a heavy burden on his conscience. Therefore, he sets Danglars free and even allows him to keep fifty thousand francs.

At the end of the novel, the count sails away with Hyde on a ship, leaving the island of Monte Cristo with its underground palaces and enormous riches as a gift to Morrel’s son Maximilian and his lover, Valentina de Villefort, the prosecutor’s daughter.

Dumas Gavarni Count of Morcerf in 1838.JPG

Characters of 1838: Peer General Morcerf

Dumas Gavarni Villefort in 1838.JPG

prosecutor Villefort

Dumas Gavarni Noirtier in 1838.JPG

Bonapartist Noirtier

Dumas Joanno Valentina Villefort death of Madame Saint Meran in 1838.JPG

Valentina de Villefort

Dumas Gavarni Bertuccio.JPG

manager Bertuccio

Dumas Gavarni Hayde in 1838.JPG

Greek Albanian Gaide

Textual criticism

Characters

The novel contains a large number of characters, the main ones are described below.

• Edmond Dantes- the main character, a sailor, unjustly imprisoned. After escaping, he becomes rich, noble and famous under the name Count of Monte Cristo. Also used names: Abbot Busoni, Lord Wilmore, Maltese Zaccone, Sinbad the Sailor.
• Fernand Mondego- Mercedes' cousin, a fisherman who wants to marry her. Later he becomes a lieutenant general, Count de Morcerf and peer of France.
• Mercedes Herrera- the bride of Edmond Dantes, who later became the wife of Fernand.
  • Albert de Morcerf- son of Fernand and Mercedes.
• Danglars- accountant on the Pharaoh, gave the idea of ​​denouncing Dantes, later becomes a baron and a wealthy banker.
  • Hermine Danglars- Danglars’s wife, formerly the widow of the Marquis de Nargon and the mistress of the royal prosecutor de Villefort, who is fond of stock trading. Biological mother Benedetto.
  • Eugenie Danglars- the daughter of the Danglars couple, who dreams of becoming an independent artist.
• Gerard de Villefort- Assistant prosecutor of Marseille, later became royal prosecutor of Paris. Biological father Benedetto.
  • René de Saint-Meran- Villefort's first wife, Valentina's mother, daughter Marquise and Marquise de Saint-Meran.
  • Heloise de Villefort- the second wife of the royal prosecutor, ready to do anything for the sake of her son Edouard.
  • Noirtier de Villefort- father of the royal prosecutor, former Jacobin and Napoleon senator, chairman of the Bonapartist club, later paralyzed. “Despite this, he thinks, he desires, he acts.”
  • Barrois- servant of Noirtier de Villefort.
  • Valentina de Villefort- Villefort’s eldest daughter from her first marriage, a rich heiress, in fact her grandfather’s nurse, the beloved of Maximilian Morrel.
  • Edouard de Villefort- the young son of the royal prosecutor from his second marriage, a spoiled and cruel child.
  • Lucien Debray- Secretary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, current lover and trading partner of Baroness Danglars.
  • Doctor d'Avrigny- family doctor Vilforov, who was the first to suspect the terrible secret of this family.
• Gaspard Caderousse- Dantes's neighbor, first a tailor, and later an innkeeper. For some time he was a smuggler, later he became an accomplice in murder, a fugitive from hard labor.
  • Karkonta - wife of Caderousse
• Pierre Morrel- Marseilles merchant, owner of the ship "Pharaoh", benefactor of Dantes.
  • Maximilian Morrel- son of Pierre Morrel, captain of the spaga, protégé of the Count of Monte Cristo.
  • Julie Morrel (Herbaugh)- daughter of Pierre Morrel.
  • Emmanuel Herbault- Julie's husband.
  • Penelon- the old boatswain of the Pharaoh, helps Dantes when he saves Pierre Morrel from bankruptcy and shame. After serving at sea, he became a gardener for Julie and Emmanuel Herbault.
  • Cocles- Treasurer of Pierre Morrel, who remained faithful to him to the end. Then he became a gatekeeper for Julie and Emmanuel Herbault.
• Abbot Faria- Edmond Dantes' fellow prisoner, a learned monk who revealed to him the secret of the treasure on the island of Monte Cristo.
• Giovanni Bertuccio- business manager of the Count of Monte Cristo, retired Corsican smuggler, adoptive father of Benedetto.
• Benedetto- a fugitive from hard labor, the illegitimate son of the royal prosecutor and Baroness Danglars. Was known in Parisian society as the Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti.
• Franz d'Epinay- a groom imposed on Valentina de Villefort, friend of Albert de Morcerf, son of General de Quesnel (Baron d'Epinay), killed in a duel by Noirtier de Villefort.
• Beauchamp- editor of the newspaper “Impartial Voice”, friend of Albert de Morcerf.
• Raoul de Chateau-Renaud- French aristocrat, baron, friend of the Viscount de Morcerf (like the three previous ones).
• Hayde- the count’s slave, the daughter of Ali-Tebelin, Pasha of Yanina, betrayed by Fernand.
• Luigi Vampa- a young shepherd who became the leader of a gang of robbers in the vicinity of Rome. He owes the Count of Monte Cristo his life and freedom, in return he vowed never to touch either the count himself or his friends.
• Peppino- a robber from the gang of Luigi Vampa, who was saved by the Count of Monte Cristo from the guillotine and later kidnapped Danglars when he fled to Italy.
• Jacopo- a Corsican sailor from the tartan of the smugglers “Young Amelia”, who saved Dantes when he was drowning after escaping from the castle-prison of If. Subsequently - captain of the count's yacht.
• Baptisten- Valet of the Count of Monte Cristo.
• Ali- slave, servant of the Count of Monte Cristo, mute Nubian (with his tongue cut out).

Hero prototype

One of the prototypes for the hero of the novel, Edmond Dantes, was a shoemaker from Nîmes named François Picot, who was engaged to a wealthy woman. In 1807, following the denunciation of three of his envious “friends” (Lupyan, Solari and Shobar), who falsely accused him of spying for England, Pico was arrested and thrown into the Fenestrelle fortress, where he spent about 7 years. His fourth friend, Antoine Hallu, not participating in the conspiracy, but knowing about it, cowardly kept silent about this meanness. François's bride, after two years of fruitless waiting, was forced to marry Lupyan.

For the first two years, Pico didn’t even know why exactly he was imprisoned. In prison, Pico dug a small underground passage into the next cell where the wealthy Italian priest Father Tori was kept. They became friends, and Pico looked after the sick priest, who a year later, before his death, told him the secret of a hidden treasure in Milan. After the fall of imperial power in 1814, Francois Picot was released, took possession of the treasures bequeathed to him and showed up in Paris under a different name, where he devoted 10 years to retribution for meanness and betrayal.

Shobar was killed first, but Francois took the most cruel revenge on Lupyan, his most hated scoundrel, who had stolen not only his freedom, but also his love: he cunningly lured Lupyan's daughter into marriage with a criminal, and then brought him to trial and shame, whom she I couldn’t bear it and died from shock. Then Pico organized the arson of a restaurant owned by Lupyan, and plunged him into poverty. Lupyan's son was implicated (or falsely accused) in a jewelry theft, and the boy was imprisoned before François stabbed Lupyan himself to death. The last one he poisoned was Solari, but, unaware of Antoine Hallu's knowledge, he was kidnapped and killed by him.

After the murder of Pico, Antoine Allue fled to England, where he confessed before his death in 1828. The confession of the dying Antoine Hallu forms the bulk of the French police records on the case.

Alexandre Dumas became interested in this story and transformed it into the adventures of Edmond Dantes - The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas's novel, however, is devoid of a gloomy criminal flavor; his noble hero at first feels like an instrument of the highest retribution, but at the end of the novel, sobered by the death of the innocent, he abandons revenge in favor of mercy.

Negligence of the plot

Like most of Dumas's works, the text of the novel contains many negligence and inconsistent passages, and sometimes historical inaccuracies.

Sequels of the novel

Alexandre Dumas did not write sequels to this novel, but many sequels are known, some of which were allegedly found in the writer’s archive after his death (or attributed to Dumas the son). But judging by the style of writing and description of events, neither the father nor the son of Dumas could write such works.

Novel "The Last Payment"

One of the hoaxes was the novel “The Last Payment,” written as a sequel to “The Count of Monte Cristo.” His hero Edmond Dantes, after visiting Moscow, becomes the pursuer and avenger of the murderer of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin, Georges-Charles Dantes, whom he considers his relative. The novel was published in Russia in 1990. It was never published again.

Plot. In the spring of 1838, Edmond Dantes arrived in Moscow with Hayde, who had already become his wife and bore him a son and daughter. In one of the restaurants, one of the students, having learned the count’s surname, slaps him in the face. Soon the Count of Monte Cristo learns that he has been confused with Georges Dantes. The Count did not like that his name was involved in a scandal, and he decides to take revenge on Pushkin's killer.

It has now been proven that the novel “The Last Payment” is a very late hoax created in the USSR. Witty in concept and spectacular plot development, it cannot possibly belong to the pen of Alexandre Dumas the Father, since it is written in a completely different stylistic manner and is replete with obvious anachronisms. Evidence is given in the article “Merry Ghosts of Literature” by Alexander Obrizan and Andrei Krotkov. Most likely, the motive for this literary hoax is based on the coincidence of two events: Pushkin's murderer Georges-Charles Dantes and the writer Alexandre Dumas fils died almost simultaneously - in November 1895. There is no connection between these events, but they could well have served as an impetus for the plan for an imaginary continuation of The Count of Monte Cristo.

Novel “Lord of the World” (Adolf Mützelburg)

In this book, the reader will again meet the heroes of the novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”, get acquainted with new characters, and visit with them the vastness of the American West, Africa and various European countries.

Meanwhile, Nesvitsky, Zherkov and the retinue officer stood together outside the shots and looked either at this small group of people in yellow shakos, dark green jackets embroidered with strings, and blue leggings, swarming near the bridge, then at the other side, at the blue hoods and groups approaching in the distance with horses, which could easily be recognized as tools.
“Will the bridge be lit or not? Who came first? Will they run up and set fire to the bridge, or will the French drive up with grapeshot and kill them? These questions, with a sinking heart, each of those large quantity troops who stood over the bridge and in the bright evening light looked at the bridge and the hussars and on the other side, at the moving blue hoods with bayonets and guns.
- Oh! will go to the hussars! - said Nesvitsky, - no further than a grape shot now.
“It was in vain that he led so many people,” said the retinue officer.
“Indeed,” said Nesvitsky. “If only we had sent two young men here, it would have been all the same.”
“Oh, your Excellency,” Zherkov intervened, not taking his eyes off the hussars, but all with his naive manner, due to which it was impossible to guess whether what he was saying was serious or not. - Oh, your Excellency! How do you judge! Send two people, but who will give us Vladimir with a bow? Otherwise, even if they beat you up, you can represent the squadron and receive a bow yourself. Our Bogdanich knows the rules.
“Well,” said the retinue officer, “this is buckshot!”
He pointed to the French guns, which were being removed from their limbers and hastily driving away.
On the French side, in those groups where there were guns, smoke appeared, another, a third, almost at the same time, and at the very minute the sound of the first shot reached, a fourth appeared. Two sounds, one after the other, and a third.
- Oh, oh! - Nesvitsky gasped, as if from burning pain, grabbing the retinue officer’s hand. - Look, one fell, fell, fell!
- Two, it seems?
“If I were a king, I would never fight,” Nesvitsky said, turning away.
The French guns again hastily loaded. The infantry in blue hoods ran towards the bridge. Again, but at different intervals, smoke appeared, and buckshot clicked and crackled across the bridge. But this time Nesvitsky could not see what was happening on the bridge. Thick smoke rose from the bridge. The hussars managed to set fire to the bridge, and the French batteries fired at them no longer to interfere, but so that the guns were aimed and there was someone to shoot at.
“The French managed to fire three grape shots before the hussars returned to the horse handlers. Two volleys were fired incorrectly, and all the buckshot was carried over, but the last shot hit the middle of a group of hussars and knocked down three.
Rostov, preoccupied with his relationship with Bogdanich, stopped on the bridge, not knowing what to do. There was no one to cut down (as he always imagined a battle), and he also could not help in lighting the bridge, because he did not take with him, like other soldiers, a bundle of straw. He stood and looked around, when suddenly there was a crackling sound across the bridge, like scattered nuts, and one of the hussars, who was closest to him, fell on the railing with a groan. Rostov ran towards him along with others. Someone shouted again: “Stretcher!” The hussar was picked up by four people and began to be lifted.
“Ohhh!... Stop it, for Christ’s sake,” the wounded man shouted; but they still picked him up and put him down.
Nikolai Rostov turned away and, as if looking for something, began to look at the distance, at the water of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun. How beautiful the sky seemed, how blue, calm and deep! How bright and solemn the setting sun! How tenderly the water glittered in the distant Danube! And even better were the distant, blue mountains beyond the Danube, a monastery, mysterious gorges, pine forests filled to the top with fog... it was quiet, happy there... “I wouldn’t want anything, I wouldn’t want anything, I wouldn’t want anything, if only I were there,” thought Rostov. “There is so much happiness in me alone and in this sun, and here... groans, suffering, fear and this obscurity, this haste... Here again they shout something, and again everyone runs back somewhere, and I run with them, and here she is.” , here it is, death, above me, around me... A moment - and I will never see this sun, this water, this gorge again”...
At that moment the sun began to disappear behind the clouds; another stretcher appeared ahead of Rostov. And the fear of death and stretchers, and the love of the sun and life - everything merged into one painfully disturbing impression.
“Lord God! He who is there in this sky, save, forgive and protect me!” Rostov whispered to himself.
The hussars ran up to the horse guides, the voices became louder and calmer, the stretcher disappeared from sight.
“What, bg”at, did you sniff pog”okha?...” Vaska Denisov’s voice shouted in his ear.
“It’s all over; but I’m a coward, yes, I’m a coward,” thought Rostov and, sighing heavily, took his Grachik, who had put his leg out, from the hands of the handler and began to sit down.
-What was that, buckshot? – he asked Denisov.
- And what a one! – Denisov shouted. - They did a great job! And the work is mediocre! An attack is a nice thing to do, kill in the dog, but here, who knows what, they hit like a target.
And Denisov drove off to a group that had stopped near Rostov: the regimental commander, Nesvitsky, Zherkov and a retinue officer.
“However, it seems no one noticed,” Rostov thought to himself. And indeed, no one noticed anything, because everyone was familiar with the feeling that an unfired cadet experienced for the first time.
“Here’s the report for you,” said Zherkov, “you’ll see, they’ll make me a second lieutenant.”
“Report to the prince that I lit the bridge,” the colonel said solemnly and cheerfully.
– What if they ask about the loss?
- A trifle! – the colonel boomed, “two hussars were wounded, and one on the spot,” he said with visible joy, unable to resist a happy smile, loudly chopping off the beautiful word on the spot.

Pursued by a hundred thousand French army under the command of Bonaparte, met by hostile inhabitants, no longer trusting their allies, experiencing a lack of food and forced to act outside all foreseeable conditions of war, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand, under the command of Kutuzov, hastily retreated down the Danube, stopping where it was overtaken by the enemy, and fought back with rearguard actions, only as much as was necessary in order to retreat without losing weight. There were cases at Lambach, Amsteten and Melk; but, despite the courage and fortitude, recognized by the enemy himself, with whom the Russians fought, the consequence of these affairs was only an even faster retreat. The Austrian troops, having escaped capture at Ulm and joined Kutuzov at Braunau, now separated from the Russian army, and Kutuzov was left only to his weak, exhausted forces. It was impossible to even think about defending Vienna any longer. Instead of an offensive, deeply thought-out, according to the laws of the new science - strategy, war, the plan of which was transferred to Kutuzov when he was in Vienna by the Austrian Gofkriegsrat, the only, almost unattainable goal that now seemed to Kutuzov was to, without destroying the army like Mack under Ulm, to connect with the troops coming from Russia.
On October 28, Kutuzov and his army crossed to the left bank of the Danube and stopped for the first time, putting the Danube between themselves and the main forces of the French. On the 30th he attacked Mortier’s division located on the left bank of the Danube and defeated it. In this case, trophies were taken for the first time: a banner, guns and two enemy generals. For the first time after a two-week retreat, the Russian troops stopped and, after a struggle, not only held the battlefield, but drove out the French. Despite the fact that the troops were stripped, exhausted, weakened by one third, backward, wounded, killed and sick; despite the fact that the sick and wounded were left on the other side of the Danube with a letter from Kutuzov, entrusting them to the philanthropy of the enemy; despite the fact that the large hospitals and houses in Krems, converted into infirmaries, could no longer accommodate all the sick and wounded, despite all this, the stop at Krems and the victory over Mortier significantly raised the morale of the troops. Throughout the entire army and in the main quarters, the most joyful, although unfair, rumors were circulating about the imaginary approach of columns from Russia, about some kind of victory won by the Austrians, and about the retreat of the frightened Bonaparte.
Prince Andrei was during the battle with the Austrian general Schmitt, who was killed in this case. A horse was wounded under him, and he himself was slightly grazed in the arm by a bullet. As a sign of the special favor of the commander-in-chief, he was sent with news of this victory to the Austrian court, which was no longer in Vienna, which was threatened by French troops, but in Brunn. On the night of the battle, excited, but not tired (despite his weak-looking build, Prince Andrei could endure physical fatigue much better than the strongest people), having arrived on horseback with a report from Dokhturov to Krems to Kutuzov, Prince Andrei was sent that same night courier to Brunn. Sending by courier, in addition to rewards, meant an important step towards promotion.
The night was dark and starry; the road turned black between the white snow that had fallen the day before, on the day of the battle. Now going over the impressions of the past battle, now joyfully imagining the impression that he would make with the news of victory, remembering the farewell of the commander-in-chief and comrades, Prince Andrei galloped in the mail chaise, experiencing the feeling of a man who had waited for a long time and had finally achieved the beginning of the desired happiness. As soon as he closed his eyes, the firing of rifles and cannons was heard in his ears, which merged with the sound of wheels and the impression of victory. Then he began to imagine that the Russians were fleeing, that he himself had been killed; but he quickly woke up, with happiness as if he learned again that none of this had happened, and that, on the contrary, the French had fled. He again remembered all the details of the victory, his calm courage during the battle and, having calmed down, dozed off... After the dark starry night, a bright, cheerful morning came. The snow melted in the sun, the horses galloped quickly, and new and varied forests, fields, and villages passed indifferently to the right and left.
At one of the stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded. The Russian officer driving the transport, lounging on the front cart, shouted something, cursing the soldier with rude words. In the long German vans, six or more pale, bandaged and dirty wounded were shaking along the rocky road. Some of them spoke (he heard Russian dialect), others ate bread, the heaviest ones silently, with meek and painful childish sympathy, looked at the courier galloping past them.
Prince Andrei ordered to stop and asked the soldier in what case they were wounded. “The day before yesterday on the Danube,” answered the soldier. Prince Andrei took out his wallet and gave the soldier three gold coins.
“For everyone,” he added, turning to the approaching officer. “Get well, guys,” he addressed the soldiers, “there’s still a lot to do.”
- What, Mr. Adjutant, what news? – the officer asked, apparently wanting to talk.
- Good ones! “Forward,” he shouted to the driver and galloped on.
It was already completely dark when Prince Andrey entered Brunn and saw himself surrounded by tall buildings, the lights of shops, house windows and lanterns, beautiful carriages rustling along the pavement and all that atmosphere of a large, lively city, which is always so attractive to a military man after the camp. Prince Andrei, despite the fast ride and sleepless night, approaching the palace, felt even more animated than the day before. Only the eyes sparkled with a feverish brilliance, and thoughts changed with extreme speed and clarity. All the details of the battle were vividly presented to him again, no longer vaguely, but definitely, in a condensed presentation, which he made in his imagination to Emperor Franz. He vividly imagined random questions that could be asked of him, and the answers that he would make to them. He believed that he would immediately be presented to the emperor. But at the large entrance of the palace an official ran out to him and, recognizing him as a courier, escorted him to another entrance.
- From the corridor to the right; there, Euer Hochgeboren, [Your Highness,] you will find the adjutant on duty,” the official told him. - He takes you to the Minister of War.
The adjutant on duty in the wing, who met Prince Andrei, asked him to wait and went to the Minister of War. Five minutes later, the aide-de-camp returned and, bending especially politely and letting Prince Andrei go ahead of him, led him through the corridor into the office where the Minister of War was working. The aide-de-camp, with his exquisite politeness, seemed to want to protect himself from the Russian adjutant’s attempts at familiarity. Prince Andrei's joyful feeling weakened significantly when he approached the door of the War Minister's office. He felt insulted, and the feeling of insult at that same moment, unnoticed by him, turned into a feeling of contempt, based on nothing. His resourceful mind at the same moment suggested to him the point of view from which he had the right to despise both the adjutant and the minister of war. “They must find it very easy to win victories without smelling gunpowder!” he thought. His eyes narrowed contemptuously; He entered the office of the Minister of War especially slowly. This feeling intensified even more when he saw the Minister of War sitting over a large table and for the first two minutes did not pay attention to the newcomer. The Minister of War lowered his bald head with gray temples between two wax candles and read, marking with a pencil, the papers. He finished reading without raising his head, when the door opened and footsteps were heard.
“Take this and hand it over,” the Minister of War said to his adjutant, handing over the papers and not yet paying attention to the courier.
Prince Andrei felt that either of all the affairs that occupied the Minister of War, the actions of Kutuzov’s army could least of all interest him, or it was necessary to let the Russian courier feel this. “But I don’t care at all,” he thought. The Minister of War moved the rest of the papers, aligned their edges with the edges and raised his head. He had a smart and characteristic head. But at the same moment as he turned to Prince Andrei, the intelligent and firm expression on the face of the Minister of War, apparently habitually and consciously changed: the stupid, feigned, not hiding his pretense, smile of a man who receives many petitioners one after another stopped on his face .
– From General Field Marshal Kutuzov? - he asked. - Good news, I hope? Was there a collision with Mortier? Victory? It's time!
He took the dispatch, which was addressed to him, and began to read it with a sad expression.
- Oh my god! My God! Shmit! - he said in German. - What a misfortune, what a misfortune!
Having run through the dispatch, he put it on the table and looked at Prince Andrei, apparently thinking about something.
- Oh, what a misfortune! The matter, you say, is decisive? Mortier was not taken, however. (He thought.) I am very glad that you brought good news, although the death of Shmit is an expensive price to pay for victory. His Majesty will probably wish to see you, but not today. Thank you, take a rest. Tomorrow be on the way out after the parade. However, I'll let you know.
The stupid smile that had disappeared during the conversation reappeared on the face of the Minister of War.
- Goodbye, thank you very much. The Emperor will probably wish to see you,” he repeated and bowed his head.
When Prince Andrei left the palace, he felt that all the interest and happiness brought to him by the victory had now been abandoned by him and transferred to the indifferent hands of the Minister of War and the courteous adjutant. His whole mindset instantly changed: the battle seemed to him like an old, distant memory.

Prince Andrei stayed in Brünn with his friend, the Russian diplomat Bilibin.
“Ah, dear prince, there is no nicer guest,” said Bilibin, going out to meet Prince Andrei. - Franz, the prince’s things are in my bedroom! - he turned to the servant who was seeing Bolkonsky off. - What, a harbinger of victory? Wonderful. And I’m sitting sick, as you can see.
Prince Andrei, having washed and dressed, went out to the diplomat’s luxurious office and sat down to the prepared dinner. Bilibin calmly sat down by the fireplace.
Prince Andrei, not only after his journey, but also after the entire campaign, during which he was deprived of all the comforts of cleanliness and grace of life, experienced a pleasant feeling of relaxation among those luxurious living conditions to which he had become accustomed since childhood. In addition, after the Austrian reception, he was pleased to talk, at least not in Russian (they spoke French), but with a Russian person who, he assumed, shared the general Russian disgust (now especially vividly felt) for the Austrians.
Bilibin was a man of about thirty-five, single, in the same company as Prince Andrei. They knew each other back in St. Petersburg, but they became even closer on Prince Andrei’s last visit to Vienna together with Kutuzov. Just as Prince Andrei was a young man who promised to go far in the military field, so, and even more, did Bilibin promise in the diplomatic field. He was still a young man, but no longer a young diplomat, since he began serving at the age of sixteen, was in Paris, in Copenhagen, and now occupied a rather significant position in Vienna. Both the Chancellor and our envoy in Vienna knew him and valued him. He was not one of that large number of diplomats who are required to have only negative merits, not do well-known things and speak French in order to be very good diplomats; he was one of those diplomats who love and know how to work, and, despite his laziness, he sometimes spent the night at his desk. He worked equally well, no matter what the nature of the work was. He was not interested in the question “why?”, but in the question “how?”. What the diplomatic matter was, he didn’t care; but to draw up a circular, memorandum or report skillfully, accurately and gracefully - he found great pleasure in this. Bilibin's merits were valued, in addition to his written works, also by his art of addressing and speaking in higher spheres.
Bilibin loved conversation just as he loved work, only when the conversation could be elegantly witty. In society, he constantly waited for an opportunity to say something remarkable and entered into conversation only under these conditions. Bilibin's conversation was constantly peppered with original witty, complete phrases of general interest.
These phrases were produced in Bilibin’s internal laboratory, as if on purpose, of a portable nature, so that insignificant secular people could conveniently remember them and transfer them from living rooms to living rooms. And indeed, les mots de Bilibine se colportaient dans les salons de Vienne, [Bilibin’s reviews were distributed throughout Viennese living rooms] and often had an influence on so-called important matters.
His thin, emaciated, yellowish face was all covered with large wrinkles, which always seemed as cleanly and diligently washed, like fingertips after a bath. The movements of these wrinkles constituted the main play of his physiognomy. Now his forehead wrinkled in wide folds, his eyebrows rose upward, now his eyebrows went down, and large wrinkles formed on his cheeks. The deep-set, small eyes always looked straight and cheerful.
“Well, now tell us your exploits,” he said.
Bolkonsky, in the most modest way, without ever mentioning himself, told the story and the reception of the Minister of War.
“Ils m"ont recu avec ma nouvelle, comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles, [They accepted me with this news, as they accept a dog when it interferes with a game of skittles,] he concluded.
Bilibin grinned and loosened the folds of his skin.
“Cependant, mon cher,” he said, examining his nail from afar and picking up the skin above his left eye, “malgre la haute estime que je professe pour le Orthodox Russian army, j"avoue que votre victoire n"est pas des plus victorieuses. [However, my dear, with all due respect to the Orthodox Russian army, I believe that your victory is not the most brilliant.]
He continued in the same way in French, pronouncing in Russian only those words that he contemptuously wanted to emphasize.
- How? You with all your weight fell upon the unfortunate Mortier with one division, and this Mortier leaves between your hands? Where is the victory?
“However, seriously speaking,” answered Prince Andrei, “we can still say without boasting that this is a little better than Ulm...
- Why didn’t you take us one, at least one marshal?
– Because not everything is done as expected, and not as regularly as at the parade. We expected, as I told you, to reach the rear by seven o'clock in the morning, but did not arrive at five in the evening.
- Why didn’t you come at seven o’clock in the morning? “You should have come at seven o’clock in the morning,” Bilibin said smiling, “you should have come at seven o’clock in the morning.”
– Why didn’t you convince Bonaparte through diplomatic means that it was better for him to leave Genoa? – Prince Andrei said in the same tone.
“I know,” Bilibin interrupted, “you think it’s very easy to take marshals while sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.” This is true, but still, why didn’t you take him? And do not be surprised that not only the Minister of War, but also the August Emperor and King Franz will not be very happy with your victory; and I, the unfortunate secretary of the Russian embassy, ​​do not feel any need to give my Franz a thaler as a sign of joy and let him go with his Liebchen [sweetheart] to the Prater... True, there is no Prater here.
He looked straight at Prince Andrei and suddenly pulled the collected skin off his forehead.
“Now it’s my turn to ask you why, my dear,” said Bolkonsky. “I confess to you that I don’t understand, maybe there are diplomatic subtleties here that are beyond my weak mind, but I don’t understand: Mack is losing an entire army, Archduke Ferdinand and Archduke Charles do not show any signs of life and make mistakes after mistakes, finally, alone Kutuzov wins a real victory, destroys the charme [charm] of the French, and the Minister of War is not even interested in knowing the details.
“That’s exactly why, my dear.” Voyez vous, mon cher: [You see, my dear:] hurray! for the Tsar, for Rus', for the faith! Tout ca est bel et bon, [all this is fine and good,] but what do we, I say, the Austrian court, care about your victories? Bring us your good news about the victory of Archduke Charles or Ferdinand - un archiduc vaut l "autre, [one Archduke is worth another,] as you know - even over a company of Bonaparte’s fire brigade, that’s another matter, we’ll thunder into the cannons. Otherwise this , as if on purpose, can only tease us. Archduke Charles does nothing, Archduke Ferdinand is covered in shame. You abandon Vienna, you no longer defend, comme si vous nous disiez: [as if you told us:] God is with us, and God is with you, with your capital. One general, whom we all loved, Shmit: you bring him under the bullet and congratulate us on the victory!... Agree that it is impossible to think of anything more irritating than the news you bring. C "est comme un fait expres, Comme un fait expres. [It’s as if on purpose, as if on purpose.] Besides, well, if you had definitely won a brilliant victory, even if Archduke Charles had won, what would it have changed in the general course of affairs? It is too late now that Vienna is occupied by French troops.
-How busy are you? Is Vienna busy?
“Not only is she busy, but Bonaparte is in Schönbrunn, and the count, our dear Count Vrbna, goes to him for orders.”
Bolkonsky, after the fatigue and impressions of the journey, the reception, and especially after dinner, felt that he did not understand the full meaning of the words he heard.
“Count Lichtenfels was here this morning,” Bilibin continued, “and showed me a letter in which the French parade in Vienna is described in detail. Le prince Murat et tout le tremblement... [Prince Murat and all that...] You see that your victory is not very joyful, and that you cannot be accepted as a savior...
- Really, it doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t matter at all! - said Prince Andrei, beginning to understand that his news about the battle of Krems really had little importance in view of such events as the occupation of the capital of Austria. - How was Vienna taken? What about the bridge and the famous tete de pont [bridge fortification] and Prince Auersperg? “We had rumors that Prince Auersperg was defending Vienna,” he said.

Year of writing:

1845

Reading time:

Description of the work:

The novel The Count of Monte Cristo was written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844. It was this novel that brought the author long-awaited fame. Immediately after the publication of the book The Count of Monte Cristo, performances began to be staged.

The novel has been filmed several dozen times. We invite you to read its summary.

On February 27, 1815, the three-masted ship “Pharaoh” returned to Marseille from another voyage. Captain Leclerc was not destined to set foot on his native soil: he died of fever on the high seas. The young sailor Edmond Dantes took command, fulfilling the captain’s other last wish: the “pharaoh” enters the island of Elba, where Dantes passes the package received from the hands of Leclerc to Marshal Bertrand and meets with the disgraced emperor himself. Dantes is given a letter to be delivered to Paris to Mr. Noirtier, one of the conspirators preparing Napoleon's return to the throne.

The owner of the Pharaoh, Morrel, invites Dantes to officially take over as captain of the ship. The accountant of the Danglars shipping company, obsessed with envy, decides to remove Dantes. Together with a retired soldier and now a simple fisherman Fernand Mondego, who competes with Dantes for the right to marry the beautiful Mercedes, and the tailor Caderousse, who robbed Edmond's father during the voyage, Danglars composes an anonymous letter to the assistant prosecutor of Marcel de Villefort. The meaning of the denunciation: Dantes is a secret agent of the Bonapartists. During the interrogation, Dantes, without concealment, everything as it was, tells Villefort about his visit to Elba. There is no corpus delicti; Villefort is ready to release the prisoner, but after reading Marshal Bertrand’s letter, he realizes: his happiness and his very life depend on this game of chance. After all, the addressee, Mr. Noirtier, a dangerous conspirator, is his father! It’s not enough to burn the damned letter, you also have to get rid of Dantes, who might unwittingly publicize this whole story - and as a result, de Villefort will lose not only his place, but also the hand of his bride, Renée de Saint-Meran (she is the daughter of an old royalist; the views of Mr. Noirtier, his relationship with the groom is a secret for them). Dantes is sentenced to life imprisonment in the Chateau d'If, a political prison in the middle of the sea, not far from Marseille...

Five years pass. Dantes is close to despair, he decides to die by starvation. Suddenly, one evening, a dull grinding sound comes to his ears behind the wall. He is not alone here, someone is clearly digging a hole in the direction of his dungeon. Edmond begins to dig a counter tunnel. Many days of work are rewarded with the joy of meeting a fellow sufferer. Abbot Faria - that is the name of the prisoner from the next cell - spent four years longer in the Château d'If than Dantes. By digging his hole, he hoped to break through to the outer wall of the prison, jump into the sea and swim to freedom. Alas, he made a mistake in his calculations! Edmond consoles the abbot: there are now two of them, which means they can continue what they started with double energy. The abbot's strength is running out, and soon, when salvation is just around the corner, he becomes seriously ill. Before his death, he initiates Dantes into the secret of the countless treasure hidden by Cardinal Spada on the island of Monte Cristo three hundred years ago.

Having transferred the body of the abbot to his cell, Dantes hides in the bag in which the dead man was placed. In the morning, without noticing the substitution, he is thrown into the sea - this is how the inhabitants of the Chateau d'If have been buried since the founding of the prison. Edmond is saved! He is picked up by smugglers. One of them, Jacopo, becomes Dantes's faithful comrade. A few months later, Edmond finally reaches the island of Monte Cristo. The treasures of Abbot Faria are truly countless.

During the long years of Dantes' absence, significant changes also occurred in the fates of those who were to blame for his suffering; Fernand Mondego rose to the rank of general (now his name is Comte de Morcerf). Mercedes became his wife and bore him a son. Danglars is a rich banker. De Villefort - Crown Prosecutor. Caderousse said goodbye to the tailor's needle and scissors and runs a rural inn. ...God sends a strange guest to Caderousse. Abbot Busoni, who, according to him, confessed the dying Edmond Dantes, must fulfill the last will of the deceased. Dantes handed him a diamond, the money from the sale of which should be divided into five parts: equally - Mercedes, Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse and old Dantes. Caderousse is blinded by the shine of the diamond. He tells Abbot Busoni that Dantes was told by those whom he decided to benefit that Mercedes did not remain faithful to him. Yes, he, Caderousse, witnessed the writing of the denunciation - but what could he do! Danglars and Fernand would have killed him on the spot if he had mentioned the unseemly nature of their malice! As for the old man Dantes, he did not have enough strength to endure the blow of fate (in reality, Caderousse robbed him completely, and Edmond’s father died of hunger). He, he, Caderousse, is the only heir of poor Dantes! Abbot Busoni hands Caderousse a diamond and disappears the next morning...

At the same time, Lord Wilmore, an agent of the banking house Thomson and French, comes to the mayor of Marseille. He asks permission to review the investigation file of the Abbé Faria, who died in the If prison. He also has another assignment: to pay the debts of Mr. Morrel, the owner of a shipping company that is on the verge of collapse. Morrel's last hope was his flagship - the three-masted Pharaoh, but that - oh, evil fate! - dies in a shipwreck. Wilmore hands Morrell a promissory note for a six-figure sum and issues a deferment for three months. But what can you do in three months? On the day when the reprieve expires, Morrel's daughter receives a letter signed “Sinbad the Sailor” indicating the address where she will find the wallet intended for her illustrious father. In the wallet is a check for the amount owed by Morrel and a diamond the size of a walnut: Mademoiselle Morrel's dowry. Everything that happened is like a fairy tale: but this is not enough. The “Pharaoh” enters the port of Marseilles safe and sound with all sails! The city is a witness to this miracle. Lord Wilmore, aka Abbot Busoni, aka Count of Monte Cristo, aka Edmond Dantes, looks at the sailboat rising from the abyss with a smile: “Be happy, noble man! You deserve this happiness!.. And now - goodbye, philanthropy! Let the god of vengeance make way for me so that I can punish the villains!..” With documents from his investigative file, kept along with the case of Abbot Faria, Edmond leaves Marseille...

The young Parisian aristocrat Baron Franz d'Epinay, going to the carnival in Rome, intended to visit the legendary Elbe. However, he changes his route: the ship sails past the island of Monte Cristo, where, according to rumors, a man who calls himself Sinbad the Sailor lives in a fairy-tale palace. The owner of the island receives Franz with such cordiality and luxury, which, it seems, none of the most powerful inhabitants of the earth have ever dreamed of. In Rome, Franz unexpectedly meets Sinbad, living in the same hotel with him under the name of Count of Monte Cristo. Franz's friend Viscount Albert de Morcerf is captured by robbers from the gang of chieftain Luigi Vampa, who terrorizes the people of Rome. The Count of Monte Cristo saves Albert: “Ataman, you have violated our agreement, my friend’s friend is my friend.” Vampa is distraught and sternly reprimands his thugs: “We all owe our lives to the Count! How could you act so rashly!” Albert invites the Count to visit Paris and be his guest of honor.

In the capital (where the count has not appeared before), Albert introduces him to his friends, including Morrel’s son Maximillian. This acquaintance deeply excited the count - young Morrel was no less excited when he learned that the count was using the services of the banking house of Thomson and French, which saved the lives of their entire family.

The Count of Monte Cristo acquires several apartments in Paris and a house in Auteuil, at 28 Rue Fontaine, which previously belonged to the Marquis de Saint-Meran. The count's manager, Bertuccio, perceives their move to this house as an evil fate. Many years ago, he witnessed how de Villefort buried a newborn baby in the garden of his father-in-law's house - an illegitimate son from an unknown lady. Bertuccio hastened to dig up a box - the baby was still alive. Bertuccio's daughter-in-law raised a boy, whom they named Benedetto. The son of eminent parents took the wrong path and ended up in jail. But this is only one of two terrible stories hidden by Bertuccio from the count. In June 1829, he stopped at the Caderousse tavern - the day after Abbot Busoni had visited there (Bertuccio does not realize that the abbot, who rescued him a long time ago from hard labor, and the count are the same person). Abbot Caderousse sold the diamond to a reliable jeweler for 45 thousand francs, and that same night he was stabbed to death. Now Caderousse is where Bertuccio also happened to be: at hard labor. The Count is sure that this is not the last drop in the cup that Caderousse must drink; as for Benedetto - if he is alive - then he will serve as a weapon of God's punishment...

The city is filled with rumors about the mysterious count and his wealth. The Count opens an “unlimited loan” at the Danglars bank. Danglars questions the Count's capabilities: there are limits to everything in the world. The Count ironizes: “For you, maybe, but not for me.” - “No one has counted my cash register yet!” - Danglars is wounded. “In this case, I am the first one who will have to do this,” the count promises him. Monte Cristo becomes close not only with Danglars, who did not recognize poor Edmond in him, but also with the de Villefort family. The Count wins the favor of Madame de Villefort: the Count's servant Ali saved her and Villefort's son from marriage from an accident (Villefort also has a daughter from his first marriage - Valentina, bound by bonds of love with Maximillian Morrel, but forced by her relatives to marry Franz d' Epinet). It’s as if fate itself is opening wide the doors to the Count of Monte Cristo in the houses of his sworn enemies, informing him of their other victims. The pupil of Dantes-Monte Cristo, the daughter of Pasha Yanina, the wondrous beauty Gayde (there are rumors in Paris that she is the count's mistress) recognizes in the Opera the man who gave the Turks for two thousand purses of gold the fortress that defended the city where her father ruled, and Gayde herself at the age of twelve sold as a girl into slavery to the Turkish Sultan. This man's name was Fernand Mondego; now he is known as Comte de Morcerf, Lieutenant General, member of the House of Peers. Hayde was ransomed by Monte Cristo from the Sultan, the count vowed to take revenge on the one for whom her father died and she herself languished in captivity. He is not at all surprised that this scoundrel is Fernand: he who betrays once risks remaining a traitor to the end.

Luxurious lunch at the Monte Cristo house. The first blows prepared by the Count for his offenders. Villefort turns pale when the count informs all the guests that in the garden he found the skeleton of a baby buried alive under the previous owner. Danglars learns that, while playing on the stock exchange, he suffered losses in the amount of over a million francs (the count published false information about the coup in Spain in the newspaper, and Danglars hastened to get rid of the shares of the Madrid Bank). Villefort informs Madame Danglars that the count is apparently privy to their secret: the unfortunate child was their illegitimate son. “You buried my child alive! God, this is your revenge! - exclaims Madame Danglars. “No, revenge still awaits us, and the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo will have to carry it out!” Villefort undertakes to find out the whole truth about the count at all costs; but Abbot Busoni and Lord Wilmore, who find themselves in Paris, give him very contradictory information. The Count not only remains unrecognized by playing these two roles, but also confuses his tracks. A young man named Andrea Cavalcanti appears in Paris (one count, who showered him with generosity, knows that this is the escaped convict Benedetto). Immediately, Caderousse emerges from the ground, assuring Benedetto that he is his son, and luring money out of the young scoundrel under the threat of ruining the brilliant career that has opened up before him. Cavalcanti-Benedetto de Villefort is forced to obey: he has his eye on Danglars' daughter, a girl with a rich dowry. Isn’t it better, he suggests to Caderousse, to give the count a good shake than to steal from him the money with which the madman Monte Cristo is lending him? Caderousse climbs into the count's house - and comes face to face with Abbot Busoni. An old convict betrays a young one; He writes, under the dictation of the abbot, a letter to Danglars, explaining who his son-in-law actually is. Leaving the house of the Count of Monte Cristo, Caderousse runs into Benedetto's knife. Before he gives up the ghost, the abbot makes sure that he, Monte Cristo and Edmond Dantes are one person...

A hail of misfortunes rains down on de Villefort's head: one after another, his father-in-law and mother-in-law suddenly die, then the old footman who drank lemonade from a decanter in his father Noirtier's room. The doctor comes to the conclusion: they were all poisoned. The criminal lives in this house. All of Villefort's servants immediately ask for their resignation. The case receives wide publicity. And here comes a new blow: Noirtier upsets the wedding of Valentina and Franz d’Epinay (he promised this to his beloved granddaughter). Noirtier's secretary contains a document stating that in February 1815 he killed General de Quesnel, Baron d'Epinay, who did not want to join the Bonapartist conspiracy, in a fair fight.

Now it’s Fernand’s turn. There is a scandal in the House of Peers: newspapers published a report about his low behavior during the Turkish siege of the fortress of Ioannina. Gaide comes to the hearings in the Chamber and presents documents to the peers that confirm: all this is true, General de Morcerf’s position in society was bought at the price of betrayal. Albert de Morcerf challenges the count to a duel, standing up for his father, but after the whole truth about Fernand Mondego is revealed to him, he asks Dantes for forgiveness. Madame de Morcerf, who still loves him, also begs Edmond for this. The Count accepts Albert's apology; on the same day he and his mother leave Paris. Morcerf repeats his son's challenge, but after the Count of Monte Cristo reveals his true name to him, the dishonored general shoots a bullet in the forehead.

Danglars is on the verge of ruin. He has to pay all the new bills that come to him proxies graph. His last hope is that he will be able to make a decent match for his daughter: young Cavalcanti is Monte Cristo’s confidante, and the giver’s hand is unlikely to become scarce. After the signing of the marriage contract, the words from Caderousse’s letter sound like a bolt from the blue: “Andrea Cavalcanti is an escaped convict!” Eugenie leaves Paris. Danglars no longer has either a daughter or money. He leaves a farewell note to his wife (“I’m letting you go the way I married you: with money, but without a good reputation”) and runs away. Andrea-Benedetto also runs, hoping to cross the border; but the gendarmes stop him. At the trial, he says: his father is prosecutor de Villefort!

The last, most terrible blow of fate in the heart of de Villefort: Valentina is poisoned. He has no more doubts: the murderer is his wife, who in such a terrible way obtained an inheritance for herself and her son (old Noirtier declared his granddaughter to be the only heir). De Villefort threatens his wife with the scaffold. In despair, Madame de Villefort takes poison and poisons the boy: “A good mother does not abandon the child for whose sake she became a criminal.” Villefort loses his mind; wandering through the garden of the Count of Monte Cristo's house, he digs graves in one place or another...

The act of retribution has been completed. Villefort is mad. Caderousse and Fernand are dead. Danglars was captured by robbers from Luigi Vampa's gang and spends his last money on bread and water: the thugs sell him a small piece of bread for a thousand francs, and in total he has less than fifty thousand in his pocket. The Count of Monte Cristo grants him life and freedom. Turning gray overnight, Danglars ekes out the existence of a beggar.

Evil is punished. But why did young Valentina de Villefort, who did not share the guilt of her father and stepmother, burn in his flame? Why should Maximillian Morrel, the son of the one who for many years in a row made attempts to rescue Dantes from prison, grieve for her all his life? Leaving Paris, the Count performs the miracle of Valentina's resurrection. Her death was staged by him in community with the old man Noirtier: the terrible poison was neutralized by a miraculous medicine - one of the generous gifts of Abbot Faria.

Returning to the island of Monte Cristo, having given happiness to Maximillian and Valentina, Edmond Dantes, the martyr of the Chateau d'If and the Parisian angel of vengeance, leaves a letter to the young people that sounds both like his confession and like a message to the two pure hearts: “There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in the world. Everything is relative. Only one who has suffered immensely can experience bliss. One must feel the taste of death in order to taste life with pleasure. All wisdom is in two words: wait and hope!..”

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Monte Cristo, or Edmond Dantes, is the hero of the novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”, written by A. Dumas the Father.

This character's life story is based on real events. The author drew the plot for his novel from the archives of the Parisian police. The victim of a cruel prank was the shoemaker François Picot, after which he was imprisoned in the Fenestrel castle. In the castle, he courted another prisoner, who was an Italian prelate and bequeathed to him a huge fortune. When Pico was free, he took revenge on his enemies without sparing them, but he himself died, he was killed by the only surviving enemy.

Dumas chose the name of his hero, connecting it with the name of a small island located next to the island of Elba. With this moment, the author seems to hint at the image of Napoleon, draws a parallel between him and his hero.

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Edmond Dantes was betrayed by cowards and slandered by envious people whom he called his friends. He was happy: very young, he had already served as a captain’s mate on the Marseilles ship “Pharaoh”, was the fiancé of the beautiful Mercedes - but everything ends in an instant. The young man finds himself a prisoner of the Chateau d'If for seventeen long years. In the castle, he meets Abbot Faria, who bequeathed enormous wealth to him and facilitated his escape through his own death.

This is how Edmond Dantes dies and Monte Cristo appears. More than twenty years later, the hero returns to the environment of those in whose circle he moved before prison. But now he is an incredibly rich, powerful count whose identity is full of mysteries. He has a revenge scenario ready, carefully thought out to the smallest detail.

Even his own life obeys the developed scenario. In this scenario, the Count plays different roles: Abbot Busoni, Sinbad the Sailor, Lord Wilmore.

At the end of the novel, the perpetrators are mercilessly punished. Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse and Villefort received what they deserved, but Monte Cristo does not feel satisfaction, just as the reader himself does not feel it. Only a young and simple-minded reader can admire the hero. The image of this hero is designed for him. This distinguishes Monte Cristo from the characters of The Three Musketeers, which are interesting to all ages thanks to the eternal themes of eternal, indestructible brotherhood.

The hero changes a lot, he has undergone so many changes that people who knew him before will not recognize him. And here the main thing is not external changes, but internal transformation. Through the image of the cold and merciless avenger Monte Cristo, the personality of the straightforward and disinterested Dantes is almost not visible. Monte Cristo belongs to the same type as Odysseus and Joseph the Beautiful, who were met by loved ones many years later and were not recognized by them. Mercedes, unlike Penelope, did not wait for her lover; she believed in his death. The old father could not bear the separation from his beloved son, unlike the Old Testament Jacob. However, time has not changed either Odysseus or Joseph, they just grew older. Dumas's character does not grow up, he is reborn. The gullibility and simplicity of Edmond Dantes turns into romantic mystery and some demonism in the image of Monte Cristo. Even the hero’s very way of being changes: Edmond Dantes’ life was natural, but the Count of Monte Cristo manages the lives of others without having his own. Monte Cristo becomes the ideal embodiment of a romantic hero for whom neither money nor power brings joy. Monte Cristo ceases to be a noble avenger; he takes on too much for an ordinary person. The hero himself ceases to be a person; he deliberately turns into a mythological character, who, in his opinion, has the right to administer the highest court.

• Edmond Dantes- the main character, a sailor, unjustly imprisoned. After escaping, he becomes rich, noble and famous under the name of the Count of Monte Cristo. Also used the names: Abbot Busoni, Lord Wilmore, Maltese Zaccone, Sinbad the Sailor.
• Abbot Faria- Edmond Dantes' fellow prisoner, a learned monk who revealed to him the secret of the treasure on the island of Monte Cristo.
• Fernand Mondego- Mercedes' cousin, a fisherman who wants to marry her. Later becomes lieutenant general, Comte de Morcerf and peer of France.
• Mercedes Herrera- the bride of Edmond Dantes, who later became the wife of Fernand.
• Albert de Morcerf- son of Fernand and Mercedes.
• Danglars- accountant on the Pharaoh, gave the idea of ​​denouncing Dantes, later becomes a baron and a wealthy banker.
• Hermine Danglars- Danglars’s wife, formerly the widow of the Marquis de Nargon and the mistress of the royal prosecutor de Villefort, who is fond of stock trading. Benedetto's biological mother.
• Eugenie Danglars- the daughter of the Danglars couple, who dreams of becoming an independent artist.
• Gerard de Villefort- Assistant prosecutor of Marseille, later became royal prosecutor of Paris. Biological father of Benedetto.
• René de Saint-Meran- Villefort's first wife, Valentina's mother, daughter of the Marquis and Marquise de Saint-Meran.
• Heloise de Villefort- the second wife of the royal prosecutor, ready to do anything for the sake of her son Edward.
• Noirtier de Villefort- father of the royal prosecutor, former Girondin and Napoleon senator, chairman of the Bonapartist club, later paralyzed. “Despite this, he thinks, he desires, he acts.”
• Valentina de Villefort- Villefort’s eldest daughter from her first marriage, a rich heiress, in fact her grandfather’s nurse, the beloved of Maximilian Morrel.
• Edward de Villefort- the young son of the royal prosecutor from his second marriage, a spoiled and cruel child.
• Gaspard Caderousse- Dantes's neighbor, first a tailor, and later an innkeeper. For some time he was a smuggler, later he became an accomplice in murder, a fugitive from hard labor.
• Giovanni Bertuccio- business manager of the Count of Monte Cristo, retired Corsican smuggler, adoptive father of Benedetto.
• Benedetto- a fugitive from hard labor, the illegitimate son of the royal prosecutor and Baroness Danglars. He was known in Parisian society as Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti.
• Pierre Morrel- Marseilles merchant, owner of the ship "Pharaoh", benefactor of Dantes.
• Maximilian Morrel- son of Pierre Morrel, captain of the spaga, protégé of the Count of Monte Cristo.
• Julie Morrel (Herbaugh)- daughter of Pierre Morrel.
• Emmanuel Herbault- Julie's husband.
• Doctor d'Avrigny- family doctor Vilforov, who was the first to suspect the terrible secret of this family.
• Franz d'Epinay- a groom imposed on Valentina de Villefort, friend of Albert de Morcerf, son of General de Quesnel (Baron d'Epinay), killed in a duel by Noirtier de Villefort.
• Lucien Debray- Secretary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, current lover and trading partner of Baroness Danglars.
• Beauchamp- editor of the newspaper “Impartial Voice”, friend of Albert de Morcerf.
• Raoul de Chateau-Renaud- French aristocrat, baron, friend of the Viscount de Morcerf (like the three previous ones).
• Hayde- the count's slave, the daughter of Ali-Tebelin, Pasha of Yanina, betrayed by Fernand.
• Luigi Vampa- a young shepherd who became the leader of a gang of robbers in the vicinity of Rome. He owes the Count of Monte Cristo his life and freedom, in return he vowed never to touch either the count himself or his friends.
• Jacopo- a Corsican sailor from the tartan of the smugglers “Young Amelia”, who saved Dantes when he was drowning after escaping from the castle-prison of If. Subsequently - captain of the count's yacht.
• Baptisten- Valet of the Count of Monte Cristo.
• Ali- slave, servant of the Count of Monte Cristo, mute Nubian (with his tongue cut out).

Read “The Count of Monte Cristo” in summary

On February 27, 1815, the three-masted ship "Pharaoh" returned to Marseille from another voyage. Captain Leclerc was not destined to set foot on his native soil: he died of fever on the high seas. The young sailor Edmond Dantes took command, fulfilling the captain’s other last wish: the “pharaoh” enters the island of Elba, where Dantes transfers the package received from the hands of Leclerc to Marshal Bertrand and meets with the disgraced emperor himself. Dantes is given a letter to be delivered to Paris to Mr. Noirtier, one of the conspirators preparing Napoleon's return to the throne.

The owner of the Pharaoh, Morrel, invites Dantes to officially take over as captain of the ship. The accountant of the Danglars shipping company, obsessed with envy, decides to remove Dantes. Together with a retired soldier and now a simple fisherman Fernand Mondego, who competes with Dantes for the right to marry the beautiful Mercedes, and the tailor Caderousse, who robbed Edmond's father during the voyage, Danglars composes an anonymous letter to the assistant prosecutor of Marcel de Villefort. The meaning of the denunciation: Dantes is a secret agent of the Bonapartists. During the interrogation, Dantes, without concealment, everything as it was, tells Villefort about his visit to Elba. There is no corpus delicti; Villefort is ready to release the prisoner, but after reading Marshal Bertrand’s letter, he realizes: his happiness and his very life depend on this game of chance. After all, the addressee, Mr. Noirtier, a dangerous conspirator, is his father! It’s not enough to burn the damned letter, you also have to get rid of Dantes, who might unwittingly publicize this whole story - and as a result, de Villefort will lose not only his place, but also the hand of his bride, Renée de Saint-Meran (she is the daughter of an old royalist; the views of Mr. Noirtier, his relationship with the groom is a secret for them). Dantes is sentenced to life imprisonment in the Chateau d'If, a political prison in the middle of the sea, not far from Marseille...

Five years pass. Dantes is close to despair, he decides to die by starvation. Suddenly, one evening, a dull grinding sound comes to his ears behind the wall. He is not alone here, someone is clearly digging a hole in the direction of his dungeon. Edmond begins to dig a counter tunnel. Many days of work are rewarded with the joy of meeting a fellow sufferer. Abbot Faria - that is the name of the prisoner from the next cell - spent four years longer in the Château d'If than Dantes. By digging his hole, he hoped to break through to the outer wall of the prison, jump into the sea and swim to freedom. Alas, he made a mistake in his calculations! Edmond consoles the abbot: there are now two of them, which means they can continue what they started with double energy. The abbot's strength is running out, and soon, when salvation is just around the corner, he becomes seriously ill. Before his death, he initiates Dantes into the secret of the countless treasure hidden by Cardinal Spada on the island of Monte Cristo three hundred years ago.

Having transferred the body of the abbot to his cell, Dantes hides in the bag in which the dead man was placed. In the morning, without noticing the substitution, he is thrown into the sea - this is how the inhabitants of the Chateau d'If have been buried since the founding of the prison. Edmond is saved! He is picked up by smugglers. One of them, Jacopo, becomes Dantes's faithful comrade. A few months later, Edmond finally reaches the island of Monte Cristo. The treasures of Abbot Faria are truly countless.

During the long years of Dantes' absence, significant changes also occurred in the fates of those who were to blame for his suffering; Fernand Mondego rose to the rank of general (now his name is Comte de Morcerf). Mercedes became his wife and bore him a son. Danglars is a rich banker. De Villefort - Crown Prosecutor. Caderousse said goodbye to the tailor's needle and scissors and runs a rural inn. ...God sends a strange guest to Caderousse. Abbot Busoni, who, according to him, confessed the dying Edmond Dantes, must fulfill the last will of the deceased. Dantes handed him a diamond, the money from the sale of which should be divided into five parts: equally - Mercedes, Danglars, Fernand, Caderousse and old Dantes. Caderousse is blinded by the shine of the diamond. He tells Abbot Busoni that Dantes was told by those whom he decided to benefit that Mercedes did not remain faithful to him. Yes, he, Caderousse, witnessed the writing of the denunciation - but what could he do! Danglars and Fernand would have killed him on the spot if he had mentioned the unseemly nature of their malice! As for the old man Dantes, he did not have enough strength to endure the blow of fate (in reality, Caderousse robbed him completely, and Edmond’s father died of hunger). He, he, Caderousse, is the only heir of poor Dantes! Abbot Busoni hands Caderousse a diamond and disappears the next morning...

At the same time, Lord Wilmore, an agent of the banking house Thomson and French, comes to the mayor of Marseille. He asks permission to review the investigation file of the Abbé Faria, who died in the If prison. He also has another assignment: to pay the debts of Mr. Morrel, the owner of a shipping company that is on the verge of collapse. Morrel's last hope was in his flagship - the three-masted Pharaoh, but that - oh, evil fate! - dies in a shipwreck. Wilmore hands Morrell a promissory note for a six-figure sum and issues a deferment for three months. But what can you do in three months? On the day when the reprieve expires, Morrel's daughter receives a letter signed "Sinbad the Sailor" indicating the address where she will find the wallet intended for her illustrious father. In the wallet is a check for the amount owed by Morrel and a diamond the size of a walnut: Mademoiselle Morrel's dowry. Everything that happened is like a fairy tale: but this is not enough. The "Pharaoh" enters the port of Marseilles safe and sound with all sails! The city is a witness to this miracle. Lord Wilmore, aka Abbot Busoni, aka Count of Monte Cristo, aka Edmond Dantes: “Be happy, noble man! You deserve this happiness! Along with the case of Abbot Faria, Edmond leaves Marseille...

The young Parisian aristocrat Baron Franz d'Epinay, going to the carnival in Rome, intended to visit the legendary Elba. However, he changes his route: the ship sails past the island of Monte Cristo, where, according to rumors, a man who calls himself Sinbad the Sailor lives in a fairy-tale palace ". The owner of the island receives Franz with such cordiality and luxury, which, it seems, none of the most powerful inhabitants of the earth have ever dreamed of. In Rome, Franz unexpectedly meets Sinbad, living in the same hotel with him under the name of the Count of Monte Cristo. Franz's friend Viscount Albert de Morcerf captured by robbers from the gang of chieftain Luigi Vampa, who terrorizes the inhabitants of Rome. The Count of Monte Cristo saves Albert: “Chieftain, you have violated our agreement, the friend of my friend is my friend.” Vampa is in confusion, he sternly reprimands his thugs: “We are all obliged count life! How could you act so rashly!" Albert invites the Count to visit Paris and be his guest of honor.

In the capital (where the count has not appeared before), Albert introduces him to his friends, including Morrel’s son Maximillian. This acquaintance deeply excited the count - young Morrel was no less excited when he learned that the count was using the services of the banking house of Thomson and French, which saved the lives of their entire family.

The Count of Monte Cristo acquires several apartments in Paris and a house in Auteuil, at 28 Rue Fontaine, which previously belonged to the Marquis de Saint-Meran. The count's manager, Bertuccio, perceives their move to this house as an evil fate. Many years ago, he witnessed how de Villefort buried a newborn baby in the garden of his father-in-law's house - an illegitimate son from an unknown lady. Bertuccio hastened to dig up a box - the baby was still alive. Bertuccio's daughter-in-law raised a boy, whom they named Benedetto. The son of eminent parents took the wrong path and ended up in jail. But this is only one of two terrible stories hidden by Bertuccio from the count. In June 1829, he stopped at the Caderousse tavern - the day after Abbot Busoni had visited there (Bertuccio does not realize that the abbot, who rescued him a long time ago from hard labor, and the count are the same person). Abbot Caderousse sold the diamond to a reliable jeweler for 45 thousand francs, and that same night he was stabbed to death. Now Caderousse is where Bertuccio also happened to be: at hard labor. The Count is sure that this is not the last drop in the cup that Caderousse must drink; as for Benedetto - if he is alive, he will serve as a weapon of God's punishment...

The city is filled with rumors about the mysterious count and his wealth. The Count opens an “unlimited loan” at the Danglars bank. Danglars questions the Count's capabilities: there are limits to everything in the world. The Count sneers: “For you, maybe, but not for me.” - “No one has counted my cash register yet!” - Danglars is wounded. “In this case, I am the first one who will have to do this,” the count promises him. Monte Cristo becomes close not only with Danglars, who did not recognize poor Edmond in him, but also with the de Villefort family. The Count wins the favor of Madame de Villefort: the Count's servant Ali saved her and Villefort's son from marrying her from an accident (Villefort also has a daughter from his first marriage, Valentina, bound by bonds of love with Maximillian Morrel, but forced by her relatives to marry Franz D." Epinet). As if fate itself was opening wide the doors to the Count of Monte Cristo in the houses of his sworn enemies, informing him of their other victims. Pupil of Dantes-Monte Cristo, the daughter of Pasha Yanina, the wondrous beauty Gayde (there are rumors in Paris that she is the count's mistress ) recognizes in the Opera the man who gave up to the Turks for two thousand purses of gold the fortress that protected the city where her father ruled, and sold Hayde herself as a twelve-year-old girl into slavery to the Turkish Sultan. This man's name was Fernand Mondego; now he is known as the Comte de Morcerf, general -lieutenant, member of the House of Peers. Hayde was ransomed by Monte Cristo from the Sultan, the count swore revenge on the one because of whom her father died and she herself languished in captivity. He is not at all surprised that this scoundrel is Fernand: who betrayed once risks remaining a traitor to the end.

Luxurious lunch at the Monte Cristo house. The first blows prepared by the Count for his offenders. Villefort turns pale when the count informs all the guests that in the garden he found the skeleton of a baby buried alive under the previous owner. Danglars learns that, while playing on the stock exchange, he suffered losses in the amount of over a million francs (the count published false information about the coup in Spain in the newspaper, and Danglars hastened to get rid of the shares of the Madrid Bank). Villefort informs Madame Danglars that the count is apparently privy to their secret: the unfortunate child was their illegitimate son. "You buried my child alive! God, this is your revenge!" - exclaims Madame Danglars. “No, revenge still awaits us, and the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo will have to carry it out!” Villefort undertakes to find out the whole truth about the count at all costs; but Abbot Busoni and Lord Wilmore, who find themselves in Paris, give him very contradictory information. The Count not only remains unrecognized by playing these two roles, but also confuses his tracks. A young man named Andrea Cavalcanti appears in Paris (one count, who showered him with generosity, knows that this is the escaped convict Benedetto). Immediately, Caderousse emerges from the ground, assuring Benedetto that he is his son, and luring money out of the young scoundrel under the threat of ruining the brilliant career that has opened up before him. Cavalcanti-Benedetto de Villefort is forced to obey: he has his eye on Danglars' daughter, a girl with a rich dowry. Isn’t it better, he suggests to Caderousse, to give the count a good shake than to steal from him the money with which the madman Monte Cristo is lending him? Caderousse climbs into the count's house - and comes face to face with Abbot Busoni. The old convict betrays the young one; He writes, under the dictation of the abbot, a letter to Danglars, explaining who his son-in-law actually is. Leaving the house of the Count of Monte Cristo, Caderousse runs into Benedetto's knife. Before he gives up the ghost, the abbot makes sure that he, Monte Cristo and Edmond Dantes are one person...

A hail of misfortunes rains down on de Villefort's head: one after another, his father-in-law and mother-in-law suddenly die, then the old footman who drank lemonade from a decanter in his father Noirtier's room. The doctor comes to the conclusion: they were all poisoned. The criminal lives in this house. All of Villefort's servants immediately ask for their resignation. The case receives wide publicity. And here is a new blow: Noirtier upsets the wedding of Valentina and Franz d'Epinay (he promised this to his beloved granddaughter). Noirtier's secretary contains a document stating that in February 1815 he killed General de Quesnel, Baron d'Epinay in a fair fight , who did not want to join the Bonapartist conspiracy.

Now it’s Fernand’s turn. There is a scandal in the House of Peers: newspapers published a report about his low behavior during the Turkish siege of the fortress of Ioannina. Gaide comes to the hearings in the Chamber and presents documents to the peers that confirm: all this is true, General de Morcerf’s position in society was bought at the price of betrayal. Albert de Morcerf challenges the count to a duel, standing up for his father, but after the whole truth about Fernand Mondego is revealed to him, he asks Dantes for forgiveness. Madame de Morcerf, who still loves him, also begs Edmond for this. The Count accepts Albert's apology; on the same day he and his mother leave Paris. Morcerf repeats his son's challenge, but after the Count of Monte Cristo reveals his true name to him, the dishonored general puts a bullet in his forehead.

Danglars is on the verge of ruin. He has to pay all the new bills with which the count's proxies come to him. His last hope is that he will be able to make a decent match for his daughter: young Cavalcanti is Monte Cristo’s confidante, and the giver’s hand is unlikely to become scarce. After the signing of the marriage contract, the words from Caderousse’s letter sound like a bolt from the blue: “Andrea Cavalcanti is an escaped convict!” Eugenie leaves Paris. Danglars no longer has either a daughter or money. He leaves a farewell note to his wife (“I’m letting you go the way I married you: with money, but without a good reputation”) and runs away. Andrea-Benedetto also runs, hoping to cross the border; but the gendarmes stop him. At the trial, he says: his father is prosecutor de Villefort!

The last, most terrible blow of fate in the heart of de Villefort: Valentina is poisoned. He has no more doubts: the murderer is his wife, who obtained an inheritance for herself and her son in such a terrible way (the old man Noirtier declared his granddaughter to be the only heir). De Villefort threatens his wife with the scaffold. In despair, Madame de Villefort takes poison and poisons the boy: “A good mother does not abandon the child for whose sake she has become a criminal.” Villefort loses his mind; wandering through the garden of the Count of Monte Cristo's house, he digs graves in one place or another...

The act of retribution has been completed. Villefort is mad. Caderousse and Fernand are dead. Danglars was captured by robbers from Luigi Vampa's gang and spends his last money on bread and water: the thugs sell him a small piece of bread for a thousand francs, and in total he has less than fifty thousand in his pocket. The Count of Monte Cristo grants him life and freedom. Turning gray overnight, Danglars ekes out the existence of a beggar.

Evil is punished. But why did young Valentina de Villefort, who did not share the guilt of her father and stepmother, burn in his flame? Why should Maximillian Morrel, the son of the one who for many years in a row made attempts to rescue Dantes from prison, grieve for her all his life? Leaving Paris, the Count performs the miracle of Valentina's resurrection. Her death was staged by him in community with the old man Noirtier: the terrible poison was neutralized by a miraculous medicine - one of the generous gifts of Abbot Faria.