Bookatlas
1844
Cover of The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas · 1802–1870 · France

Originally Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (French)

Why it matters

Betrayed and imprisoned on false charges, Edmond Dantès escapes to spend a fortune and decades engineering an elaborate revenge. The nineteenth century's great vengeance epic, patient and merciless in equal measure.

At a glance

historical fictiontragedy
Difficulty 4/10fast pace1200 pages

Long and plot-dense, but narrated with propulsive serial clarity.

More by Alexandre Dumas →

Deep dive

A man is buried alive in a sack, escapes, and spends the rest of the book proving that revenge, meticulously executed, is its own kind of art form.

Where to go next

Cover of The Three MusketeersAlexandre Dumas · 1844The Three MusketeersLvl 3Fast pacedCover of The Corsican BrothersAlexandre Dumas · 1844The Corsican BrothersLvl 2Fast pacedCover of Twenty Years AfterAlexandre Dumas · 1845Twenty Years AfterLvl 3Fast pacedCover of La Reine MargotAlexandre Dumas · 1845La Reine MargotLvl 4Fast pacedCover of The Man in the Iron MaskAlexandre Dumas · 1850The Man in the Iron MaskLvl 3Fast pacedCover of The Black TulipAlexandre Dumas · 1850The Black TulipLvl 3Fast paced