The Count of Monte Cristo

Zusatztext "Dumas was . . . a summit of art. Nobody ever could! or did! or will improve upon Dumas's romances and plays." —George Bernard Shaw Informationen zum Autor Alexandre Dumas  (1802–1870) lived a life as romantic as that depicted in his famous novels. He was born in Villers-Cotterêts, France. His early education was scanty, but his beautiful handwriting secured him a position in Paris in 1822 with the du’Orléans, where he read voraciously and began to write. His first play,  Henri III et sa cour  (1829), scored a resounding success for its author and the romantic movement. His lavish spending and flamboyant habits led to the construction of his fabulous Château de Monte-Cristo, and in 1851 he fled to Belgium to escape creditors. Dumas’s overall literary output reached more than 277 volumes, but his brilliant historical novels made him the most universally read of all French novelists. With collaborators, mainly Auguste Maquet, Dumas wrote such works as  The Three Musketeers  (1843–1844); its sequels,  Twenty Years After  (1845) and the great mystery  The Man in the Iron Mask  (1845–1850); and  The Count of Monte Cristo  (1844). His work ignored historical accuracy, psychology, and analysis, but its thrilling adventure and exuberant inventiveness continued to delight readers, and Dumas remains one of the prodigies of nineteenth-century French literature. Klappentext Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read A popular bestseller since its publication in 1844, The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the great page-turning thrillers of all time. Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, Alexandre Dumas's grand historical romance recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantès, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal. As Robert Louis Stevenson declared, "I do not believe there is another volume extant where you can breathe the same unmingled atmosphere of romance."Chapter I ON FEBRUARY 24, 1815, the watchtower at Marseilles signaled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples. The quay was soon covered with the usual crowd of curious onlookers, for the arrival of a ship is always a great event in Marseilles, especially when, like the Pharaon, it has been built, rigged and laden in the city and belongs to a local shipowner. Meanwhile the vessel was approaching the harbor under topsails, jib and foresail, but so slowly and with such an air of melancholy that the onlookers, instinctively sensing misfortune, began to wonder what accident could have happened on board. However, the experienced seamen among them saw that if there had been an accident, it could not have happened to the ship herself, for she had every appearance of being under perfect control. Standing beside the pilot, who was preparing to steer the Pharaon through the narrow entrance of the harbor, was a young man who, with vigilant eyes and rapid gestures, watched every movement of the ship and repeated each of the pilot's orders. The vague anxiety hovering over the crowd affected one man so much that he could not wait until the ship entered the harbor: he leaped into a small boat and ordered the boatman to row him out to meet the Pharaon. When he saw this man coming toward him, the young sailor left his post beside the pilot and walked over to the side of the ship, holding his hat in his hand. He was a tall, slender young man, no more than twenty years old, with dark eyes and hair as black as ebony. His whole manner gave evidence of that calmness and resolution peculiar to those who have been accustomed to facing danger ever since their childhood. "Ah, it's you, Dantès!" cried the man in the boat. ...

Product details

• Authors: Alexandre Dumas
• Assisted by: Lowell Bair (Editor), Lowell Bair (Translation)
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 01.12.1984
• EAN: 9780553213508
• ISBN: 978-0-553-21350-8
• No. of pages: 544
• Dimensions: 100 mm x 180 mm x 30 mm
• Series: Bantam Classics; Bantam Classics
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature