February 2, 2009
The Count of Monte Cristo
Written by Alexandre Dumas
There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.”
—Chapter LXXII, pg. 531
Fun Facts
- In his lifetime, Dumas wrote approximately 250 books however, he often used assistants to help him finish them.
- He had about 73 different assistants throughout his lifetime including August Maquet who helped Dumas write The Count of Monte Cristo.
- Dumas was well-known in Paris at the time of The Count of Monte Cristo’s publication as both a celebrated playwright and as a master of “romans feuilletons,” which were the serialized novels that were extremely popular in nineteenth-century Paris.
- The Count of Monte Cristo was published as a “romans feuilletons” in Paris’ Le Journal des Debats between 1844 and 1846. This explains the “cliff hanger” endings of most of the chapters that would have been used to keep readers reading from week to week.
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