Alexandre Dumas

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Alexandre Dumas
Background Information
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The Author

• Alexandre Dumas was born July 24, 1802 as a third
  child of a French revolutionary general.
• He took part in the revolution in 1830 that
  placed the Duc dOrleans on the French throne, as
  King Louis Philippe.
• He wrote hugely successful plays and produced
  many travel books of his travels in Switzerland
  and Italy.
• During the 1840s, he wrote a series of
  romanticized historical novels designed to teach
  French history. Some of those novels were The
  Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and
  The Count of Monte Cristo.
• In his lifetime, he wrote over 300 volumes,
  including plays and novels.
• He married two of his mistresses and had two
  children, one from each mistress.
• He died on Dec. 5, 1870 of a stroke.

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The History in The Count of Monte Cristo
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Napoleon and French History

• In April of 1814, Napoleon abdicated the throne
  and was exiled to the island of Elba.
• Louis XVIII ascended to the French throne,
  restoring the Bourbon dynasty and bringing about
  the First Restoration.
• Napoleon remained on Elba for only ten months,
  when he escaped and landed with 1, 100 men near
  Cannes on March 1, 1815.
• Napoleon crosses the Alps and marched on Paris
  where Louis XVIII fled.
• However, Napoleon was defeated in battle by the
  British general, Wellington, at the battle of
  Waterloo in June of 1815. Napoleon was only in
  power for 100 days.
• He was sent into exile to the Island of St.
  Helena where he died six years later.
• Louis XVIII returned to the French throne, known
  as the Second Restoration and persecuted those
  who had helped Napoleon during his return.

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The Inspiration for the Story
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Francois Picaud

• Dumas found a memoir written by a Jacques Peuchet
  which related the story of a shoemaker named
  Francois Picaud.
• Picaud was living in Paris in 1807 and engaged to
  marry a rich woman.
• Four jealous friends falsely accused him of being
  a spy for England.
• He was imprisoned for seven years, during which a
  dying fellow prisoner bequeathed him a treasure
  hidden in Milan.
• When Picaud was released in 1814, he took
  possession of the treasure, returned to Paris
  under another name, and spent ten years plotting
  successful revenge against his former friends.
• After he had gained all of his revenge, he was
  taken prisoner by a former friend and forced to
  pay 25,000 francs for each meal.
• However, the kidnapper ended up going into a rage
  and beating Francois by strangling him, stabbing
  his eyes with a knife, and cutting open his chest.

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Facts About the Novel
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The Book

• The book was originally published in serial form.
  People would wait in long lines to buy the latest
  installment.
• It took him 18 installments and two years to
  publish the entire book.
• Within a few months, the novel was translated
  into ten languages.
• The book is acclaimed as one of the most popular
  novels ever written, usually ranking in the top
  ten novels of all time.
• The book has been described as the greatest
  revengers tragedy in the whole history of the
  novel (Hemmings).
• Avriel H. Goldberger states about The Count of
  Monte Cristo that it ranks with the great revenge
  stories of all time, but states
• This is not because Monte Cristo has equal merit
  as a work of art or as a probe of the psyche, but
  because it speaks so powerfully to our need to
  fantasize impossible victories of the individual
  against injustice.