The Count Of Monte Cristo

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact motive Dumas had in mind when he wrote The Count of Monte Cristo. He wrote the novel in 1844 and it was published in 18 fragments between the years 1844-46. This was at the same time that Dumas embarked on his project including the D'Artagnan romances. These romances were written in conjunction with his collaborator Auguste Maquet starting in 1837. Their objective was to reconstruct French National history through a series of novels. The Three Musketeers is such a novel. In any case, The Count of Monte Cristo, also written with a team of collaborators, was written at the same period as these novels, which had a distinct didactic purpose. It was Dumas goal to teach the French people their historical heritage. The plots of the D'Artagnan romances are thus restricted to actual historical events and the characters reflect actual historical personages. The Count of Monte Cristo is only loosely based in fact, and thus does not fit the category of the D'Artagnan romances. History forms a mere backdrop to the plot. Dumas thus had much more freedom to create the imaginative plot and to develop the characters' role. Does this mean that The Count of Monte Cristo is not didactic in nature? Most likely the novel was created as a relief from the genre of the D'Artagnan romances, however , this is not to say that one cannot find historical events within the novel. Historical and social values are still contained within the work, though they are reduced to the backdrop. The work covers the period of French History from 1814-1838.

Historically one is carried through the closing Hundred days of Napoleon's Dynasty, the reigns of Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis Philipe, and the Revolution of July. These events however, do not particularly intrude upon the story.