Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is the world famous novel by Alexandre Dumas (père, 1802-1870)[1] and the title of a number of dramatizations of it.

Widely known by its English title of The Count of Monte Cristo (sometimes spelled The Count of Monte Christo).

The novel

The original text

Written in French by Dumas and his collaborator Auguste Maquet (1813-1888)[2], it was completed in 1844 and serialized (under the name of Dumas) in the Journal des Débats from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846.

The novel tells the thrilling story of Edmond Dantès who, falsely accused and imprisoned without trial in the notorious Château d'If on an island near Marseilles, escapes with the help of a fellow prisoner. Having become extremely wealthy, he later returns as the mysterious and wealthy "Count of Monte Cristo", to take revenge he takes on all those who had wronged him.

Translations and adaptations

The novel was translated into many languages, and the first English version was The Prisoner of If, an abridged summary of the first part of the novel, serialized by W. Francis Ainsworth (Ainsworth's Magazine, 1845). The most commonly utilised English version was a translation by an anonymous author, originally published in 1846 by Chapman and Hall. This was originally released in ten weekly installments from March 1846 with six pages of letterpress and two illustrations by M Valentin.

Dramatizations of the novel

Performance history in South Africa

1866: Performed as Lucretia Borgia by the Le Roy-Duret Company in the Harrington Street Theatre, Cape Town, on

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.203-205

Go to ESAT Bibliography