The Count of Monte Cristo

A sailor is denounced on his wedding day by three men who each want something of his, and spends fourteen years in a sea fortress learning who they were. Dumas built the story from a police file about a Paris shoemaker destroyed by a practical joke, and turned it into the most patient revenge in fiction. He wrote at speed, for newspapers, often with collaborators - and none of that shows. Its 432 original illustrations have been carefully restored and coloured for this edition.