The Count of Monte Cristo

Maximilien, who is secretly in love with Valentine, waits for her outside an iron gate in the Villeforts’ garden. Valentine is forced to delay their rendezvous because she is entertaining Eugénie, as Maximilien understands when he sees them walking in the garden. When she slips away to talk through the gate with Maximilien, she tells him that she and Eugénie were talking about how much they wished to avoid the marriages their parents have planned for them, in Eugénie’s case to Albert, and in Valentine’s to Albert’s friend, Franz d’Epinay.

Valentine, as the only child of Villefort’s first marriage, stands to inherit the fortune of her Saint-Méran grandparents, as well as that of her grandfather, Noirtier. Valentine says that Mme. Villefort would rather see her enter a convent, as then Valentine’s fortune would ultimately go to Mme. Villefort’s son, Edouard.

Villefort and his wife go to speak with Noirtier, Villefort’s father. Noirtier lives in his own part of the house with his old servant, Barrois. He is almost completely paralyzed, but still has a sharp mind and can communicate using codes based on blinking, the alphabet, and a dictionary. The Villeforts have come to announce Valentine’s impending marriage to Franz d’Epinay. The old man expresses a strong negative reaction to the news.

The Villeforts observe that Franz is an orphan, as his mother died in childbirth and his father, a Royalist, was mysteriously assassinated in 1815. Villefort hints that marrying Valentine to Franz will allay any lingering suspicions that Noirtier played a role in the assassination.

Noirtier asks to see Valentine, to whom he is particularly close. Noirtier communicates his opposition to Valentine’s marriage, and she confesses she has no wish to marry Franz. Noirtier asks to see a notary and when one arrives, Noirtier has him draw up a new will disinheriting Valentine, making her a less attractive marriage prospect. Nevertheless, Villefort remains determined to see Valentine married to Franz.

Leaving Noirtier, the Villeforts learn that Monte Cristo is waiting to see them. Monte Cristo invites them to dine at his house in Auteuil on Saturday. Villefort struggles to conceal his reaction while Mme. Villefort remarks that the house formerly belonged to the Marquis de Saint-Méran, her husband’s father-in-law during his first marriage, but that for some reason her husband never wished to live in it. Villefort nevertheless accepts Monte Cristo’s invitation. Monte Cristo then announces that he is going to visit a telegraph station. The almost supernatural quality of the telegraph fascinates him, and he wants to meet one of the operators who, he notes, are poorly paid. Villefort suggests visiting the telegraph line from Spain.

The next day, Debray tells Mme. Danglars that he has intercepted a telegraph announcing that Don Carlos, a pretender to the throne of Spain, has escaped from his exile in France and returned to lead an uprising against the current ruler. He urges Mme. Danglars to have her husband sell all his Spanish bonds. Danglars does this, at a financial loss. The price of Spanish bonds falls, then rebounds and even doubles on the news that the telegraph was a false report, deepening Danglars’s losses.

The following Saturday, Monte Cristo’s friends, including Maximilien, Debray, Baron and Mme. Danglars, along with M. and Mme. Villefort, arrive at the house in Auteuil for dinner. Monte Cristo introduces them to the Cavalcantis, who are also present. When Danglars expresses curiosity about them, Monte Cristo tells him the Cavalcantis are an old and very wealthy family, and that Andrea hopes to find a French wife.

When Bertuccio sees the party, he recognizes Mme. Danglars as the young pregnant woman who once lived in the house and Villefort as the man he stabbed and thought he had killed. Finally, he recognizes Andrea de Cavalcanti as Benedetto, the infant rescued from burial in the garden and raised by Bertuccio’s sister.

Monte Cristo presents his guests with an “Oriental feast […] in the manner of Arabian fairy tales” (259), illustrating the motif of Orientalism and the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, both of which highlight the performative and fictional nature of Monte Cristo’s identity. One guest notes that the house stood abandoned and neglected for so long, it was as if it had been the scene of a crime. Monte Cristo agrees and insists on showing the company a room he finds particularly dramatic. He takes them to the bedroom connected to the garden by a secret staircase, and says it is easy to imagine it as the scene of crime, but he can also imagine it as the “honest” bedroom of a mother resting quietly after giving birth. At this point, Mme. Danglars faints. Monte Cristo revives her with the help of Faria’s red liquid and continues the tour in the garden. He tells his guests that his gardeners have uncovered a box holding the bones of a newborn infant. Seeing that Villefort and Mme. Danglars are close to breaking down, Monte Cristo leads his guests back inside for coffee. Villefort and Mme. Danglars hastily plan to meet the next day in Villefort’s office.

As Andrea leaves Monte Cristo’s dinner party, he is stopped by a brutish-looking man who addresses him as Benedetto and asks to share Andrea’s ride back to Paris. Andrea dismisses his groom, so he and his passenger can talk in private. The man is Caderousse, who knew Andrea/Benedetto when they were in prison together. Caderousse is now a fugitive. Andrea correctly guesses that Caderousse intends to extort him. Caderousse asks for 200 francs a month, enough to let him live like a “retired baker,” reading the papers at a café during the day and attending the theater at night like a respectable retiree. Andrea reaches for the gun he carries in his pocket, but Caderousse sees this and opens the knife he carries. They reach Paris, where Caderousse disappears, wearing the hat and coat he has taken from Andrea.