The Count of Monte Cristo characters

Edmond Dantès

Also known as Count of Monte Cristo, Sinbad the Sailor, Abbé Busoni, Lord Wilmore, Number 34, Zaccone

A young Marseilles sailor falsely imprisoned on the eve of his wedding, who escapes after fourteen years and returns fabulously wealthy to reward his benefactors and destroy the men who ruined him.

As drawn: At nineteen a tall, well-made young sailor with fine dark eyes, black hair, and an open, frank, handsome face; after his imprisonment and transformation he is lean and strikingly pale with a marble-like complexion, piercing dark eyes, and a cold, commanding, aristocratic bearing, often dressed in immaculate elegant black.

Bonds:DanglarsShip colleaguesMercédèsBetrothed loversPierreOwner and sailorGaspardIntimate friends

Abbé Faria

Also known as the mad abbé, Number 27, the Learned Italian

A learned Italian priest and fellow prisoner in the Château d'If who educates Dantès, reveals the secret of a vast hidden treasure, and dies in captivity.

As drawn: An aged abbé with thin white hair and a long grey beard, emaciated and stooped from years of imprisonment, his tattered garments scarcely covering him, yet with keen, penetrating, intelligent eyes.

Mercédès

Also known as Countess de Morcerf, Madame de Morcerf

A beautiful Catalan woman betrothed to Edmond Dantès who, believing him lost, marries Fernand and becomes the Countess de Morcerf.

As drawn: A tall, statuesque Catalan beauty with a warm olive complexion, large dark eyes framed by long lashes, and abundant jet-black hair; in later years still dignified and lovely though her hair has silvered and grief has paled her.

Bonds:EdmondBetrothed loversPierreMutual acquaintancesFernandSpouses

Fernand Mondego

Also known as Count de Morcerf, Fernand

A Catalan fisherman consumed by jealousy over Mercédès, who helps frame Dantès and later rises to a wealthy general and peer of France before his crimes are exposed.

As drawn: In youth a tall, dark, fierce-eyed Catalan fisherman with black hair and a Spanish complexion; in maturity a distinguished, martial-looking general with an upright soldierly bearing and greying hair.

Bonds:AliFormer subordinateDanglarsLongtime acquaintancesEdmondBuyer and sellerHaydéeSlave seller

Danglars

Also known as Baron Danglars

The Pharaon's ambitious, resentful purser who authors the letter that condemns Dantès, then becomes a fabulously rich Parisian banker and baron.

As drawn: A man of twenty-five or twenty-six with an unprepossessing, sly countenance, obsequious to superiors and insolent to inferiors; in later life a corpulent, self-satisfied financier dressed in ostentatious wealth.

Bonds:EdmondShip colleaguesPierreOwner and supercargoBenedettoCarriage companionsFernandLongtime acquaintances

Gérard de Villefort

Also known as procureur du roi, the King's Attorney, the deputy procureur

The ambitious deputy crown prosecutor of Marseilles who imprisons Dantès to protect his own career, and whose Parisian family the Count later destroys.

As drawn: At twenty-seven a handsome, pale, cold-featured magistrate with an imposing forehead and severe, controlled expression; ever rigid, dignified, and impenetrable in his dark official dress.

Bonds:EdmondMagistrate-prisonerNoirtierFather and sonPierreMagistrate-petitioner

Gaspard Caderousse

Also known as La Carconte's husband

A greedy, weak-willed tailor and neighbor of the Dantès family who is complicit in Edmond's ruin and later becomes an innkeeper and criminal.

As drawn: A coarse, sallow-faced man of about twenty-six with a covetous expression, later worn and haggard, dressed shabbily as an innkeeper.

Bonds:EdmondIntimate friendsBenedettoFormer guardian

Maximilian Morrel

The upright, courageous son of the shipowner Morrel, an army officer who becomes the Count's protégé and is in love with Valentine de Villefort.

As drawn: A strong-minded, upright young man of about twenty-two with a frank, handsome, open face and the erect, disciplined bearing of a soldier, usually in the uniform of a Spahi captain.

Bonds:AlbertSocial acquaintancesValentineLoversPierreFather and sonNoirtierBenevolent elder

Pierre Morrel

Also known as M. Morrel

The honest, generous Marseilles shipowner and Dantès's employer, whose failing firm the Count secretly rescues out of gratitude.

As drawn: A benevolent, careworn merchant of middle age with an honest, kindly face lined by anxiety over his failing business.

Bonds:EdmondOwner and sailorDanglarsOwner and supercargoMercédèsMutual acquaintancesMaximilianFather and son

Haydée

Also known as the fair Albanian, daughter of Ali Tebelen

The daughter of the murdered Ali Pasha of Janina, sold into slavery and purchased by the Count, whose testimony ruins Morcerf and who ultimately wins the Count's love.

As drawn: A young woman of exquisite beauty in rich Greek national costume, with lustrous dark eyes, jet-black hair, and delicate features of Grecian perfection.

Bonds:FernandSlave sellerMaximilianConcerned acquaintances

Ali

Also known as the Nubian, the mute

The Count's devoted mute Nubian servant and bodyguard, whose life the Count once saved.

As drawn: A Nubian, black as ebony, tall and powerfully built, dressed in a plain white tunic; he is mute, having had his tongue cut out.

Bonds:FernandFormer subordinate

Valentine de Villefort

Villefort's gentle daughter, granddaughter of Noirtier, in love with Maximilian Morrel and targeted by a poisoner within her own household.

As drawn: A slender, graceful young woman of delicate fair beauty, with soft eyes, pale complexion, and an air of gentle melancholy.

Bonds:NoirtierNonverbal confidantsMaximilianLovers

Noirtier de Villefort

Also known as M. Noirtier

Villefort's father, a fierce old Bonapartist left wholly paralysed by a stroke, who communicates only through his eyes and fiercely protects his granddaughter Valentine.

As drawn: An elderly man wholly paralysed and voiceless, seated motionless in his chair; only his dark, intensely expressive, living eyes move beneath a still, mask-like face.

Bonds:ValentineNonverbal confidantsMaximilianBenevolent elderGérardFather and son

Albert de Morcerf

Also known as Viscount de Morcerf

The spirited young son of Fernand and Mercédès, befriended by the Count in Rome, who nearly duels him before learning of his father's treachery.

As drawn: An elegant, high-spirited young Parisian gentleman of about twenty-one, fashionably dressed, with a fair, pleasant, boyish face and lively manner.

Bonds:MaximilianSocial acquaintancesPierreNew friends

Benedetto

Also known as Andrea Cavalcanti

The illegitimate son of Villefort, left for dead as an infant and raised a criminal, whom the Count reintroduces into Parisian society as a false nobleman to expose his father.

As drawn: A good-looking but dissolute young man of striking dark features, elegantly and expensively dressed to pass as an Italian aristocrat, though a hard, corrupt cast betrays his true nature.

Bonds:DanglarsCarriage companionsGaspardFormer guardian