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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bonds:ValentineNonverbal confidantsMaximilianBenevolent elderVillefortFather 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.

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.

Bonds:DanglarsCarriage companionsGaspardFormer guardian