The Count of Monte Cristo

It opens in the old harbour of Marseille, where the Pharaon docks and Edmond Dantès is arrested, and at the Château d'If, the real island fortress off the coast where he is buried alive for fourteen years. His escape and the treasure carry the story out of France: to the island of Monte Cristo in the Tuscan archipelago, and to Rome, before he returns to take his revenge in Paris. The Italian and Roman scenes are flagged as excursions beyond the setting.

Edmond Dantès

The old harbour, Marseille

Ch. 1, The Arrival · 0% through the novel

Standing by the side of the pilot, who was steering the Pharaon towards the narrow entrance of the inner port, was a young man, who, with activity and vigilant eye, watched every motion of the ship, and repeated each direction of the pilot.

The novel opens here on 24 February 1815, as nineteen-year-old Edmond Dantès brings the Pharaon home to Marseille. Within hours he is betrayed and arrested at his own betrothal feast. The old harbour is where his life is taken from him, and where, an ageless fortune later, the Count returns to close his accounts.

explicit The Pharaon is steered into the inner port of Marseille, the Vieux-Port at the foot of the Canebière, which is real and named through the chapter. The pin marks the old harbour.

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