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Video: Why Dumas distorted the story of the real "Count of Monte Cristo" and hid who he really was
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The writer Alexandre Dumas was a very prolific and successful author. Many generations in all countries of the world have read his novels. Where did he get the subjects for his works? As a matter of fact, Dumas did not invent the main thing - the basis of the novel, which he usually found in historical notes, archives and memoirs. But then, using his considerable imagination, he turned an ordinary plot into an exciting story.
The history of the creation of the novel
So it was with the "Count of Monte Cristo". Dumas found one crime story in the depths of the police archives. And he put it at the basis of a new novel. The name Monte Cristo is the name of one island in the Mediterranean. When Dumas traveled in those parts, he heard a local legend, according to which untold treasures are buried on the island. So the name of the island and the legend of the treasures were combined in one plot.
It should be noted that this particular novel turned out to be one of the most successful, and perhaps the most successful among all the works of Dumas. He was filmed many times, staged theatrical and television performances, wrote sequels and imitations. So it is difficult to find a person among the reading public who is not familiar with the name of the Count of Monte Cristo.
The plot of the novel
The plot of the story is well known for a long time. Let us recall briefly: the young sailor Dantes was, on a denunciation, imprisoned in the fortress for life. If not for his unfortunate neighbor Abbot Faria, Dantes would probably have gone mad or died. But the abbot gave him hope.
In total, Dantes spent 14 years in the fortress, and then managed to escape. During this time, the abbot was able to share with the young man his extensive knowledge in many fields of science, history and culture. So it was not an illiterate sailor who came out of the fortress, but an educated, almost secular person. Which gave him the opportunity to impersonate the count.
Also, the abbot, through logical reasoning and detailed questioning, managed to get to the bottom of the truth: who betrayed Dantes and why. And before his death, he gave the ward the coordinates of the hidden treasures.
So Dantes was free, rich, independent, armed with knowledge. And he began to take revenge on his enemies.
The true story of the "Count"
The real story of the prototype is not so colorful and dizzying. Although Dumas sinned a little against the truth. The whole plot remained almost the same as in the police story. Only more colorful details and breathtaking adventures have been added.
François Picot was a poor shoemaker. He had a fiancée, whom he soon intended to marry. Poor Pico was not lucky: his acquaintance innkeeper named Luppian himself wanted to marry this girl. The innkeeper and three of his friends wrote a denunciation that Pico was spying against Napoleon. The young man got into the fortress for 7 years. There he sat with the prelate, who bequeathed him a cache of money. The prelate died, and Pico was at large: Napoleon was overthrown and the prisoner was simply released.
Unlike the book count, Pico did not become a brilliant and educated person, but turned into a gloomy subject, obsessed only with revenge. He had to find out the truth about his arrest himself. Having entered into the inheritance rights and received the bequeathed money, Pico sought out his former friend named Allu. Promising an expensive ring for the truth about the arrest, he pretended to be his own cellmate, announcing that François had died in captivity. Allu did not recognize his former friend in this gloomy and aged man and told who and why wrote the denunciation.
Pico went to an expensive restaurant that Luppian now owned. Former bride Pico, after waiting for the groom for 2 years, married Luppiana. Soon one of the informers was found killed with a dagger, the other was poisoned. The restaurant burned down, the daughter of the traitor was dishonored, and the son was dragged into a gang of thieves, for which he was imprisoned for many years. The former bride died of grief, after a while Luppian himself was stabbed to death.
But the story did not end there. Allu, as it turned out later, sold the received ring, and then killed the buyer and fled with the money and the ring. At the same time, he guessed that Pico did not die, but set up all these deaths and misfortunes. Allu began to follow his former friend and managed to lure him into the basement, where he tried to find out from him the location of his treasures. But the prisoner said nothing and was killed. The killer fled to England. There, before his death, he told this whole incredible story to the priest. The priest wrote it all down and sent it to France. Historian Jacques Pöchet later discovered this document in police archives and published it. And already Dumas, having read the story, put it in the basis of his novel.
With Dumas, the less guilty heroes still got a chance for correction, although they were punished. Only the most inveterate villains who died were fully retaliated. The rest, including the daughter and son of the main informer, remained alive and free, here the Count of Monte Cristo showed mercy to the innocent. And his ex-fiancee also survived. The count himself, fed up with revenge, still got a chance for a happy personal life with the daughter of the Yana Pasha.
By the way, researchers do not have one hundred percent certainty that the story of Francois Picot is genuine.
Especially for fans of Russian cinema, the story of what's left behind the scenes of one of the best adaptations of the novel by Dumas - the film "The Prisoner of the Chateau d'If".
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