The second volume of Dumas's monumental revenge epic finds Edmond Dantès transformed. No longer the naive sailor thrown into the abyss of Château d'If, he has emerged as the Count of Monte Cristo, wealthy beyond measure, patient as a spider weaving an invisible web, and utterly determined to make those who destroyed his life pay for their crimes. Through aliases and elaborate schemes, he inserts himself back into Parisian society, moving among the men who betrayed him like a serpent in the garden. But this is no simple tale of murder and mayhem. Dumas asks what happens to the soul when it is consumed by vengeance, whether justice and revenge are the same thing, and whether the man who emerges from fourteen years of darkness can ever find his way back to the light. This volume deepens the intrigue with new characters, dangerous encounters in Rome, and the devastating precision of the Count's plan unfolding.
