Together with the "Three Musketeers", "The Count of Monte Cristo" is the most famous and popular work of Alexandre Dumas. The success it experienced when first published in installments starting in 1844, and which can only be compared to the successes that today's authors experience, brought Dumas to the peak of his fame.
Perhaps the best review of this exciting novel can be summarized in the words of the little child after which the monumental biography dedicated to Alexandre Dumas by Zimerman concludes: "The child finishes 'The Count of Monte Cristo', closes the book and starts crying. His mother asks him why he's crying and he answers: 'I didn't want it to end...'"