The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)

The original revenge story, The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure story set in France and Italy. The story commences just before the Hundred Days of Napoleon and continues on to the reign of King Louis-Philippe. Edmond Dantes, a young merchant sailor is falsely accused of being a Bonapartiste and imprisoned on an island. It takes 14 years for Dantes to escape, during which he befriends an ageing fellow prisoner who bequeaths him a fortune hidden in a cave on an Italian island. With this fortune Dantes reinvents himself as the Count of the title and returns to France to seek revenge against the men who ruined his life.