The Count of Monte Cristo

Edmond Dantes is a young sailor about to marry when three jealous men frame him for treason and have him locked in an island fortress. Fourteen years later he escapes, finds a hidden fortune, and comes back as the mysterious Count to take apart everyone who wronged him, slowly and from the inside. It is a long book that never feels long, because Dumas built it as a serial and ends nearly every chapter on a hook. Read the Robin Buss translation for Penguin. It restores the darker, more adult material older English versions cut.