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A character in The Count of Monte Cristo

Gaspard Caderousse

The tailor next door who watched the denunciation being written and said nothing, later an innkeeper, a thief and a murderer.

What they want

He wants money without work, and he tells himself each theft is the last.

The book

The Count of Monte CristoAlexandre Dumas, 1846

A sailor jailed on his wedding day spends fourteen years in a fortress and the rest of the book taking Paris apart, one enemy at a time.

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At a glance

Trade
Tailor, then innkeeper
Address
The inn at the Pont du Gard, then the streets of Paris

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Caderousse is a tailor living in the same house as Dantès's father in Marseille. He is drinking with Danglars and Fernand when the denunciation is written and is too drunk to stop it. He is the one enemy who feels guilty, and the only one the count gives a chance to.

How Gaspard Caderousse Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The neighbourIn Chapter 2 he arrives at old Dantès's room in time to see the young man's return, and mentions with a smile that the father has been living on nothing.
  • The inn at the Pont du GardIn Chapters 26 and 27 he keeps a failing inn on the Beaucaire road and tells the whole story of 1815 to a priest calling himself the Abbé Busoni, in exchange for a diamond.
  • The beggarIn Chapter 64 he reappears in Paris as an escaped convict, recognises Andrea Cavalcanti as his prison companion Benedetto, and begins to blackmail him.
  • The burglaryIn Chapter 82 he breaks into the count's house on the Champs-Élysées, warned off in advance by an anonymous note, and is met inside by the Abbé Busoni.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Benedetto stabs him as he leaves the count's house. Dying, he is told by the count who the Abbé Busoni really is, and he is the first of the four to hear the name Edmond Dantès.

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