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A character in The Count of Monte Cristo

Maximilien Morrel

The shipowner's son, an army captain, whom the count treats as the one person in Paris he owes something to.

What they want

He wants to marry Valentine, whose father has promised her to someone else.

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

Rank
Captain of Spahis
Home
No. 14 Rue Meslay, Paris

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Maximilien is the son of Morrel, the Marseille shipowner who tried to save Dantès in 1815 and whom Dantès in turn saved from ruin. In Paris he is a captain of Spahis, in love with Valentine de Villefort, and the count's most trusted friend. The count's promise to him is the thread the last quarter of the book hangs on.

How Maximilien Morrel Is Portrayed

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

  • The fifth of SeptemberIn Chapter 30 he arrives from his regiment on the day his father means to shoot himself, and is there when the Pharaon, rebuilt and paid for by an unknown hand, sails into the harbour.
  • The Rue MeslayIn Chapter 50 the count visits the Morrels at No. 14 Rue Meslay and finds the red silk purse from 1829 kept under glass like a relic.
  • The gate in the wallIn Chapter 51 he and Valentine meet through the iron fence of the Villefort garden in a lucerne field, a courtship conducted entirely through bars.
  • The avowalIn Chapter 94, after Valentine is poisoned, he tells the count everything and threatens to kill himself if she dies. The count makes him promise to wait one month.

Maximilien Morrel quotes

Lines spoken by or about Maximilien Morrel, each verified verbatim against the text and located in the book.

until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,—‘Wait and hope.’
— The count's farewell letter to Maximilien Morrel · Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1846), Chapter 117, anonymous nineteenth-century translation
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Valentine's death is staged by the count. On 5 October Maximilien comes to the island of Monte Cristo expecting to die and finds her alive. The count leaves the couple his island, his fortune and the letter that ends the book.

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