The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)

I loved reading Alexander Dumas’ story of Edmond Dantès’ life, highlighting themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and forgiveness. When thinking about it, overnight, I realized that the positive inverse of the story was portrayed in the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption“. Hmm.

It turns out that the original true story can be found in a book of Paris police stories written by Jacques Peuchet, about a man, François “Pierre” Picaud, who was wrongfully arrested for being a English spy (on the basis of a ‘joke’ by three ‘friends’) and sentenced to prison for seven years until the death of Napoleon. When he’s released from prison he takes on a new identity and gets revenge on the three men.

The Monte Cristo and Shawshank links are very few, but others have examined the story lines and concluded that they are diametrically opposed: one positive; the other, negative. In my case, the tunnel leading to freedom is the one thing I saw the two stories had in comment, and the other is the wealth each ‘discovers’ when they’re freed.

There truly is nothing new under the sun.