“The Count of Monte Cristo,” one of Alexandre Dumas’s most popular novels, has astonishing success with readers. The author drew its plot from the archives of the Paris police. The real life of a shoemaker, François Picaud—who became the prototype of Edmond Dantès—under the pen of a true artist turned into a thrilling book about a prisoner of the Château d’If and a Parisian angel of vengeance.