The Count of Monte Cristo was originally published in serial form, and was a huge success. People would wait in long lines to buy the latest installment. Within a few months the novel was translated into ten languages. Dumas had also published another extremely successful novel, The Three Musketeers, in the same year. With the publication of The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas became famous worldwide. In Europe, his literary reputation was higher than that of Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo.

The Count of Monte Cristo has remained popular with readers for over 150 years, and is often considered to be Dumas's masterpiece. Writing in 1902, H. A. Spurr (The Life and Writings of Alexandre Dumas) stated that the theme of the novel "is taught so effectively, so honestly, and on so great a scale, that the book has a moral value which should preserve it from oblivion...