Alexandre Dumas 
The Count of Monte Cristo 

In 1815 Edmond Dantes, a young and successful merchant sailor who has just recently been granted the succession of his erstwhile captain Leclere, returns to Marseille to marry his Catalan fiancée Mercedes. Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration.