Taking as its subject Alexandre Dumas’s $Le\; Comte\; de\; Monte-Cristo$ (1844-46), this article explores what the literary critic Alfred Nettement dubbed the newspaper’s ‘influence contagieuse’ under the July Monarchy, and considers the impact of journalism on this ever-popular $roman-feuilleton$. Reading Dumas’s text alongside the writings of nineteenth-century critics, the article traces the ways in which $Monte-Cristo$ reflects on the pressures and rhythms of serial publication – not simply as a consequence of its structure but as a thematic concern crucial to particular strands of its meandering narrative. The problem of endings is central here, with $Monte-Cristo$ emblematic of the ways in which the possibility of closure is repeatedly deferred in the $roman-feuilleton$ – replaced, instead, by a series of suites.