Why is the count pale and cold?

I am about a third a way through the book. One thing I find a bit strange is Edmond Dantes strange transmogrification from pleasant young man to a sort of vampire. He's described as having a pale pallor and a cold, clammy touch. You have prison pallor when you first come out of prison, but it goes away when you've been in the sun a bit. I don't know why he'd be cold to touch. Never mind, it's only fiction.

Dantes was cold to the touch due to his days aboard the Le Pharaon. He was particularly clammy at low tide.

I thought Monté Cristo sounded somewhat vampirish even before the characters started comparing him to one. Monté Cristo takes it in good part. There's a Comtess G_ who calls him Lord Ruthven. The Count hears about it but is not upset. I like Comtess G_. There's no doubting she is an open character.

I think I read of a Lord Ruthven in a book called Anno Dracula. Wikipedia says Lord Ruthven was a vampire from a John William Polidori story. He originated in the same horror story competition in which Mary Shelly thought up Frankenstein. I think until Count Dracula came along, Lord Ruthven was the world's foremost vampire, unless it was my namesake, Varney the Vampire.