The Count of Monte Cristo

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: Andrew Timothy

Length: 50 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Published in 1844, it is often considered one of the great thrillers of all time and, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas' most popular work.

Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmund Dantes is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Chateau d'If. After staging a dramatic escape, he sets out to discover the treasure of Monte Cristo and catch up with his enemies.

Alexandre Dumas (1802 - 1870) was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure, which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world.

Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.

Public Domain (P)2009 RNIB

Incredible value

The writing is great, of course. The sound quality is good, if casual. (It's not a highly edited production.) The reader is rarely distracting, and usually is very easy to understand, and reads very accurately, with good understated characterizations. (Not overly theatrical.) One thing I look for in an audiobook is that it should good listening not just one time, but many times. You will likely want to listen to this book over and over through the years.
Some of the reader's pronunciations are a bit distracting, you frequently can hear pages being turned, and sometimes the reader corrects himself after misreading a word or phrase. These are not, however, annoying, for the most part. Another reviewer compared it to a "grandfatherly" reading, and I think that is apt.

One of my all time favorite books

I love this book. It has quite a bit of darkness in it, but it is still such a great story of love and revenge. I really don't personally believe in revenge, but I think all of us harbor a secret desire to get even with people who have wronged us. In Dante's case, he is well justified in seeking revenge, and he goes about it in a very calculating way. He does so much good along the way, however, to those deserving of it. Yes, he plays God to some extent, but justifies that by the fact that he prays about what he should do, and because ways are opened up for him to accomplish what he wants,he believes he has God's blessing.

I read this book years ago, and loved it then. It was delightful to get to read it again. Although I rarely reread fiction, I am sure this will not be the last time for this book.

A word about Andrew Timothy, narrator: No, he is not the best narrator I have ever listened to, but neither is he the worst - far from it. I loved listening to him, in spite of his occasional correction of a word, and a little rustling of pages. Big deal! He is a fabulous reader, and like many other reviewers, I felt like my kindly old (and very articulate and intelligent) grandfather was reading it to me. I would take him any day over many other narrators who never make a mistake and never get caught turning a page.

Good story, unbearable narrator

I see that some of the other reviewers likened the narrator to being like having your grandfather read a story to you. However, I found the narrator and the way he narrated to be dull, unimaginative, boring due to too-long pauses between words and phrases, and even annoying. I tried hard to like the story but the narrator detracts from it. The pausing to correct words or pronunciations is blatently unprofessional, which is unlike most other narrated books to which I've listened. I would recommend the book, but not this narrator.

One of my fav. classics.

What made the experience of listening to The Count of Monte Cristo the most enjoyable?

I never read the unabridged. While it got long at times, it is a great tale of slowly sought revenge. It's Drastically different from the movie that came out around 2000, so if you're expecting that plot, you'll be disappointed. I like both versions, but this one wins out.

What other book might you compare The Count of Monte Cristo to and why?

Similar to other French authors like Hugo - he can be long winded with the details, but it's good!

What three words best describe Andrew Timothy’s performance?

He stumbles now and again, but not to a distracting extent. He varies his voices nicely.

My Favorite Book of All Time

I recommend this book to all. All lovers of great stories. It is hard to put into words what this story means and how beloved it is to me.

The Great Tale of Injustice

It is simply one of the greatest tales of injustice, love, and retribution written by a master of the novel. I could not praise enough the writing by Dumas of his brilliantly moving and tragic story, but to be abandoned by the world, alone with "The Count of Monte Cristo", I would survive to read and reread this beautiful book.

Old school sensibilites...

While I have seen many of the movie and tv productions of this piece of work and thought I knew the plot (in a very general way), I could not have been more wrong. For the price and the massive scope of, what I feel, is Dumas' mangnum opus, you will not be disappointed with this reading. This oral edition may not have some of the finished polish of some other editions, since you can clearly hear page turning and there are more than a few stumbled words and sentences, but Andrew Timothy was like listening to your grandfather read you a story and that rather added, than subtracted from the whole fee.
In short, this is the best purchase I have made so far from the enjoyment of the story itself and the reader.

narrator

The narrator was terrible. Fumbling over words and rustling papers when turning pages. Not the best!

amazing 50 hours of book!

this was way better than the abridged book or any of the movies. Dumas is brilliant and understands God's grace near perfection.

Excellent

This is one of my favorite audio books out of hundreds I have listened to. I thought the narration and production fabulous. Yes you hear a page turned now and again, but unless you wear earplugs when reading a book yourself, you're probably used to the sound. And there are some stumbles and stutters, but these issues are non-factors. They did not detract at all from a suspenseful, engaging, and intelligent book. Some people need to settle down about perfection. I'm not a fan of it myself. I think much more often when listening to books that perfect radio voices get old. I don't have a perfect voice, my mother and girlfriend and friends do not either. So it is nice to hear someone slightly less than perfect do a merely excellent job. And for the price difference between this and newer versions, trust me, you'll be happy for those hiccups.