The Count of Monte Cristo

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: Bill Homewood

Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

On the eve of his marriage to the beautiful Mercedes, having that very day been made captain of his ship, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on a charge of treason, trumped up by jealous rivals. Incarcerated for many lonely years in the isolated and terrifying Chateau d'If near Marseille, he meticulously plans his brilliant escape and extraordinary revenge.

Of all the "masked avengers" and "caped crusaders" in literature, The Count of Monte Cristo is at once the most daring and the most vulnerable. Alexandre Dumas (père), master storyteller, takes us on a journey of adventure, romance, intrigue, and ultimately, redemption.

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Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos Audiobooks

Brilliant story

This is one of the best stories I've ever read. I love it. Dumas is a master at weaving a network of characters and events into an action packed story. It's a must read. Some of the best character development in any story.

Great narration-- but needs better audio editing!

Would you listen to The Count of Monte Cristo again? Why?

Bill Homewood is indeed a wonderful narrator, but the audio editing leaves something to be desired. As a filmmaker who is very used to editing voiceover audio files, I found all the breaths, lip licking and other VO artifacts extremely distracting. It's a shame because these are easily edited out to create a very clean audio file.

What did you like best about this story?

The story is a classic. Wonderful story.

What about Bill Homewood’s performance did you like?

Despite the bad audio editing, Bill Homewood himself is a wonderful narrator who breathes life into every character.

A Great Classic

The classic revenge story, amazing how everything was interweaved with one another. The performer does a fantastic job differentiating the characters. The only thing I would mark down is that he reads a bit slow, I bumped it up to 1.25x and it was perfect.

Classic

This book is a classic obviously! But a good narrator makes all the difference, and Bill did a fantastic job. For a 50 hour commitment I look forward to every minute.

My new favorite book

Hesitate because it's over 50 hours? I did! Worth it? YES! This is one of the best books I ever wrote

definitely a classic best I've read

the movies do not do it Justice it is an amazing book I love it

This Never Gets Old

I purchased this to refresh my memory of the story so that I could talk about it with my son, who was reading it for school. So, I anticipated the need to push myself through it. Well, I was swept away. I kept looking for opportunities to listen. It's a well-constructed epic that will engage most readers and the narration is well-done.

One minor nit-pick with the story might be the near perfection of Edmond Dantes. The man is brilliant. There is nothing he cannot do and there doesn't seem to be a topic with which he's not familiar. He is engineering a sophisticated revenge plot against those who destroyed his life and yet nothing ever seems to confuse his plans. It's not a big deal and it doesn't ruin the story. It just made me laugh a bit and occasionally broke the spell of the narrative.

However, you should get this book. You obvious love to read and, if you're enjoying a story, you don't want it to end too soon. The Count of Monte Cristo won't let you down. I promise.

perfectly complex!

This narrator did an excellent job with this book. he made the 53 hours tolerable. it is not the easiest book to read or listen to but it is an excellent story for those who will perceive to the end.

Unputdownable!

It's no wonder this was a wildly popular classic! Written with chapters that move like an epic soap opera- the narrator paints every character so vividly-it's unbelievably complicated & beautiful & adventurous. It's tragic and beautiful and strange in an old, romantic way that has nothing to do with love, but a glorious, heartbreaking pursuit of revenge. Glad I downloaded this version with a narrator that gave each character a distinct voice that was easy to distinguish even chapters and decades later!

Absolutely Fabulous!

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

The story itself is compelling, but Bill Homewood's narration is top notch, start to finish!

What did you like best about this story?

I liked that these people's lives were a house of cards ready to fall, with or without the Count.

Have you listened to any of Bill Homewood’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not. But I would search him out as a narrator again. If there were several narrations available to a book I was looking for, and he was among them, I would purchase that book with no hesitation.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This book has had many film adaptions. Some ok, some downright bad. The book is the best.