The Count of Monte Cristo

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.

This review is about the recording quality, not about the book. It is obvious that this recording is very old. While the narrator does a good job it is not up to par with today's high quality recorded books. The audio of the narration is not as "close up" as more recent audio books sound. You can also clearly hear pages turn throughout the audiobook. Also the narrator messes up throughout the book and corrects himself. So while he does a good job reading it, it has more of the feel like your grandpa reading you a story next to a warm fire. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not the quality of some of the newer audiobooks out there.

This was first time listening to this classic. I saw the movie version and I thought I knew it all. The book is 100 times better. I will admit I missed a lot the first time I listened ( I listen at work and in the car) So to get a better handle on all the many characters, I went to wikapedia. I read the short version and I listened a second time. Loved it more. It has it all love, deceit, good wins over evil and a handsome rich guy!

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.

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.

I borrowed an unabridged version of this from the local library many years ago and wanted to own a copy for myself. This wasn't the same narrator, but I liked this one so much better. The pronunciations of the foreign words sounded authentic, even with the narrator occasionally correcting himself. If I closed my eyes I could imagine myself as a child having my grandfather reading to me at bedtime. The story is the original 'revenge is a dish best served cold' example. Dumas is a favorite of mine, his attention to detail borders on obsessive, but adds so much to the story line that no fault can be found. All in all, this is an outstanding value for the money!

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.

This is one of my top five favorite books I have ever read. Hearing this audio version felt like someone was actually reading to you; the sounds of paper being turned and the slight stumbles didn't once pull me away from such a wonderful tale of revenge. All the little things like that put me in a mind set of sitting in a bookstore or library and listening to someone read to me as a child. The narrator has no problem switching voices between characters as he reads, and each sentence is heard as clearly as the previous one. For how long this audiobook is, and for how well it is read, you get more than your money's worth and this should be in every listener's collection.

I had only seen the movies before listening to this book. That usually spoils a book for me. This book, though, has all the elements that make a REAL classic! The characters are well developed and I loved and hated them. The lessons were not didactic, but easy to relate to my own circumstances. The scenes are well painted and interesting. The language is inspiring.

There were some minor imperfections in the reading-but those all made it more cozy in my opinion. I love, love this narrator! I love his style, I love his voice, I would love to sit at his knee and listen to him all day! I kind of did.

The story is amazing and the old English readers really add to the feel.

Edmund/The Count - One of the greatest characters of all time!

Great Accent!

When Dantes lifts up Morrel's family from ruin.

Listen at 1.5x speed. My only complaint is that the narration is a bit slow, but thanks to audible adding speed choices that is completely remedied.