The Black Tulip

De: Alexandre Dumas

Narrado por: Rosalyn Landor

"A gleam, like that of lightning, passed across the scaffold: it was the executioner raising his sword...."

Alexandre Dumas's novels are notable for their suspense and excitement, their foul deeds, hairsbreadth escapes, and glorious victories. In The Black Tulip, the real hero is no musketeer, but a flower.

The novel, a deceptively simple story, is set in Holland in 1672 during the amazing tulipmania of the 17th century that brought wealth to some and ruin to many. The story weaves the historical events surrounding the brutal murder of John de Witte and his brother Cornelius into a tale of romantic love. The novel is also a timeless political allegory in which Dumas, drawing on the violence and crimes of history, makes his case against tyranny and puts all his energies into creating a symbol of justice and tolerance: the fateful tulipa negra.

Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

riveting and exciting

This story will keep you guessing and cursing the name of the antagonist. Narration is well recorded, hover the narrator tries to offer different voices for the various characters which can be annoying.

Superb performance of a good story

The story is good, with a different setting - both time and place - from the other Dumas books I’m familiar with. The plot line was good, though as the story progressed the end was predictable. The characters are well-developed, and brought to life so much more by Rosalyn Landor’s superb reading. It is rare to find a woman who can do the male voices so well. This narrator did an amazing job of it and I wish that she narrated more books aside from the romances she does, which are not my usual fare. Actually, this is a romance, too, but I would say that is not the main point of the story.