The Count of Monte Cristo (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: Guy Mott

After fourteen years of wrongful imprisonment, merchant sailor Edmond Dantès escapes his grim island fortress. With the promises of youth erased and his betrothed now married to someone else, Dantès lives for one purpose: revenge. Thanks to a benevolent prison confidante who reveals the location of a hidden treasure, Dantès buys his way, unrecognized, into society. Adopting a new identity as the Count of Monte Cristo, he sets out to destroy the rivals who framed him for treason. But the count’s obsessive quest could have irrevocable consequences for the innocent - and for himself.

What unfolds is an epic tale of breathtaking intrigue and righteous retribution from Alexandre Dumas, the nineteenth-century master of high adventure.

Public Domain (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

A True Classic of Literature

A fantastic story, worth listening to. The accents for each character made it very easy to identify them, but sometimes were too forced and overbearing.

Thrilling Ride

This is an amazing story with fantastic narration! At times heart wrenching, at others inspiring and hopeful.

A Revenge Story Changed

The Count of Monte Cristo – by Alexandre Dumas

Written in the 1840s, The Count of Monte Cristo carries the same historical gravity found in Les Misérables and War and Peace, with Europe’s enduring fascination with Napoleon forming part of its backdrop. Napoleon seems to live at the center of great stories, and this novel is no exception.

The world Dumas creates is one of aristocratic life — theaters, balls, social maneuvering — where reputation and perception matter deeply. This feels familiar to War and Peace, where personal lives and historical forces intertwine.

At its core, however, this is a revenge story — one that unfolds so slowly and deliberately that, at times, you almost forget it is happening, even though you know it is. The story has lived for nearly 200 years, and its plot is widely known, yet Dumas still manages to build tension through careful layering and delayed revelation.

There is also a distinctly Shakespearean quality to the novel. Disguises, mistaken identities, love entanglements, and heightened emotion recall works like The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night, while the text itself echoes Hamlet.

But beneath all of these layers — history, revenge, and social drama — lies something more tender. At its heart, this is a story about love, forgiveness, patience, and hope.

I greatly enjoyed the entire saga. For its breadth, intricate storytelling, and layered meaning — all built on top of a powerful moral message — I rank it #15 in my personal canon.

Intriguing classic with perfect narration!

Guy Mott has with this performance become one of my favourite narrators. Works at normal and 2x speed for me and was a pleasure to listen to.

Great story, fair translation, bad narration

Regarding the story, it's great. It's a "page-turner" that I went back and forth listening and reading. It's thoroughly enjoyable. The translation is pretty good. It's more simplified than other versions.

Now, onto the narration. It was not good for this book. The narrator is engaging and can do a good amount of varied voices. The problem is that the accents are horrendous. He used all kinds of accents liberally. British, and absolutely horrendous French and Italian. It was just so bad that it's grating on the ear. The Italian sounded like he was trying to be Dracula. for such a long audiobook, choose your narrator wisely. Listen to the previews.