Love, patience, murder, betrayal, and most of all revenge, to name a few. The story, apart from the monumental digressions, the seemingly unmerited attention to certain characters or details, and the florid prose and dialogue, is a spectacular adventure that touches on all sorts of universal themes. In short, I can't imagine a better reading. I was stupefied throughout by the subtleties in and mastery of each character's voice. His ability to create nuance and breathe life into the book's huge assortment of characters is just outstanding. Now the good: The narrator, Bill Homewood, is quite simply phenomenal. I will also say that despite these two shortcomings, the overall experience is very gratifying, and I'm glad I pushed through to the end. But it also makes me wonder if some of it was written in order to fulfill that demand, and not necessarily because it was essential to the story. And that helps explain its length and intricacy, I suppose. Granted, the book was originally written in serial form, printed chapter by chapter over time and devoured by an eagerly awaiting audience, just as we might do with the latest episode of our favorite TV series. I have heard some people say that they prefer an abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo, and I suspect I agree. However, once the various threads started to come together I was drawn back in and riveted to the end. This is why I gave the story 4 stars instead of 5. Although the story is much revered as a classic, and, in my opinion, rightly so in many respects, I found certain stretches to be interminable and boring, laying down an unbelievably intricate web of intrigue that sometimes seems to have nothing to do with what went before, and only has its payoff much later. Second, it took me a very, very long time to finish this audiobook. Can Naxos not afford studio time? Can they not think about putting the mic a bit further away from the bird? Or, bear with me.what if we put the birdcage in this house over here, and record the 52-hour audiobook over here in this recording studio? My first instinct was to try to return it and get another version, but I kept listening, and to be honest, after a while it didn't bother me at all (probably because of the reader's jaw-dropping performance). I marveled at the fact that the engineer (or the company behind him/her) could allow such unfavorable recording conditions. Also, you can hear the faint chirping of a bird in the background. But with decent headphones in my ears, it sounded like the narrator was in a cavern, or perhaps a high-ceiling house. Let me get the bad out of the way: First, when I started listening, I was immediately dismayed to hear an echo in the recording that I had not noticed when listening to the sample. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this one, although in general I rate it highly. Superior performance of a very intricate story I suggest you choose this reading of the book and sit back, relax and enjoy. If you have a taste for epic revenge and adventure stories, then this is for you. The book itself? It's a classic for a reason. It's an absolute joy to listen to him narrate the work with such talent for voices and accents, and it's really easy to follow along with what's happening since the voices are so distinct. Listen to the sample all the way until the end, and you'll hear that he expertly crafts a UNIQUE voice for EVERY character, and gives each character a vibrant portrayal. Now listen to THIS recording instead, by Bill Homewood. I assure you that nearly 50 hours of the same monotone voice, where every character blends together, is not the best way to experience the book. Most of the time you can't even hear the difference between him narrating the story or speaking a character's lines. Listen to the audio sample of that version, and you'll be treated to a monotone reading where -every-single-character-sounds-exactly-the-same. Now, at first glance, the John Lee version seems more energetic and might seem superior, but that's absolutely wrong. * This one by Naxos Audiobooks, released in 2011, narrated by Bill Homewood, and * Blackstone Audio's version, released in 2008, narrated by John Lee. There are two fantastic Unabridged recordings of this book on Audible.
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