
The Black Count
Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Paul Michael
-
By:
-
Tom Reiss
About this listen
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • ONE OF ESQUIRE’S BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME
General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution—until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.
The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible." But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Orientalist
- Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated across fascist Europe.
-
-
The essential but mostly forgotten history leading up to the Russian and German revolutions of the 20th century
- By mark on 05-11-21
By: Tom Reiss
-
The River of Doubt
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
-
-
This audiobook deserves 6 stars
- By D. Littman on 11-15-05
By: Candice Millard
-
The Tiger
- A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
- By: John Vaillant
- Narrated by: John Vaillant
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: The tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
-
-
Thy Fearful Symmetry
- By Mel on 02-16-13
By: John Vaillant
-
Empire of Deception
- The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
- By: Dean Jobb
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination, Chicago's corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million.
-
-
Incredible Tale!
- By electricblue201 on 10-11-15
By: Dean Jobb
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
-
The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Alexandre Dumas, William Robson - translator
- Narrated by: Guy Mott
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.
-
-
terrible narrator. every comma is a 3 second pause
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-21
By: Alexandre Dumas, and others
-
The Orientalist
- Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated across fascist Europe.
-
-
The essential but mostly forgotten history leading up to the Russian and German revolutions of the 20th century
- By mark on 05-11-21
By: Tom Reiss
-
The River of Doubt
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
-
-
This audiobook deserves 6 stars
- By D. Littman on 11-15-05
By: Candice Millard
-
The Tiger
- A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
- By: John Vaillant
- Narrated by: John Vaillant
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: The tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
-
-
Thy Fearful Symmetry
- By Mel on 02-16-13
By: John Vaillant
-
Empire of Deception
- The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
- By: Dean Jobb
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies thrived, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination, Chicago's corrupt political leaders fraternized with gangsters, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million.
-
-
Incredible Tale!
- By electricblue201 on 10-11-15
By: Dean Jobb
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
-
The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Alexandre Dumas, William Robson - translator
- Narrated by: Guy Mott
- Length: 27 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young nobleman d’Artagnan has arrived in Paris intent on joining the guardians of King Louis XIII. He befriends the regiment’s most formidable musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and together they unite in their commitment to uphold justice. Soon, a royal indiscretion thrusts them into an audacious escapade of courtly intrigue, thwarted romance, and daring rescue. But it’s the Machiavellian schemes of a powerful enemy and the wicked seductions of an ingenious female spy that will be their greatest challenges.
-
-
terrible narrator. every comma is a 3 second pause
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-21
By: Alexandre Dumas, and others
-
Shadow Divers
- The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat, complete with its crew of 60 men, not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew.
-
-
GRIPPING!
- By Douglas on 07-03-04
By: Robert Kurson
-
Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
-
-
A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
-
Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 48 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow reveals in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
-
-
Excellent Book (BUT WHERE IS THE PDF FILES)????
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-17
By: Ron Chernow
-
Alexander Hamilton
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.
-
-
An Outstanding & Riveting Book!
- By Kevin on 03-04-05
By: Ron Chernow
-
Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 32 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.
-
-
What a dynamo!
- By Tad Davis on 01-16-15
By: Andrew Roberts
-
Tale of Two Cities
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Paul Adams
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unjustly imprisoned for 18 years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette is reunited with his daughter, Lucie, and safely transported from France to England. It would seem that they could take up the threads of their lives in peace. As fate would have it though, the pair are summoned to the Old Bailey to testify against a young Frenchman - Charles Darnay - falsely accused of treason. Strangely enough, Darnay bears an uncanny resemblance to another man in the courtroom, the dissolute lawyer's clerk Sydney Carton. It is a coincidence that saves Darnay from certain doom more than once.
By: Charles Dickens
-
Bolivar
- American Liberator
- By: Marie Arana
- Narrated by: David Crommett
- Length: 20 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known in the United States. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback to do so, and became the greatest figure in Latin American history. His life is epic, heroic, straight out of Hollywood: he fought battle after battle in punishing terrain, forged uncertain coalitions of competing forces and races, lost his beautiful wife soon after they married and died relatively young, uncertain whether his achievements would endure.
-
-
There will be blood.
- By Joselo on 08-02-13
By: Marie Arana
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
Begin Again
- James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
- By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Narrated by: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.
-
-
I Understand.
- By Carrie Johnson on 07-01-20
-
The Immortal Irishman
- The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York - the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America.
-
-
Yes, but....
- By Dale and Carol on 04-01-16
By: Timothy Egan
Critic reviews
"From pike-wielding mobs to prisoners locked in a fortress tower, The Black Count, a fascinating, detailed account of the life of Alexandre Dumas' father, is as action packed as The Count of Monte Cristo. Unlike Dumas' famous adventure novel, however, Reiss' incredible tale is true." (Candice Millard, New York Times best-selling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic)
2013, NAACP Image Award, Nominated
2012, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Finalist
2013, PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, Short-listed
2013, Phillis Wheatley Book Award, Short-listed
2012, Plutarch Award, Finalist
2013, Pulitzer Prize, Winner
“Rousing and thought-provoking, The Black Count is an adventure like no other. I marveled at every twist and turn of this remarkable true story, brought to life with the charm and personal touch that has become the trademark of Tom Reiss.” (Laurence Bergreen, New York Times bestselling author of Columbus and Over the Edge of the World)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Orientalist
- Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated across fascist Europe.
-
-
The essential but mostly forgotten history leading up to the Russian and German revolutions of the 20th century
- By mark on 05-11-21
By: Tom Reiss
-
Toms River
- A Story of Science and Salvation
- By: Dan Fagin
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of New Jersey’s seemingly innumerable quiet seaside towns, Toms River became the unlikely setting for a decades-long drama that culminated in 2001 with one of the largest legal settlements in the annals of toxic dumping. A town that would rather have been known for its Little League World Series champions ended up making history for an entirely different reason: a notorious cluster of childhood cancers scientifically linked to local air and water pollution.
-
-
Toms River Resident
- By Beezie Reader on 04-22-13
By: Dan Fagin
-
Shadow Divers
- The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat, complete with its crew of 60 men, not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew.
-
-
GRIPPING!
- By Douglas on 07-03-04
By: Robert Kurson
-
B. J. Harrison Reads The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: -, B. J. Harrison
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edmond Dantes is falsely accused of treason on the day of his marriage. He is directly imprisoned in the fortress of If without any investigations being conducted. Edmond does not give up and he is determined to find his way out. The endpoint is the Isle of Monte Cristo which hides a great fortune.
-
-
The voice characterization was exquisite.
- By Jennifer King on 01-14-24
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Teddy Garraway
- Length: 48 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it was expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet. The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France.
-
-
Tolerable
- By Nick Loughman on 03-13-25
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Orphan Master's Son
- A Novel
- By: Adam Johnson
- Narrated by: Tim Kang, Josiah D. Lee, James Kyson Lee, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
-
-
The most compelling listen I've ever owned
- By Lisa on 01-27-12
By: Adam Johnson
-
The Orientalist
- Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated across fascist Europe.
-
-
The essential but mostly forgotten history leading up to the Russian and German revolutions of the 20th century
- By mark on 05-11-21
By: Tom Reiss
-
Toms River
- A Story of Science and Salvation
- By: Dan Fagin
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of New Jersey’s seemingly innumerable quiet seaside towns, Toms River became the unlikely setting for a decades-long drama that culminated in 2001 with one of the largest legal settlements in the annals of toxic dumping. A town that would rather have been known for its Little League World Series champions ended up making history for an entirely different reason: a notorious cluster of childhood cancers scientifically linked to local air and water pollution.
-
-
Toms River Resident
- By Beezie Reader on 04-22-13
By: Dan Fagin
-
Shadow Divers
- The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat, complete with its crew of 60 men, not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew.
-
-
GRIPPING!
- By Douglas on 07-03-04
By: Robert Kurson
-
B. J. Harrison Reads The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: -, B. J. Harrison
- Length: 52 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Edmond Dantes is falsely accused of treason on the day of his marriage. He is directly imprisoned in the fortress of If without any investigations being conducted. Edmond does not give up and he is determined to find his way out. The endpoint is the Isle of Monte Cristo which hides a great fortune.
-
-
The voice characterization was exquisite.
- By Jennifer King on 01-14-24
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Teddy Garraway
- Length: 48 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (père) completed in 1844. It is one of the author's most popular works, along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it was expanded from plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet. The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the historical events of 1815–1839: the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France.
-
-
Tolerable
- By Nick Loughman on 03-13-25
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The Orphan Master's Son
- A Novel
- By: Adam Johnson
- Narrated by: Tim Kang, Josiah D. Lee, James Kyson Lee, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
-
-
The most compelling listen I've ever owned
- By Lisa on 01-27-12
By: Adam Johnson
-
The Tiger
- A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
- By: John Vaillant
- Narrated by: John Vaillant
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: The tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
-
-
Thy Fearful Symmetry
- By Mel on 02-16-13
By: John Vaillant
-
Lords of Finance
- The Bankers Who Broke the World
- By: Liaquat Ahamed
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
-
-
interesting insight into interwar period!
- By Toru on 11-27-09
By: Liaquat Ahamed
-
The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: Frederick Winfield
- Length: 39 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the eve of his wedding to the beautiful Mercedes, Edmond Dantès is betrayed by jealous rivals and wrongfully imprisoned for treason. Locked away in the dreadful Château d'If, he spends years plotting his escape and planning a brilliant revenge against those who destroyed his life. As the mysterious and powerful Count of Monte Cristo, he returns to exact justice, but along the way, he faces his own vulnerability.
-
-
Adventure!
- By Amanda on 02-11-25
By: Alexandre Dumas
-
The River of Doubt
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
-
-
This audiobook deserves 6 stars
- By D. Littman on 11-15-05
By: Candice Millard
-
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
- By: Richard Flanagan
- Narrated by: David Atlas
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
August, 1943: Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. His life, in a brutal Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma Death Railway, is a daily struggle to save the men under his command. Until he receives a letter that will change him forever.
-
-
The vanity and stupidity of the author
- By Off The Grid on 01-12-24
By: Richard Flanagan
-
Inventor of the Future
- The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller
- By: Alec Nevala-Lee
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During his lifetime, Buckminster Fuller was hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the twentieth century. As the architectural designer and futurist best known for the geodesic dome, he enthralled a vast popular audience, inspired devotion from both the counterculture and the establishment, and was praised as a modern Leonardo da Vinci. To his admirers, he exemplified what one man could accomplish by approaching urgent design problems using a radically unconventional set of strategies, which he based on a mystical conception of the universe’s geometry.
-
-
I learned much about Buckminster Fuller!
- By Richard J. Chandler on 09-12-22
By: Alec Nevala-Lee
-
The Underground Railroad (Television Tie-in)
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
-
-
Stupendous book, hard to follow in audio
- By JQR on 12-01-16
By: Colson Whitehead
-
The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
-
-
Who spoke for the black boys?
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: Colson Whitehead
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
The author masterfully gives us 2 hours of background in the centuries leading up to the birth of Dumas' father known as "The Black Count" and then the unlikely story of Dumas' rise to fame, not only because he was a genius of a writer. He was a grand character (both men, really) in this snappy rendition of the slightly mysterious Alexander Dumas... a huge celebrity during his time here who left this world at much too young of an age.
I don't like to give away everything in a review, and I'll continue that tradition here, but if you are a lover of Dumas' books as I am (TCOMC is my favorite book of all time), then you will love this well told story of how it came to be that an obese mulatto becomes one of the most cherished authors of all time and a major celebrity during his all too brief life in Paris.
This is a great book for history lovers, biography lovers and really, anyone interested in black culture or in ancient France (and how their policies toward blacks may have shaped our own 200 years ago) and just about anyone else. It is a joyous, intriguing story of how one of how this great, great author came to be and lived his life and how his father's life shaped his own. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's one of the best books I have listened to in so long. I am giving 5 stars for narration, but it's nothing special, except that it is expertly done. It's a straightforward read, since there are no "characters" to play. It's the story that really shines here.
By all means, treat yourself to this wonderful little known bit of history. You will be a richer person for doing it. And if you haven't read the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo yet, you won't be able to resist after this. I'll probably have to re-listen to it now. Be sure to look for the one read by John Lee, available on Audible.com, which is so masterfully read and executed.
~~ML
The story behind the greatest novelist of all time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you could sum up The Black Count in three words, what would they be?
History made palpable.What was one of the most memorable moments of The Black Count?
The most poignantly memorable story in the book was of the Alex Dumas statue in Paris being paid for by Sarah Bernhardt and another individual (whose name escapes me) to honor the memory Alex Dumas. It almost mirrored the sad history of the man himself. The statue was built, but was not officially opened and was ultimately destroyed by Nazi despots during WWII.Which scene was your favorite?
Alex Dumas holding off the Austrians at the pass.If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
It doesn't need a tagline, as the title is perfect!Any additional comments?
I don't know what possessed Tom Reiss to research this book so carefully and write it, but I thank him for doing so. If I taught history, I would use this book in my class!Excellent historical perspective
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Where does The Black Count rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The best history I've listened to on Audible.Who was your favorite character and why?
The CountWhat does Paul Michael bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Clarity and pronunciation of the French names, places and words.If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
The book's tag line is great.Any additional comments?
Would love to discover other untold stories of historical characters of color.An important historical portrait
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Real Count of Monte Cristino
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Nourishing and informative
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very Enjoyable!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wow
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
History!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What made the experience of listening to The Black Count the most enjoyable?
The descriptions of events are wonderful and well acted in the audiobook, even if he is just reading a memoir.Enjoyable story and I was learning history :)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.