Synopses & Reviews
This brilliant recasting of the classic story The Count of Monte Cristo centers on Ned Maddstone, a happy, charismatic, Oxford-bound seventeen-year-old whose rosy future is virtually pre-ordained. Handsome, confident, and talented, newly in love with bright, beautiful Portia, his father an influential MP, Ned leads a charmed life. But privilege makes him an easy target for envy, and in the course of one day Neds destiny is forever altered. A promise made to a dying teacher combined with a prank devised by a jealous classmate mutates bewilderingly into a case of mistaken arrest and incarceration. Ned finds himself a political prisoner in a nightmarish exile that lasts years, until a fellow inmate reawakens Neds intellect and resurrects his will to live. The chilling consequences of Neds recovery are felt worldwide.
Review
"[A] highly readable, if thoroughly hokey story....[Mr. Fry] narrates his story with great brio and panache....[He] has written a silly, often preposterous book with a filched plot and a derivative hero. But in the process he has once again proven that he is an entertainer of the very first rank." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"[A] highly satisfying political thriller whose overt resemblances to Dumas' work underscore the claustrophobic and paranoid chills." Connie Fletcher, Booklist
Review
"[A] bald description does not do justice to the novel's brilliant execution, diminished only by a protagonist who is not very likable and the absence of true conflict as he carries out his revenge. Still, this is a highly intelligent and well-written story..." Library Journal
Review
"Most of...Fry's modernized update of The Count of Monte Cristo is engrossing and witty....The story couldn't be more fun until vengeance time. Ned's subsequent ploys lead to the unlikely murders and suicides of characters whose complexities are squandered for the sake of a tidy ending." Steve Wilson, Book Magazine
Review
"It's an old story...but Fry...has the wit and erudition to make it run like a well-made pocket watch. Be warned: the vengeance promised by the title has an unabashedly nasty flavor that's distinctly British and quite refreshing." Newsweek
Review
"In his first attempt at thriller writing, British actor-novelist Stephen Fry doesn't stumble at all....Revenge is sweet." People
Review
"A brisk thriller...smooth, clever, bittersweet, and dramatically entertaining." The Seattle Times
About the Author
Stephen Fry is the author of three previous novels and a memoir. As an actor he has been featured in numerous films, including Gosford Park, A Civil Action, and Wilde, in which he played the title role, and in such popular English TV series as Jeeves and Wooster, Black Adder, and A Bit of Fry and Laurie. He lives in London.