Queen Margot

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: Robert Whitfield

Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The last years of King Charles IX's reign in France were dominated by religious wars between Catholics and Protestants. Queen Margot begins in 1572 with the marriage of Marguerite de Valois to Henri de Navarre. Marguerite is King Charles' sister and the daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medici, all firm Catholics. Henri de Navarre is a Protestant who later will become the beloved King Henri IV.
Several important political events have led up to this marriage including the mysterious murder of Henri de Navarre's mother, cleverly plotted by Catherine de Medici. The wedding brings noblemen from all over the world to Paris resulting in the notorious Saint Bartholomew Massacre, where thousands of Protestants are killed.
In this inventive and compelling novel, Dumas brings an extraordinary period of history vividly to life with much excitement and romance. The lively prose and wonderfully constructed plot tell of court intrigues and forbidden love, of beautiful queens, duchesses, and noblemen, suspense, conspiracies, betrayals, assassinations, superstitions, poisonings, and sumptuous feasts.
With well-known historical figures as main characters in a dangerous and breathtaking game for power, Queen Margot tells of conspiracies, clandestine trysts, and daring escapes. There is the infamous Catherine de Medici, deliciously evil, constantly plotting and poisoning; Le Mole, a dashing and irresistable young Protestant who becomes Marguerite's lover; the noble Coconnos who provides a great source of comic relief; and at the center of all this intrigue are the good-hearted Marguerite and Henri who are perfect political allies with complicated and fascinating love lives.

(P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Don't bother.

This was very disappointing. Frivilous plot, feeble characters, unsatisfying and vague ending. Seems like Dumas, whose work I love, was so bored with it himself he decided to just abruptly end it and move on.

White noise, otherwise good

The recording is low quality, but both the story and the narrator were wonderful. I recommend it.

Not Dumas best

Dumas is one of my favorites. This book is not his best. The story is convoluted.

A Dumas classic!

A marvelous classic story. Dumas at his best!
My only complaint that the editing was poorly done. there were places where the narrator repeated lines and in some cases certain words were repeated several times. other than that the narrator performed quite well.

Not Dumas' best

but still a compelling romance full of political intrigue.

A fascinating history -- and Dumas as well

Le bon roi Henri is the most beloved king in France's history. Catherine de Medici is one of the most despised (rightly or wrongly) figures of the Renaissance, the archetype schemer and poisoner. La reine Margot became one of the fairy tale princesses of French history. All because of this book. It's a great story, a true story, mostly, and Dumas is the greatest storyteller in history. Unfortunately, the gallant style is not Robert Whitfield's (Simon Vance's) forte, but he still does a passable job. It's worth the money/credit. I would bet that you listen to this more than once in your life.

An engrossing read...

I selected this book because it was "on sale," thinking it would be low risk if I didn't like it. I loved it! The story is engrossing, the narrator excellent. My only gripe is with the sound quality -- there seems to be a lot of background noise/feedback.

Intrigue Gone Wild

The story was interesting but the personal relationships were just too complex to keep track of.

Pre-Musketeer Joy!

I absolutely loved this book. Fast paced swashbuckling adventure, brotherly love and Bromance, Romantic intrigue with beautiful women, and the murderous machinations of Catherine de Medicis! Lust and vengeance at every turn!
What's not to like?
The two Heros are very much in the style of the later humorous and wonderful Musketeers of the 'D'Artagnan' series by Dumas. Those readers, like me, who've craved for similar stories of honour and adventure and the goodness of men against evil, will thoroughly enjoy this book and it's brilliant narrator, Robert Whitfield.

The last French Kings of Valois and their Mum.

Catherine de Medici, mother of Charles of France must vie with Livia, the wife of the Emporer Augustus of Rome (as described in 'I Claudius' by Robert Graves) as the nastiest, most evil woman in European history.

I was reminded too of Eco's 'Name of the Rose' in the attempt to poison Henry that ended with Catherine's murder of her son. I think I could find many other gems of plot that have been developed by later authors in the construction of other authors' subsequent novels.

With great humour Dumas presents us a Grand Melodrama.Though I do not know this, it was possibly published in serial form in the newspapers of his day.

This story written in 1845 is set in the late 1500's. Religious massacres and gross betrayal, contrived by Catherine, follows the diplomatic marriage of her daughter, Margot to the Huguenot King Henry of Navarre. Having lulled the Huguenots to drop their guard the Saint Bartholomew Massacre of the Huguenots begins.

Read so very well by 'Robert Whitfield', I found this Audio far more enjoyable than my reading of the hardcopy and the movie made in the 1990's.