The Tontine

By: Thomas B. Costain

Narrated by: David Case

Tontine is a form of gambling - part lottery, part insurance. It begins with the Day the Battle of Waterloo was fought and ends at the closing of the 19th Century.

Fantastic character and historical details

Patience is needed as the story builds and background of the characters is established. It is a very rewarding wait with lots of twist and turns of the story and the many participants involved in it. I enjoyed it very much!

Excellent novel

Lots of plots and subplots. Great characterizations. Interesting main story. Impressive narration by David case. Definitely recommended.

Great epic story

I will keep this short. The story is great. It follows families over generations and I loved that. The only bad part was that there were long silences in the reading. And I wondered if my app stopped working. Then it would pick up with the reading again. And this wasn’t always at the end of a chapter. It was strange and distracting. But if you can get over that (and I recommend you do...) it’s a wonderful, wonderful story.

Sprawls Over Most of a Century

Any additional comments?

This is a good book if you like really long novels which encompass [in this case] two families over most of a century. It begins just as the Battle of Waterloo is underway, and ends shortly before the 20th century. Large cast of characters -- sometimes a little hard to remember who is who. Costain is a competent writer, but I must admit that David Case is not one of my favorite readers, although he is somewhat better than usual with this book [the only other book I think he did really well was Margaret George's "Autobiography of Henry VIII"]. He can do accents, but his normal reading voice has a supercilious drawl to it.

Inevitably, the main characters age, and so there is more emphasis on them in their later years -- the whole plot revolves around who will survive the longest and win the "tontine", a form of gamble where the oldest survivor will get the most money out of the scheme. This means considerable dialogue where voices are quavering [and even rambling].

Definitely a "big read".

19th century, 2d rate

What did you love best about The Tontine?

The beginning looked rather good and David Case commands the twelve most interesting voices in narrative art.

If you’ve listened to books by Thomas B. Costain before, how does this one compare?

His best work is his non-fiction.

Which scene was your favorite?

The early chapters, while the author had energy and imagination firing on all cylinders and while the characters were believable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Hardly, at 41 hours.

Any additional comments?

It not only evokes 19th century literature; it copies it. It parades one super-human after another, all making speeches to each other that no one would actually recite. Everyone is just too wonderful for words in this world of loves at first sight and over-blown pledges of eternal loyalty. It would be quaint if it was actually written in the 1800's. As it is though, Costain has managed to re-create the worst traits of the period. Compare with Jane Austin, whose characters are conflicted, wonderful, awful, strong and weak at the same time. Compare with Patrick O'Brien for whom the most heroic characters have the most gaping flaws. On top of it all, there is hardly a chuckle per chapter unless it is provided by the narrator, David Case, whose name drew me to the book in the first place.