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A Prisoner of Birth
If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson on any other day, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the prosecution witnesses happen to be a group of four upper-crust college friends—a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm’s history—who is going to believe Dann
...moreMass Market Paperback, 624 pages
Published
December 2nd 2008
by St. Martin's Paperbacks
(first published January 1st 2008)
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In an interview included in my edition of this book, James Archer (born 1940) said that this novel is a contemporary retelling of Alexander Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo. Since I have not read yet the said classic book, I checked its synopsis in Wikipedia. It seems that Archer did a good job by using the plot but making it current by putting his personal touch on it.
Among the different literary genres, I must admit that suspense thriller and romance are my least favorites. I love r...more
Among the different literary genres, I must admit that suspense thriller and romance are my least favorites. I love r...more
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Wow! I felt like a 13 year old reading the final installment of Harry Potter. Other than bathroom breaks and a quick dinner, I did not put this book down. Jeffrey Archer is a master with characters, twists and storys within storys. I am going to write a novel like this as soon as I can!
الرائع جيفري أرتشر في احد كتبة الاربعه المترجمة للعربيه
أكثر ما يتمكن منة الكاتب هو قدرتة علي الحكي و نسج التفاصيل الصغيرة الكثيرة ليترك لك لغز هنا و موقف صادم هناك و صدفة تغير مجري الاحداث في جزء آخر
يتشابة بالفعل احد اعمده الروايه الرئيسية مع رائعه الكسندر دوماس الكونت دي مونت كريستو الا ان سجين بالميلاد تكاد تكون النسخة المحدثة منها في عالم اليوم لكن هذا لا يقلل علي الاطلاق من متعه الروايه
يعرف جيفري ارتشر كيف يجعلك ملتصقا بمقعدك و تواصل القراءه و يعرف كيف يجعلك تنتهي من ...more
أكثر ما يتمكن منة الكاتب هو قدرتة علي الحكي و نسج التفاصيل الصغيرة الكثيرة ليترك لك لغز هنا و موقف صادم هناك و صدفة تغير مجري الاحداث في جزء آخر
يتشابة بالفعل احد اعمده الروايه الرئيسية مع رائعه الكسندر دوماس الكونت دي مونت كريستو الا ان سجين بالميلاد تكاد تكون النسخة المحدثة منها في عالم اليوم لكن هذا لا يقلل علي الاطلاق من متعه الروايه
يعرف جيفري ارتشر كيف يجعلك ملتصقا بمقعدك و تواصل القراءه و يعرف كيف يجعلك تنتهي من ...more
As a friend very rightly put it…’A Prisoner of Birth’ has all the makings of a Bollywood Masala Movie.
Danny Cartwright, a humble East-End mechanic has just proposed to his childhood sweet heart Beth. He decides to celebrate by treating his fiancée and best-friend Bernie Wilson (who also happens to be Beth’s brother) at an upmarket bar ‘The Dunlop Arms’. Also present at the bar, are a drunken party of four men, who started passing lewd comments at Beth and raise Bernie’s ire. Despit...more
Danny Cartwright, a humble East-End mechanic has just proposed to his childhood sweet heart Beth. He decides to celebrate by treating his fiancée and best-friend Bernie Wilson (who also happens to be Beth’s brother) at an upmarket bar ‘The Dunlop Arms’. Also present at the bar, are a drunken party of four men, who started passing lewd comments at Beth and raise Bernie’s ire. Despit...more
Well its hard to meet the readers' expectations if your first few books are "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less", "Kane and Abel" & "As the Crow Flies".
I felt that though the plot is not something that would make one say ... wow! now that's a new one.
Its a slight parallel of the first book mentioned above from his early days as well as "The Count of Monte Cristo" (As Archer himself agrees in many of his interviews)
What I...more
I felt that though the plot is not something that would make one say ... wow! now that's a new one.
Its a slight parallel of the first book mentioned above from his early days as well as "The Count of Monte Cristo" (As Archer himself agrees in many of his interviews)
What I...more
A (loosely based) modern day retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo.
This story was fun but I didn't think it was particularly well written and the story was too long.
This story was fun but I didn't think it was particularly well written and the story was too long.
This was an interesting story that pulled heavily from The Count of Monte Cristo. Still, it was entertaining, even if it wasn't an edge of your seat thriller.
Michael
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Audiobook read by Roger Allum - The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books of all time. I re-read it every couple years, and if I stumble across a movie version on television, I am powerless to not watch it, no matter how many times I've seen that version before (or how bad the adaptation is). When I heard that Archer had done an "update" on TCoMC for his newest book, of course I had to read/listen to it. The bad news is Archer still writes like a man who could live alone on...more
In this highly entertaining novel by Jeffrey Archer he reworks the themes and plot of Alexandre Dumas's, The Count of Monte Cristo. Both stories concern a man who has been falsely accused, suffers a gross miscarriage of justice, and concocts an elaborate and complex method of exacting his revenge. Also, Archer's novel highlights the inequalities of the British class system. Danny Cartwright, a poor working-class man from London's East End, is accused of a murder which he did not commit by four m...more
My father lent me this book, and I hadn’t even realised Jeffrey Archer was writing again. I previously read his Kane & Abel series which were really good, but that was quite a long time ago, and I struggle to remember things that far back!
Both my parents had read this, and both told me it was essentially unputdownable. My mother read it in both condensed and then full length format. I was expecting great things. I wasn’t disappointed.
It really is a page turner, and yet at the same time there is ...more
Both my parents had read this, and both told me it was essentially unputdownable. My mother read it in both condensed and then full length format. I was expecting great things. I wasn’t disappointed.
It really is a page turner, and yet at the same time there is ...more
Once I got into the story this was another book I struggled to put down.
Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig never should have met. One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister posed to be the youngest Queen’s Counsel of his generation.
A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in pri...more
Danny Cartwright and Spencer Craig never should have met. One evening, Danny, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. He crosses the path of Spencer Craig, a West End barrister posed to be the youngest Queen’s Counsel of his generation.
A few hours later Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in pri...more
Jeffrey Archer's characters are so very British – ranging from upper class to the working men and women. The main character, East-Enders (blue-collar) Danny Cartwright, his Catholic pregnant girlfriend Beth Wilson and Bernie, Beth's brother and Danny's best friend, gather at a pub to celebrate the upcoming wedding of the happy couple. Enter uppercrust Londers – four drunken men start a fight that ends up the murder of Bernie and arrest of Danny for his murder. Ultimately after much lies by the ...more
While the plot is rather unrealistic given how the main character, Danny Cartwright (an innocent murder suspect who was wrongly sentenced to 22 years imprisonment) managed to cheat the system by impersonating his cellmate – Sir Nicholas Moncrieff after he was murdered in jail. The story is really captivating as you follow the trial and how eventually the Musketeers (the real murderers) were eventually given their just deserves. I would have been more surprised by the twist at the end of the stor...more
Jeffrey Archer - interesting author - synchronistically at about the same time that I read this book, I ran across a magazine piece about Jeffrey Archer - which added immensely to my apprciation of this book. More about that later.
The story is a dichotomy of two young men - who are about the same age - and same general appearance - who end up in the same prison cell - both of them for crimes they didn't commit. One of the men came from a humble, undereducated backgroung and the o...more
The story is a dichotomy of two young men - who are about the same age - and same general appearance - who end up in the same prison cell - both of them for crimes they didn't commit. One of the men came from a humble, undereducated backgroung and the o...more
Before starting this novel of revenge and treachery, you will want to make sure that you own or have access to some of those rubber finger tips, as you will assuredly need them if you are going to keep up with this page turner. Chapter breaks act only as mild speed bumps in this 500-page tomb of escapist fiction. Loosely patterned after Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the story centers around the redemption and revenge of an illiterate London East Ender who is framed and falsely imprisoned fo...more
This was such a well written suspense/thriller. It's weaned me off my fantasy series books; it was such a good read.
The plot and characters were so well developed. It had so many twists and turns. It was a little predictable in that it's a modern day version of The Count of Monte Cristo, but it was done in such an interesting way I didn't mind. And it's even better than the original classic, if that's possible.
I don't say that lightly at all because I'm the type that be...more
The plot and characters were so well developed. It had so many twists and turns. It was a little predictable in that it's a modern day version of The Count of Monte Cristo, but it was done in such an interesting way I didn't mind. And it's even better than the original classic, if that's possible.
I don't say that lightly at all because I'm the type that be...more
Jeffrey Archer- A Prisoner of Birth (St. Martin’s Press 2008) 3.5 Stars
Danny Cartwright just proposed to Beth Wilson, his pregnant girlfriend, and life seemed so perfect. Suddenly though he finds himself arrested and charged for a murder he did not commit. When four well-respected witnesses testify against him, one of whom is actually guilty, he is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. The four think that they have gotten away with it, but they underestimated Danny and Beth’s dete...more
Danny Cartwright just proposed to Beth Wilson, his pregnant girlfriend, and life seemed so perfect. Suddenly though he finds himself arrested and charged for a murder he did not commit. When four well-respected witnesses testify against him, one of whom is actually guilty, he is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. The four think that they have gotten away with it, but they underestimated Danny and Beth’s dete...more
I've been a fan of Archer for quite some time now. My favorites have included Kane & Abel, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less, As the Crow Flies, and his prison diaries. This is his second novel since being released from prison, having served two years for perjury. I found those journals fascinating, as I did with this book.
The premise of the book is: Danny Cartwright is convicted of murdering his best friend, who also happens to be his soon-to-be brother-in-law. Even though his fianc...more
The premise of the book is: Danny Cartwright is convicted of murdering his best friend, who also happens to be his soon-to-be brother-in-law. Even though his fianc...more
Lord Archer hits the bulls eye.. again. Loosely resembling the classic 'The Count of Monte Cristo', this book belongs to the league of his earlier works 'Kane and Abel', 'As the Crow Flies' etc. Watch out for the awesomely written court room scenes in the climax. I really wish this would be made into a film. The character of Nick Moncrieff makes me wonder about its inspiration. Other than the brilliant twists and turns that usually characterises his work, I also liked the showcasing of an old wo...more
Jefferey Archer is one of my favourite writers and he never disappoints. 'A Prisoner of Birth' was influenced by Alexander Dumas's Count of Monte Cristo. Like Edmond Dante the first prisoner to escape from the Chateau D'If, Archer's hero, Danny Cartwright is the first convict to escape from Belmarsh.
I enjoyed this story of revenge and retribution which kept me reading for an entire Sunday.If I have one criticism I never really understood why Danny had never learned to read and write ...more
I enjoyed this story of revenge and retribution which kept me reading for an entire Sunday.If I have one criticism I never really understood why Danny had never learned to read and write ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is effectively a contemporary retelling of Dumas’ The Count of Monte Christo. As a result, I am torn between liking this modern update or being disappointed at a retelling that does not offer anything new and has a broad ending known to those who are familiar with the source work.
Archer is a great writer. He has the ability to construct developed characters and a well crafted plot. This is again evident here, with tight descriptions of characters and a plot that while broad...more
Archer is a great writer. He has the ability to construct developed characters and a well crafted plot. This is again evident here, with tight descriptions of characters and a plot that while broad...more
مثيرة للحماس من اول صفحة فيها!، ادخلتني إلى حياة المساجين، و قاعة المحكمة، و المبادئ و الأخلاق العالية،
جيفرى آرتشر هذا الروائي العظيم! يجعلك تحبس انفاسك، و تبكي، و تصرخ ضاحكاً،
و تشعر بالانتقام و الحب و الصداقة و المثابرة و الإخلاص..،
في رواية!
جيفرى آرتشر هذا الروائي العظيم! يجعلك تحبس انفاسك، و تبكي، و تصرخ ضاحكاً،
و تشعر بالانتقام و الحب و الصداقة و المثابرة و الإخلاص..،
في رواية!
Got back to reading a Jeffrey Archer Novel after a long time, and he shitll has it in him. A fabulous updating of the Count of Monte Christo, this book stands well on its own. While a cynic would say it reads like a wish fulfilment escapist fantasy, which it may be, but it's a well written one. Full of interesting characters, explosive court room scenes and enough twist and turns to keep the reader guessing until the very last line, this is a holiday read in the very best term of words. The jail...more
Now this was a great prisoner book (as contrasted with the Lizard Cage that I finished just a little while ago)! I could hardly put it down, and indeed I stayed up really late to finish it when I should have been getting my sleep so I could get better after being sick.
This was the story of a guy who was wrongfully imprisoned and how he goes about trying to clear his name. I especially loved the homages to The Count of Monte Cristo and the similarities that the author brought to bear,...more
This was the story of a guy who was wrongfully imprisoned and how he goes about trying to clear his name. I especially loved the homages to The Count of Monte Cristo and the similarities that the author brought to bear,...more
Candice
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of suspense stories
Recommended to Candice by:
Jamerson Y book group
Danny Cartwright is indeed a prisoner of birth. The product of London's East End, he is convicted for a crime he didn't commit because the four men testifying against him are all gentlemen of England's upper class. That's not the way justice is supposed to work, but too often it's the way it works. He is sentenced to 22 years in London's notorious Belmarsh prison from which no inmate has ever escaped.
What follows is a modern retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book to which ...more
What follows is a modern retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, a book to which ...more
This is a modern day account of The Count of Monte Cristo. Danny Cartwright, an East End cockney who works as a garage mechanic, takes his fianceé up to the West End to celebrate their engagement. They celebrate with Danny's best friend, who is Danny's fiance's brother. A group of uptown heavy drinkers provoke a fight, and the brother ends up dead. Danny is arrested for murder and later is sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Danny spends the next few years in a high-security prison, plannin...more
Again, since every part of the story is laid out, it is difficult to call this a mystery.
London east-side young man Danny Cartwright and his girlfriend Beth, meet her brother for drinks to celebrate their engagement.
Four upper crust college friends are in the same bar and drunkenly taunt the threesome. A meeting in the alley and the brother ends up dead and the boyfriend jailed for his murder.
The four college friends band together to tell the lies that get th...more
London east-side young man Danny Cartwright and his girlfriend Beth, meet her brother for drinks to celebrate their engagement.
Four upper crust college friends are in the same bar and drunkenly taunt the threesome. A meeting in the alley and the brother ends up dead and the boyfriend jailed for his murder.
The four college friends band together to tell the lies that get th...more
Sir Jeffrey je momentálně mým oblíbeným brakem. Tahle knížka je moderní parafráze Hraběte Monte Christa, jehož děj Archer velice vynalézavě přesunul do současnosti. Musí se to samozřejmě číst jako pohádka pro dospělé, ne jako realistický román, tedy přesně stejně jako ten Dumas. Pravidla thrilleru autor ctí a zároveň jemně porušuje. Děj je jako horská dráha - když myslíte, že dál už je to jasné a přímočaré, přijde další zhoupnutí. Archer použil všechna svá oblíbená prostředí: divadelní svět, byz...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Prisoner of Birth | 7 | 73 | Nov 20, 2011 06:54am | |
| Prison Diaries | 1 | 17 | Jul 26, 2010 11:41pm |
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Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English author and former politician.
He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, and became a life peer in 1992. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He...more
More about Jeffrey Archer...
He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, and became a life peer in 1992. His political career, having suffered several controversies, ended after a conviction for perverting the course of justice and his subsequent imprisonment. He...more
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“I have discovered with advancing years that few things are entirely black or white, but more often different shades of grey.”
—
22 people liked it
“we all suffer in our different ways from being prisoners of birth.”
—
13 people liked it
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