 Modern Russian writer and philologist Vadim Nikolayev determined "The Count of Monte-Cristo" as a megapolyphonic novel.The novel has been the inspiration for many other works, from Lew Wallace's "" (1880), a science fiction retelling in Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination", to Stephen Fry's contemporary "The Stars' Tennis Balls".The success of "The Count of Monte Cristo" coincides with France's Second Empire.