The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

First appearing in print in 1890, the character of Sherlock Holmes has now become synonymous worldwide with the concept of a super sleuth. His creator, Conan Doyle, imbued his detective hero with intellectual power, acute observational abilities, a penchant for deductive reasoning and a highly educated use of forensic skills. Indeed, Doyle created the first fictional private detective who used what we now recognize as modern scientific investigative techniques.

Doyle ended up writing four novels and 56 short stories featuring Holmes and his companion, Dr. Watson. All but four are told in the first person by Watson, two by Holmes, and two are written in the third person. Together, this series of beautifully written Victorian literature has sold more copies than any other books in the English language, with the exceptions of the Bible and Shakespeare.

Volume 1 in this series consists of two novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, followed by a collection of short stories entitled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Public Domain (P)2009 Audio Connoisseur

Not complete

An excellent presentation of the dozen stories originally published as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Since A Conan Doyle actually wrote around 40 stories and novellas featuring Holmes, this collection is far from complete!

Great stories

Very well done!
Great detective and settings.
Good for every age.
Would recommend to everyone.
Sound very good as is the narration

Female voices

Great narration save for the terrible female impersonation. A second narrator for female parts would have been preferable. Otherwise great!

Hard to turn off...

Would you listen to The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 again? Why?

I have listened to Volume 1 completely, and have now started back at the beginning. It just never gets old.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1?

"That woman" getting the best of Holmes... a very rare occurrence, indeed.

What does Charlton Griffin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Although his female voices are a bit weak, his voices for Watson and Holmes are spot on. He really makes them come alive.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Elementary...

Any additional comments?

There are, I believe, two blips on this recording. One seems to be a skip, perhaps from editing. The other sounds like a watch alarm or a low battery alarm. Other than that, it is extremely well done. I could not imagine any other voice for Holmes, besides Rathbone of course. I will certainly enjoy this again and again and look forward to purchasing Volume 2.

Okay

Pretty good. The narrator does a great job but I'm not as much a fan of Sherlock Holmes as I was hoping I would be. The best story was A Study in Scarlet, but after that I began to lose interest.

Wonderful Stories, Badly Read

Is there anything you would change about this book?

These are quintessentially English stories and should be read by someone who can pronounce English words. Maybe the performance will appeal to American or other listeners but British buyers should beware. The narrator struggles to sound like his own idea of an Englishman and fails miserably; nobody in the production team has bothered to listen to the performance and point out inconsistencies and mistakes. Even the name 'Holmes' is pronounced in at least three different ways and the narrator struggles, not only with names such as 'Holborn' and 'Cecil' (Sea-sill? You must be joking!) but also with a whole range of words such as 'vary', 'woman', 'secreting' and so many more. A most jarring experience and an example of unforgivably poor editing - even if the reader is not English, he could at least be taught how to pronounce names correctly.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

They are classics for a reason - cleverly plotted and laced with humour, often of a fairly dark nature.

Would you be willing to try another one of Charlton Griffin’s performances?

Absolutely not. I like to listen to American books read by Americans but would avoid any narrator who lacks the professionalism to find out how names should be pronounced and then pronounce them consistently throughout.

Did The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 inspire you to do anything?

Find another version read by either an English narrator or one who takes the time to learn how to speak appropriately.

Any additional comments?

Disappointing and definitely not for the connoisseur.

Very enjoyable

I am a big Holmes fan. My favorite interpretation of the Holmes stores was the Granada series with Jeremy Brett. This audiobook is very close to those in performance and feel. I thoroughly enjoyed each story, and the character development from car to car can be clearly seen. Highly recommended.

Narration detracted from my enjoyment

I have always loved Sherlock Holmes, so I was surprised to find this audiobook only "ho-hum." After hearing a different narrator, I realized it was Charlton Griffin's reading that sapped the joy out of my favorite tales. I didn't find anything about his performance particularly bad or bothersome, but it was uncompelling. In contrast, Simon Vance's performance in Brilliance Audio's _The Complete Sherlock Holmes_ brought the excitement back in just a few sentences, and I thus highly recommend that audiobook over this one.

When will audible title their chapters?!!!

Wow!!! What a tremendous performance! One of the very best actors. Thanks!
But when will audible make these large anthologies usable? You pay a lot for these books and they can't even put chapter titles on it? Arghhhhhhhh!

Wish there was a list of titles

I really enjoyed listening to this collection of Sherlock Holes stories. I just wish there was an easy to find list of the stories for reference The narration was fantastic. The short stories were a nice length; I often listened to them on the way to work. Each story contained an individual plot/case yet there were many times references to previous cases, providing a connection between stories. It was interesting to see the Holmes and Watson characters develop throughout the collection.

I started listening to this collection because of the Sherlock TV show produced by BBC. The show was great and surprisingly fits with the classic stories quite well.