The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

A colonel receives five seeds in the mail---and dies within weeks. A young bride disappears immediately after her wedding. An old hat and a Christmas goose are the only clues to a stolen jewel. A son is accused of his father's murder. These mysteries---and many more---are brought to the house on Baker Street where detective Sherlock Holmes resides. No case is too tricky for the world's most famous sleuth and his incredible powers of deduction. This gripping collection includes many of the famous cases---and great strokes of brilliance---that make the legendary detective one of fiction's most popular creations.

Included in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Red-Headed League," "A Case of Identity," "The Boscombe Valley Mystery," "The Five Orange Pips," "The Man with the Twisted Lip," "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb," "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor," "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet," and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches."

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

This version is complete

Any additional comments?

I don't want to nitpick Tad's excellent review, but he is inaccurate on one point.

This version, as of April 2012, includes all twelve short stories collected in 1892 as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", including "The Red-Headed League," and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band."

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Great narration, but missing a couple

Simon Prebble does an excellent job narrating this first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. No complaints there. But the collection is marred by Tantor's decision to omit the two stories (Speckled Band and Red-Headed League) they'd already made available as "bonuses" on two of the novels.

In other words, if you want all of the short stories, you have to buy the whole set of recordings, including the four novels. (I'm planning to do that, but others may have preferred not to.) There's something to said, too, for being able to listen to the stories in their published sequence. This unfortunate marketing ploy makes that less convenient.

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

Amazing as always

Amazing as it should be. Sir Doyle gave a beautiful read and a wonderful life to the book. highly recommend.

Amazing!

This is my second Sherlock Holmes audiobook, as well as my second book narrated by Simon Prebble (the first being the Sign of Four).
I love the story, and the performance. I can't wait to get the next one.

Classic tale well told!

I love the Sherlock Holmes tales, and enjoyed hearing them. The narrator handled all his different voices skillfully, which let me focus on the story instead of my annoyance with inconsistent character styles.

This is the seventh audiobook I've listened to, and the best read one. (The only other one that came close was Stephen King's reading of his own book, On Writing.)

Mismatched Characters

The only good thing about this story, the actors are English. The person speaking in Holmes' role is not suited to the part at all, in fact, he makes the story dull and cringe worthy. Holmes is smart with razor sharp wit, well educated and one would assume with a well spoken and modulated voice. What we have instead is a high falsetto, wringing, nasally voiced whimp, who sounds more like a lip wristed fop than that of a shrewd detective. I can't even listen to him he's that bad. Watson on the other had is good and sounds like the Watson in character. The other thing I found funny was, in one of the stories, Holmes is in Italy painting and sees what he describes as a women, who is old (in those times) as 30 years of age being mugged for her handbag. The women cast sounded nothing like 30 but of 50 or over. Please, a little more thinking could of gone into the casting of these roles. I've ranked it extremely low because I can't stand the Holmes portrayed in this version. If it was my choice, it would be back to Basil Rathbone or Ian Richards.

3 of 20 people found this review helpful

A classic rendition of the famous stories

Narrator Simon Prebble captures the spirit of Victorian Britain in this audio version of Conan Doyle's classic tales. The cadence of his voice adds to the suspension in the various stories, and adds a real depth to the twists when they inevitably appear during the final chapters. Much recommended for listening in bite sized chunks, such as short commutes.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Simon Prebble is the best Sherlock Holmes Narrator

Sorry Derek Jacobi, but Simon Prebble's Holmes and Watson voices are far superior - he is excellent

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great stories told by great narrator

Any additional comments?

The stories of Sherlock Holmes always fascinated me, but only recently I started reading this book properly to start with. The book was great and very easy to read. However when I discovered the audible and tried it on this book, it's an amazing experience! Simon's voice is perfectly suited for Sherlock Holmes stories and he did a fantastic job!! I can't imagine anyone else can do a better job than him. Highly recommended!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent

Dependable stories well read, the short stories made excellent bed time listening, and could easily listen to again

this is one of my favourite series

I love this & listen to it often as a staple of my reads monthly