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The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1

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The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1

By: Arthur Conan Doyle
Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
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About this listen

 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 Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Detective Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Short Stories Traditional Detectives Sherlock Holmes
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As always I find the Sherlock Holmes stories gripping and a great insight into Victorian social behaviour. However I did find the narrator irritating due to his mispronouncing words including the name of Holmes.! It sounded like Humes. It was quite common for him to pronounce O's and I's differently from Queen's English which is usually not a problem,. In the case of Sherlock Holmes who you know is Victorian English, upper middle class and went to boarding school etc such a mispronounciation detracts from the character and makes ut difficult to believe it is Holmes and Watson speaking. That said I enjoy the stories so much I got the next 2 volumes to have the complete set of stories.

Great stories but narrator annoying

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I adore these stories, so wonderfully written. I would recommend these books to anyone. The English language at it's literary best. However, this book misses a 5 star rating based purely on the narrator. Conan-Doyle's Holmes demands a native English speaker. Whilst this is one of the better English accents I've heard from an American, there is some laughable pronunciation 'orff' (off) and 'lorng' (long) 'parssenger' etc etc.



But, all in all the writing is strong enough to withstand this onslaught. It greatly depends on how particular you are about these things... If you want these stories in all their glory, then the only narrator is Derek Jacobi.

Beautiful literature, spoilt only by the narrator

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I'm British and I can't see what the big fuss is in the odd (sometimes amusing) mispronunciation of words - if I can abide it in my friends, I can forgive Charlton Griffin for it. I am surprised to hear that he's American however as that was the one accent I felt he struggled with!
Contrary to a few former reviewers my first priority when buying audiobooks is the ability to distinguish between characters. Griffin has such a brilliant range of voices, albeit with no theatrical differences. But I had to double-take when I first heard him as a woman!
Anyway I recommend this to anyone who simply wants to hear the great stories being read to them (at a very decent price!) in an accent that is true to the time and true to a doctor-esque style. On to Volume II!

The stories speak for themselves...

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As other reviewers have pointed out, the choice of narrator for this audiobook is a little odd. I am not all that fussy when it comes to accents so I listened to this quite happily. Even so, there were a couple of places where the pronunciation of a word would distracted me from the story. But it wasn't annoying enough to out do the great stories covered by this volume.



My advice would be to stay clear of this if you are badly affected by strange accents. Everyone else should listen carefully to the sample audio and bear in mind that the quality of the stories themselves will keep your interest.

Don't let the accent put you off

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I am quite satisfied with this edition. Surely, the accent is a bit off since the narrator is not British, but I am not a native speaker myself so I did not mind that much. For an American, his performance is actually pretty decent. I especially appreciated that all Sherlock Holmes stories are put together in just 3 volumes so it is easy to get them all. I'd say that for this price it's a good product.

Satisfying

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I was really amazed at how modern some of the concepts were, it could have been written today.

A man for our times

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I don't want to overstate my problem with this, because not everybody will be so fussy - but I cannot *stand* the choice of an American narrator.

It's not that the guy reading it is 'bad at his job'. Not at all. If I were to find him the narrator of an American novel, I expect he might be excellent. But because he's not British, a). his accents are slightly off, and b). he mispronounces certain words in a way that really, really jars.

For instance; "lab-ra-tory". I'm sorry, but a physician in Victorian England would have pronounced it, "lab-ora-tory". "Enth-oo-siasm" should be sounded, "enth-yoo-siasm". And when the narrator attempts to 'gentrify' certain words, he changes the vowels inappropriately - yes, "bath" becomes "barth", but "fancy" does not become "farncy". That's all within the first three minutes.


If you're as finickity as I am, it's intolerable. I couldn't get past the first quarter of an hour. All that said, the stories are great so, if you're not fussed by such things, feel free to ignore me. I'm stunned, though, that nobody has reported this already...

Great material, but...

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Oh thank you, thank you to the other reviewers. I thought it was just me! There has to be a problem when the sounding of those missplaced 'l's in Holmes actually make me flinch. I love these stories and the narrator made a good effort but why? Don't tell me there wasn't a single actual english actor to read these oh so english books! Hovering undecided over the buy button for volume two.

Great but with definate cringe moments.

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The older British public seem to prefer their “classics” read in deep, resonant, “classic BBC” voices, out of a belief that it lends gravity to our profound literary heritage. Factors influencing that preference would be the regular diet of recordings of Shakespeare plays received in school, and the popular costume dramas seen at the cinema, on TV, and heard on the radio. Ironically, we also have a love of authenticity, but only when it suits us ! From an audio book perspective, we should want the narrative of Dracula read with an Irish accent, and the Count’s dialogue a la Bela Lugosi : “Leeson to zem, ze cheeldren of ze nat. What mewsic zay mek !” But contrary as ever, most of us want the lot Christopher Lee style.

So how do we want our Sherlock read, then ? In the rich Edinburgh accent of Conan Doyle ? In the very English tones of Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett ? I have to admit a personal fondness for the voices of Basil Rathbone, and the bumbling Watson of Nigel Stock. But as the vast majority of the narrative is from the notebooks of Doctor Watson, a comic, Stock-like voice might begin to try one’s patience after a while. Would an American accent seem inappropriate ? Of course it would, just as you would not expect Stephen Fry to attempt re-makes of John Wayne movies ! ( That would indeed be the day ! ! )

So, with the vast array of narrator choice, who should we go for ? The best three are probably Griffin, Jacobi, and Hardewicke. If money is no object, and you love Sherlock, get all three ! Realistically, prioritising your requirements is the best way forward : cost, completeness, or sound.

One of several excellent readings

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The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes is a very good book and this narration is as well as the it was expexted, very close to the book so is very easy to follow the book while listening, making this audiobook a very good option for those who are learning English and need to practice but also for those who enjoy hearing well-tell stories.

The only but is that sometimes the speed of the narration is a little bit fast.

A good book a good narration

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