1:44 pm Jul. 12, 20121
Over the next ten days, we'll be suggesting some of our favorite audiobooks for the summer, in a series of articles brought to you by our partner, Audible.com.
Audible.com is promoting a special offer to download one our selections or a selection of your own for free, plus a free 30-day trial membership.
Click the link at the bottom of this post for details.
The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 (Unabridged)
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Narrated by Charlton Griffin
The end of this year will mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of Sherlock Holmes, at least to the reading public. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's enduring character would feature in four novels and 56 short stories before he was bequeathed to the interpreters, who have been endless.
Holmes purists may reject some or all of what followed (some even reject Holmes' return from certain death at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland!), but whether your Holmes is the one of the books and short stories narrated by faithful sidekick Dr. Watson, or the Holmes of any of the countless plays and 211 movie adaptations, whether in your mind's eye he is personified by Clive Brook or Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett or Christopher Lee or even the contemporaries, Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey, Jr., you will find the man you know in these well-narrated, unabridged original readings.
For those of you who already know your way around the originals, you'll find two novels, including Holmes' debut, A Study in Scarlet, and four short stories including "The Copper Beeches."
One of the merits of short-story collections with classic characters like Holmes is their digestability in manageable portions, making the audio version the perfect leavening for long summer car trips with kids (and more improving than screening Pirates of the Caribbean).
The narration is pleasant and amplifies rather than obtrudes upon the text; Charlton Griffin's voice is just the right depth, and he stretches it just enough to differentiate the characters, without delivering a distracting multicharacter one-man show.
Ace.