-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes [with Biographical Introduc...
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.75
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Audio) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
The one and only Sherlock Holmes is sensationally back from the dead...In "The Empty House", Watson has a chance encounter with a bookseller while in "The Norwood Builder", Holmes finds there are many places for a criminal to hide. "The Dancing Men" reveals some inspired code-breaking and a music teacher is being followed in "The Solitary Cyclist". A young aristocrat disappears in "The Priory School" and Holmes needs to spear a pig in "Black Peter". "Charles Augustus Milverton" features the king of all blackmailers, while in "The Six Napoleons", who is smashing busts of Napoleon? In "The Three Students", Holmes uncovers a cheat, while in "The Golden Pince-Nez", an invalid professor is murdered. A rugby star vanishes in "The Missing Three-Quarter", while in "The Abbey Grange", who killed one of the richest men in Kent? And lastly, "The Second Stain" sees Holmes recover a vital letter. Emmy award-winning actor Sir Derek Jacobi reads all 13 stories from this classic collection.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is cut-price luxury. It is more than 12 hours' worth of absolutely marvellous old stories read to us by an absolutely marvellous old narrator. It is also very nicely recorded and it does not cost very much. On top of that I was able to add a feeling of environmentalist virtue to the other pleasures by turning off my little reading lamp and enjoying being read to in the darkness.
Conan Doyle had tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes, but by popular demand he had to bring him back from the missing-presumed-dead, and he did it rather skilfully. 13 stories in total are packed into 10 discs, with the sixth tale ending neatly at the end of the fifth disc, which is obviously a convenient presentation for standard cd carousels with 5 bays. Doyle's narrator is, as everyone knows, Dr Watson, and Derek Jacobi has absolutely the right voice for him. He modulates his tones for the other parties such as Holmes and Lestrade, but I think he is right not to overdo this. Watson himself would hardly have been any expert mimic, and the thing to aim at is avoiding monotony, not being some kind of rival to Alistair McGowan or John Culshaw. I suppose no American really ever sounded like Abe Slaney and no rough Scottish whaler talking like Patrick Cairns here would have convinced other Scottish whalers, but the general idea is good enough. There is a German as well, and a Russian who features in a story I shall not even name for fear of spoiling the plot. I experienced a moment's misgiving in The Abbey Grange when the refined Australian lady spoke in refined Surrey English, but my anxieties were allayed when her lady's-maid came out with some fine old Strine after all.
The recorded sound is easy on the ear, and I think the only minor request I would have to the BBC producers would be to provide the track-# for the start of each story. Otherwise well done the Beeb. Lord Reith would have approved, and I pay you my licence-fee with a light heart.
Conan Doyle had tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes, but by popular demand he had to bring him back from the missing-presumed-dead, and he did it rather skilfully. 13 stories in total are packed into 10 discs, with the sixth tale ending neatly at the end of the fifth disc, which is obviously a convenient presentation for standard cd carousels with 5 bays. Doyle's narrator is, as everyone knows, Dr Watson, and Derek Jacobi has absolutely the right voice for him. He modulates his tones for the other parties such as Holmes and Lestrade, but I think he is right not to overdo this. Watson himself would hardly have been any expert mimic, and the thing to aim at is avoiding monotony, not being some kind of rival to Alistair McGowan or John Culshaw. I suppose no American really ever sounded like Abe Slaney and no rough Scottish whaler talking like Patrick Cairns here would have convinced other Scottish whalers, but the general idea is good enough. There is a German as well, and a Russian who features in a story I shall not even name for fear of spoiling the plot. I experienced a moment's misgiving in The Abbey Grange when the refined Australian lady spoke in refined Surrey English, but my anxieties were allayed when her lady's-maid came out with some fine old Strine after all.
The recorded sound is easy on the ear, and I think the only minor request I would have to the BBC producers would be to provide the track-# for the start of each story. Otherwise well done the Beeb. Lord Reith would have approved, and I pay you my licence-fee with a light heart.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Sorry if I'm gushing, but this little set of CDs really is Christmas come early. You've had a long, rough day dealing with a lot of awkward people, roadworks, torrential summer rain, and a trolley with a gammy wheel in Tesco. You get home and flake out, make the mistake of breaking your heart by watching the evening news, and then give yourself a headache flicking through the channels wondering just what the hell your license fee actually gets used for (televised 'bake-offs,' I ask you?!)
Then you put the first CD of this set in your player. Suddenly the sofa seems bigger and comfier and your neck starts to unknot itself and even your toes unwind. You're in the company of a master storyteller whose spirit is perfectly captured in the most beautiful characterisations of a master actor - Sir Derek Jacobi. For my money, the very best of the Holmes stories are to be found in The Return, and in this set you have an absolute treasure trove of excellent tales. There isn't a weak link to be found in any of the 13 stories. I can't pick a favourite, I don't know many who can, but I will say that Charles Augustus Milverton has always been one of my fondest, meatiest of the mysteries and Jacobi more than does it justice here. The same reverence is given to other classics - The Norwood Builder, The Abbey Grange, The Second Stain and The Six Napoleons. Just to complete the list, there's also The Empty House, The Dancing Men, The Solitary Cyclist, The Priory School, Black Peter, The Three Students, The Golden Pince-Nez, and The Missing Three-Quarter. To be fair, all the stories are gems, and Jacobi's readings bring out every ounce of colour and excitement and gorgeous detail. You are utterly, wonderfully absorbed and lost in Conan Doyle's world.
There's over 12 hours of pure, unadulterated, top quality entertainment on the 8 discs in this collection, and the joy of it is that there's so much light and shade and careful layering in Jacobi's readings, that you can happily listen to them time and again, catching new little snippets and nuances every time.
Beyond 5 stars. Perfection.
Then you put the first CD of this set in your player. Suddenly the sofa seems bigger and comfier and your neck starts to unknot itself and even your toes unwind. You're in the company of a master storyteller whose spirit is perfectly captured in the most beautiful characterisations of a master actor - Sir Derek Jacobi. For my money, the very best of the Holmes stories are to be found in The Return, and in this set you have an absolute treasure trove of excellent tales. There isn't a weak link to be found in any of the 13 stories. I can't pick a favourite, I don't know many who can, but I will say that Charles Augustus Milverton has always been one of my fondest, meatiest of the mysteries and Jacobi more than does it justice here. The same reverence is given to other classics - The Norwood Builder, The Abbey Grange, The Second Stain and The Six Napoleons. Just to complete the list, there's also The Empty House, The Dancing Men, The Solitary Cyclist, The Priory School, Black Peter, The Three Students, The Golden Pince-Nez, and The Missing Three-Quarter. To be fair, all the stories are gems, and Jacobi's readings bring out every ounce of colour and excitement and gorgeous detail. You are utterly, wonderfully absorbed and lost in Conan Doyle's world.
There's over 12 hours of pure, unadulterated, top quality entertainment on the 8 discs in this collection, and the joy of it is that there's so much light and shade and careful layering in Jacobi's readings, that you can happily listen to them time and again, catching new little snippets and nuances every time.
Beyond 5 stars. Perfection.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Around 30 years ago, I read and remembered most of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I had a fear that, having grown up a little I would find them either dated or less clever than I originally had. Thankfully, I was proved wrong.
This is the set of stories written when public opinion persuaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write some more Sherlock Holmes stories, after he had killed off the character in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Audiobooks), so that he could turn to writing other things.
The stories are set at the tail end of the 19th century, and the first couple of years of the 20th.
This audiobook reminded me of the importance of bicycles in the Sherlock Holmes stories, that I'd entirely forgotten.
Each of the short stories is clever, and consistent. Holmes' observational and deductive powers still sparkle as freshly as when I read the stores long ago. The level of detail and finesse, make TV dramas and "new" imitations of Sherlock Holmes stories, look dull and pale by comparison to the originals. Regrettably, the many of the stories are split between 2 cds, and there is no clean indication of the start of each story; maybe a 19th Century bicycle bell would have produced an appropriate unobtrusive separator.
The stories are brought to life by Derek Jacobi's versatile voice giving the impression that you are listening to a full cast audio-play, rather than a single reader.
The audio level and speech clarity are consistently good, so they are ideal for listening to in the car.
These stories are worth listening to many times.
This is the set of stories written when public opinion persuaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write some more Sherlock Holmes stories, after he had killed off the character in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Audiobooks), so that he could turn to writing other things.
The stories are set at the tail end of the 19th century, and the first couple of years of the 20th.
This audiobook reminded me of the importance of bicycles in the Sherlock Holmes stories, that I'd entirely forgotten.
Each of the short stories is clever, and consistent. Holmes' observational and deductive powers still sparkle as freshly as when I read the stores long ago. The level of detail and finesse, make TV dramas and "new" imitations of Sherlock Holmes stories, look dull and pale by comparison to the originals. Regrettably, the many of the stories are split between 2 cds, and there is no clean indication of the start of each story; maybe a 19th Century bicycle bell would have produced an appropriate unobtrusive separator.
The stories are brought to life by Derek Jacobi's versatile voice giving the impression that you are listening to a full cast audio-play, rather than a single reader.
The audio level and speech clarity are consistently good, so they are ideal for listening to in the car.
These stories are worth listening to many times.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Totally engrossing
As a lover of Derek Jacobi's Cadfael it was an easy decision to select BBC Audio's The Return of Sherlock Holmes - 12 hours of Arthur Conan Doyle's later stories in the series,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Williams
Another excellent reading of Holmes
I must admit to a liking of Sherlock Holmes stories and to having many audio books read by Derek Jacobi. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Richard Kelly
An absolute joy
What more could you ask for: the best detective fiction there is, read to you in the beautifully modulated tones of the excellent Derek Jacobi. Pure joy. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. Margaret Gallaghrt
An entertaining listen
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and as an audio book, this worked quite well for me as I often find it... Read more
Published 6 months ago by S. Barnes
A real treat
Where else can you get a dozen hours of brilliantly narrated prose for this kind of money,
Derek Jacobi is absolutely at the top of his game here and draws you into the... Read more
Derek Jacobi is absolutely at the top of his game here and draws you into the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Nick Flynn
As good as you would expect
Sir Derek Jacobi reading The Return of Sherlock Holmes. All 13 stories unabridged. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about this CD box set. Read more
Published 9 months ago by S. Lindgren
Not elementary. Not in the slightest.
I suppose any Holmes fan when seeking audio Sherlock must decide whether they want to hear the characters interpreted by actors and the pulse of he story or Conan Doyle's florid... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Stuart Burns
Simply Superb Sherlock
When not reading and re-reading Conan Doyle's superb novels, I also enjoy listening to the many audio books and radio shows available. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Norman Cheeseworthy
More of the same from Conan Doyle & Jacobi
When I reviewed the previous audio recordings of a Sherlock Holmes short story collection read by Sir Derek Jacobi I couldn't help but comment on how easily his reading style draws... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. M. E. Merritt
A three pipe listen
Following on from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Audiobooks), this is another tour de force of a performance from Derek Jacobi. Read more
Published 10 months ago by B. Roche
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
