The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Series: Sherlock Holmes, Book 3
By: Arthur Conan Doyle / Narrated By: Derek Jacobi / Narrated By: Patrick Tull
Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
FINALLY getting around to the “original” Holmes/Watson stories… I KNOW, right?!
First off, I canNOT review this audiobook without asking y’all: Aren’t the banners for the reviews simply awesome? Are they not works of Art?
Big Sis does them, aaaand… well, it’s like this, see: I was looking forward to an All Things Sherlock Holmes week, and it couldn’t be just variations on the detective. I mean, I HAD to get the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories, right? See what the author intended for his character of note?
Well, Big Sis TRIED to tell me that there was a The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes version narrated by none other than Derek Jacobi… and I pooh-poohed it and Nah-Nahed her, saying my version with Patrick Tull doing the honors was perfectly okay. She persisted, pointing out that I love (SIR!!!) Derek Jacobi, but I m’self persisted.
And so I began m’ Listening with Patrick Tull… and… Oh. My. Good Golly GOSH!!! He is soooo not right for these adventures. I tried, I tell you, I tried (Visions of my sister throttling me dancing within my head). While he was marvelous doing Brother Cadfael in A Morbid Taste for Bones, with a bit o’ too breathy womenfolk, well? I’d told B. Sis that gee: Hope there aren’t too many Damsels in Distress coming to Holmes for assistance. And ya know? ‘Twas not that. Even tho’ the verrrry first story introduces Irene Adler in “A Scandal in Bohemia” and Watson points out that Adler is The ONLY Woman Holmes has ever been taken with? Nope, it wasn’t that Tull was wispy with her voice.
Dude! I couldn’t get past his voice for Watson… uhm, like, the man writing and conveying EACH freaking adventure. Oh nooooo! So I texted B. Sis posthaste, and ate crow like there was no tomorrow, and she dolefully set out to craft an entirely NEW Freaking Banner so that I could Listen to …SIR!!!… Derek Jacobi. (The “Sir” really SHOULDA guided me, ya know?).
Anyhoo—He was a delightful Watson, and man oh man, can he perform Every. Single. Character like there’s no tomorrow, and he’s leaving no stone unturned in mining the characters’ motives, tics, and foibles. There are a plethora of nationalities, starting with that Bohemian scandal, and there are women in various states of distress galore. Nooo breathiness, and Irene Adler comes off as worthy of earning Sherlock’s respect and (Somewhat subdued) admiration.
I’m gonna totally tick off Sherlockian’s the world over when I come right out and say it, however: These stories, while being truly delectably representative of the era(s) in which they take place… get a trifle repetitive. How many times can Holmes grill Watson and chide him for Seeing yet not Observing? I mean, we get it. Holmes is brilliant at noticing EVERYthing and making extraordinary deductions, but poor Watson. Must every case include a pointed admonition?
Still, man it was SO About Time that I listened to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson so that I might absorb a liiiiiittle bit of canon. And there were indeed some really well-crafted mysteries (My favorite being “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” which features a fairly hysterical Damsel in Distress: Yay SIR Derek! for doing her well without making her cartoonish… as Tull miiiiight’ve done…). NATurally I hit Wikipedia when I finished all of the stories, and I was delighted (And smug) to discover that this was p’raps Doyle’s favorite of his own stories as well. As for the others? Do expect disguises galore, and not only from Holmes who’s a master of disguise; conniving mamas and papas; diabolical plots foiled in the nick of time; miscues and misdeeds; hastily lopped off digits; murder and mayhem, both carried out -and- thwarted. Doyle’s storylines run the gamut of just what-all CAN be achieved when one has a fraught yet steady-handed imagination.
Nope, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ain’t the first volume, but as the stories run all through time, this makes a nice little collection to kinda sorta get a flavor of canon. And I know I’ve whined, but I liked them well enough, and certainly the writing is so evocative of time and place and character(s), that I do believe I’ll go back and check out earlier volume(s).
Still, anyone who knows me should understand by now that I do love a good Variation on an Original (Think: Jane Austen). And I gotta say it: I know! I know! I know! SACrilege:
I’m off to other, uhm, NOT Holmes/Watson of Canon. Cuz gosh!
There’s sooooo much ya can do with these guys, and Doyle missed the boat when he did NOT add Warlocks, and Cthulhu, Gigantic Rats, and oh sooooo much more…!
Jacobi narration is free listening for Audible Members.
Tull narration.
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