The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Classics Fiction)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been given a fitting tribute in The Complete Sherlock Holmes...150 years after his birth. I've enjoyed David Timson's spirited readings of the stories ever since The Speckled Band appeared in 1999. He is one of those narrators who sinks himself so convincingly into character, so subtly differentiating timbre, dialect and accent, that you can hardly believe that the reading is being done by a cast of one - this requires extraordinary versatility given the 228 disguises in the four novels and 56 stories starring Holmes that Conan Doyle penned. Timson told me that he elected to go back to the original Strand Magazine version of the tales, warts and all. Conan Doyle never proofread his work, believing that the sweeping energy of the telling was more important than accuracy of detail: "What matter if I can hold my readers?" he said. Hold them he and Timson certainly do. - Conan Doyle would surely feel gratified by this magnificent recording of the Holmes canon of four novels and 56 stories. Timson brings to life a huge cast of characters, from murderers to maiden ladies, and there is incidental music by Dvorak, Paganini and others. A tour de force. --Christina Hardyment - The TimesIt has taken 10 years for Timson to record all 60 Sherlock Holmes stories. The hard-working radio actor has completed the project just in time for his bumper compendium to appear as crime-fiction fans mark the 150th anniversary of Conan Doyle, the creator of perhaps still the greatest ficitonal detective...the appeal of the super sleuth was and is irrepressible. Holmes's violin-playing is reflected by the plentiful bursts of plangently atmospheric strings in these productions, and Timson draws a nice vocal contrast between the flinty solver of mysteries and his bluff amanuensis. --Karen Robinson - The Sunday TimesDavid Timson must have had difficulty returning to his real self after this recording tour de force - every nuance in his voice is Holmes. All 56 stories nd four novels are here: 60 CDs with a chunky booklet. Years of top listening. --Rachel Redford - The Observer