It's enjoyable to listen to these stories as dramatizations. Quite enjoyable to hear them pretty much as they were originally written.

"Acclaimed, exciting, fully dramatized performances of twelve Conan Doyle classics, performed by John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Orson Welles."

Radio Theater with violin interludes...

How can you not love John Gielgud as Holmes with a bonus of Orson Welles and Moriarity. I have no idea why they were in the order they were in because they were backwards--finishing with when the 2 began living together but that's not a big deal if you know the premise of their partnership to begin with.

Classic radio drama audio. Fun voices if you can stand the dramatized idea. I like it so it was great for me. A fun selection of stories. All of them fairly short so a quick listen made it enjoyable.
The violin playing though you need to fast forard through. It will kill your ear drumbs if played at the same level as the rest of the audio.

I enjoyed the mystery, conversations, and the thrills within this production. This was a theatrical production rather than simply being read aloud so it included plenty of added drama. It was reminiscent of the radio soaps my grandmother I occasionally heard at my grandparent's house.

Enjoyed the stories primarily because I love anything to do with Sherlock Holmes. However, I found the dramatization distracting and over acting. Next time I'll stick with narration.

This was a collection of 12 shorts stories based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I listened to the book on my drive and just came away expecting more from it.

These dramatized episodes of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes are a true delight. With a cast consisting of Sir John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson as well as Orson Welles as Moriarty, these short stories come alive with excitement as Holmes solves the cases. This audio version complete with sound effects will take you back to Holmes’ England and what life was like then.

So, obviously, I'm not a huge mystery fan if you look through my books. But, Pj Doyle is a long-time family friend, and so I had to get a copy of the book.

To my surprise, not only did I enjoy the 13 (a baker's dozen) Holmes stories, but I was amused by the essays as well.

Towards the end of his writing career, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was asked to list his 12 favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. This book contains all those stories plus one more. Each is accompanied an essay written by a noted “Sherlockian,” Isaac Asimov among them. The book also has some other interesting trivia, such as a list of the 12 worst stories and the most intriguing women characters. I’ve always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, mostly because I’m fascinated by the characters themselves and less because of the plots of the stories. It was fun to read the essays in this book which ranged from gushing praise, almost adoration, to one truly critical piece. Some gave interesting historical background about real people, places or events in the stories. It amazes me how Holmes and Watson, whom Doyle never considered to be his best work, still are so influential in modern storytelling even over a hundred years later. I enjoyed reading the essays as much as rereading the stories.

Great stories to listen to. I read and watched on PBS.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these classics. The narrators were wonderful and I loved the stories. Each story was short enough that I often was able to listen to one or two at a time on my car rides. Great little detective dramas.

As for the editing, the speaking audio dipped a little too low at some transition points, and likewise the music ran a little too high. The violin music that indicated scene changes was fine at first but got pretty annoying after the first few times. If it wasn't for these annoyances, I would have given this 5 stars!

I also wish the stories had gone in chronological order so that I knew which stories Doyle wrote first and which ones last. It was fun to hear the introduction of Holmes and Watson, and to hear the "ending" of Holmes with Mycroft.