NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Audible Studios, a production arm of Audible.com, today announced the release of Stephen Fry’s indelible performance of Sherlock Holmes, an essential collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels and stories featuring the iconic detective. 130 years after the first-ever Sherlock Holmes story, A Study In Scarlett, was published by Ward Lock & Co. in 1887, the magic and mystery of Holmes’ investigations are now available for download in Fry’s unmistakable voice at audible.com/sherlockholmes.

A lifelong fan of Doyle’s detective canon, Fry has crafted a series of insightful, intimate and deeply personal introductions for the audio exclusive production of each book. In his opening for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Fry discusses Holmes’ place in contemporary culture as one of the world’s first, and longest enduring superheroes.

“Popular fiction offers different kinds of superhero to save the world by restoring order to the chaos, confusion and criminality of our times,” said Fry. “Heroes with remarkable gifts are as in vogue now as they have been since they first appeared, perhaps even more in vogue. But although the very first one was launched in serial published form just like his masked and body-suited successors, it was not in DC or Marvel comic books that he made his appearance, rather it was in the sedate and respectable pages of Mrs Beeton’s Christmas Annual in the mid-Victorian year 1887.”

“Over the past century, the tales of Sherlock Holmes have been told and re-told, the characters re-imagined in film, television and even video game adaptations. We’re thrilled to be working with Stephen Fry to bring these timeless stories to life in an essential audio collection,” said Audible EVP and Publisher Beth Anderson. “Our listeners know what an incredibly intimate experience Audible offers, made even more so when the narrator has such a personal connection to the text.”

About his performance, Fry said, “I think it was reading the Sherlock Holmes stories as a boy that first turned me on to the power of writing and storytelling. I felt myself inside the world of Baker Street, sitting alongside Holmes and Watson in their snug quarters, listening to a new case being told them by a new client. Now to be able to read those stories again, but this time out loud, is giving me more pleasure than ought to be allowed. A job of work really shouldn’t be so delightful.”

With a 30-day membership trial at Audible, new listeners can enjoy any one audiobook, including this performance of Sherlock Holmes, free.

In addition to Fry, among the acclaimed performers who have narrated works of literature for Audible are Sean Penn, Nick Offerman, Zachary Quinto, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins, Emma Thompson, James Franco, and Jesse Eisenberg. In 2013, Audible Studios won its first Grammy Award, for its production of Janis Ian’s memoir Society’s Child, and also won the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, for Colin Firth’s performance of Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.

Audible, the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content, invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. Audible members downloaded an average of more than 17 books over the course of the year. More than half of new Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.

ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.

Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 350,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.

¹ Taken from Stephen Fry’s audio-exclusive foreword to The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

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