Stephen Fry Narrates Sherlock Holmes Exclusively for Audible

Beloved Actor, Humorist and Storyteller Says “I Really Do Owe Holmes
Everything”¹

Each Story Features Audio-Exclusive Introductions Written and
Performed by Fry

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.

Contacts

Audible.com
Esther Bochner, 973-820-0781
bochnere@audible.com