Product Description
Basil Chamberlain was a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. He wrote some of the earliest translations of haikus. His best known work is the encyclopedia Things Japanese. This was a popular one volume informal discussion of Japanese written in 1890. Chamberlain begins this pamphlet by saying, "Mikado-worship and Japan-worship--for that is the new Japanese religion--is, of course, no spontaneously generated phenomenon. Every manufacture presupposes a material out of which it is made, every present a past on which it rests. But the twentieth-century Japanese religion of loyalty and patriotism is quite new, for in it pre-existing ideas have been sifted, altered, freshly compounded, turned to new uses, and have found a new centre of gravity." ... Read more

Product Description

Welcome to the Golden Age of Radio and the best in classic mystery.

From 1939-1946 Americans gathered around their radio to listen to The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- featuring Basil Rathbone as the high strung crime solver and Nigel Bruce as his phlegmatic assistant, Dr. Watson.

Witty, fast-paced and always surprising, these great radio plays -- written by the prolific writing team of Anthony Boucher and Denis Green -- are as fresh today as they were then.

The latest audio technology was employed to bring the best audio quality and fidelity to the original performances, which feature nostalgic war-time announcements, original commercials and radio narrations.

This special CD edition includes 12 of the series' best episodes:

• The Case of the Out of Date Murder" and "The Waltz of Death
• Colonel Warburton's Madness" and "The Iron Box
• A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Second Generation
• In Flanders Fields" and "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton
• The Tell Tale Pigeon Feathers" and "The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards
• The Problem of Thor Bridge" and "The Double Zero

Customer Reviews (9)

Utterly delightful!
Innocent, romantic, and informative; that's just the narrative between the stories which were abosulutely great. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce seem more tangible to my generation when I hear their performances of the Master and his Boswell.

"Books are like birds and bonfires -- nice to be near"
"Colonel Warburton's Madness" is the second of the four available CD collections of Sherlock Holmes radio episodes from 1945/46 starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.Unlike its predecessor, "The Unfortunate Tobacconist", this collection contains two adaptations of actual Conan Doyle stories.

"The Case of the Out of Date Murder" is a fun if predictable story which gets the collection off to a good start."The Waltz of Death", set in Vienna, is another good story, although somewhat depressing due to the number of victims.At the story's climax Holmes arguably goes much too far in using a young American woman as bait to trap the killer.

"Colonel Warburton's Madness" is based on one of the "unrecorded adventures" mentioned by Watson in the Conan Doyle stories.It starts out well but ultimately becomes rather silly, with Holmes having to bribe a little girl into letting him borrow her dog -- a scene which demonstrates how much more innocent than ours was the time in which these programs were made."The Iron Box" makes clever use of a calendrical conundrum also exploited by W.S. Gilbert in the plot of "The Pirates of Penzance".

"A Scandal in Bohemia" is an adaptation of Conan Doyle's first short story concerning Holmes, the story which also features **the** woman, Irene Adler.Rathbone's interpretation of Holmes' attitude toward Adler is interesting:rather than sounding infatuated with her or irritated that she outwits him, Rathbone's Holmes seems to become far more cheerful and jolly than usual at the thought that a woman like Irene exists."The Second Generation", which aired the week after "A Scandal in Bohemia", is an excellent sequel to that story set twenty years later and featuring Irene Adler's daughter.

"In Flanders Fields", set during World War I, caters to the somewhat warped attitudes of wartime audiences.It is rather disturbing to hear Holmes refer to Germany as "a nation of barbarians"."The Eyes of Mr. Leyton" begins with a sequence cribbed directly from the opening of Conan Doyle's "The Man With the Twisted Lip", and can scarcely be regarded as co-existing with that story in the same fictional continuity.It does, however, boast a highly suspenseful sequence in which Holmes seemingly vanishes in London's East End and Watson is unable to find him.

A story featuring Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Lestrade and a former member of the Moriarty gang, and in which Mrs. Hudson plays a far more proactive role than usual, might be expected to be an exercise in pandering to the desires of the Holmesian fan audience.In fact "The Tell Tale Pigeon Feathers" is one of the most ingenious and satisfying Holmes pastiches I have encountered.As with some other episodes, the second half is less strong than the first half, but this is still an excellent story."The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards" is a bizarre tale that plays much more strongly than usual on Watson's reputation as a ladies' man, even though it reminds us that Watson is married -- at a point in time when he is possibly not married in the Canon!Holmes' blind faith in Mr. Edwards' innocence, although ultimately justified, seems somewhat out of character, and Watson's willingness to take a fall for "Edwards" to avoid scandal is rather repellent to modern sensibilities.

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" is an excellent adaptation of one of Conan Doyle's best stories.Some of the changes from the original are quite interesting:the 1940's American radio audience was apparently felt to have a stronger sense of sexual morality than the 1920's readership of "The Strand", and thus the passage in which Conan Doyle makes clear, in restrained, tasteful language, that Gibson asked his children's governess to become his mistress is replaced with the statement that he asked her to marry him while knowing his wife would not grant him a divorce.The denouement also demonstrates a greater concern with gun safety on the part of the writers than Conan Doyle apparently had."The Double Zero" is a forgettable, predictable story set in the boringly cliched setting of a gambling casino.

As with the other installments in this series, the sound is far better than might be expected given the age of the recordings."Colonel Warburton's Madness" is not artistically perfect Holmes, but it is fun listening.

The best of Sherlock Holmes by Rathbone/Bruce
Finally it comes to CD, I wore the audiocassettes out, if you like using your imagination, turn down the lights and enjoy the two truest performers who ever graced a radio or soundstage. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce the only Holmes and Watson, like George Reeves was Superman and Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger.
Excellent sound, stories are interesting, clever and can be heard again and again!!!!Highly recommend!!

Pleased and Still Looking...
I am so happy I found these old Sherlock Holmes Radio shows on CD atBorders / Amazon...

I have enjoyed them for years on cassette...but they are so worn now...

Still, however I search for more...

I have to believe there must be more of these Shelock Holmes Radio Shows out there...

I am under the impression they were aired weekly in the 40's with what I was told ...very few reruns...

So...If you or anyone can clue me in???

And again...The "Splendid Service" I received from Borders / Amazon was greatly appreciated...


James J. Liden

More Sherlock Holmes adventures from Radio's Golden Age.
More unedited Radio Broadcasts from the late 30's and 40's with Rathbone and Bruce at their best. Originally released on Cassette many years ago but now for the first time on CD. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of mystery tales starring Sherlock Holmes and his loyal Dr. Watson features ""The Speckled Band"" and ""The Purloined Ruby."" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very Disappointed
I was very disappointed with the story The Speckled Band in this collection. It is so outlandish and its nothing like the original story. The rest of the stories were sensational but the production of The SpeckledBand, I expected better. ... Read more

Product Description
1965 Basil Rathbone Signed Contract -- 2pp. William Morris Agency Contract Signed & Initialed by Rathbone in Ink -- Water Damage & Wear ... Read more

Product Description
Fans of the immortal detective will be transported back to a world of mystery and imagination in this definitive collection of 50 episodes on 25 audio CDs. The legendary Sherlock Holmes radio series featuring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson have been lovingly restored, including the actual commercials that ran when they were first broadcast. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Roald Dahl, Graeme Garden, Harold Abrahams, Basil Rathbone, Nick Raynsford, Christopher Isherwood, Jeremy Clarkson, Denys Rayner, C. B. Fry, Michael Ramsey, Tom Chambers, Charles Granville Bruce, Sir John Smyth, 1st Baronet, Repton School, Blair Swannell, Vernon Watkins, Bunny Austin, D'ewes Coke, Guy Willatt, James Fenton, Harry Altham, Andrew Li, Harry Brittain, Arthur Foster, Stuart Hampshire, William Cope, 1st Baron Cope, Donald Carr, Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, Nicholas Burns, Gordon Matthews, Edward Upward, Arthur Cochrane, Arnold Cooke, Eric Maschwitz, John James Scott-Chisholme, George Denman, Reginald Hewetson, James Harford, Alastair Buchan, James Theodore Bent, John Stanley, Frank Hardcastle, John Burnett-Stuart, Scott Forbes, Charles Fry, Robert Sangster, Alfred Cochrane, John Grindrod, James Burns, 3rd Baron Inverclyde, Robert Grimston, 1st Baron Grimston of Westbury, Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, Frederick Waldegrave Head, Richard Ashton Beaumont, John Parker, Lionel Ford, Denton Welch, Cyril Edgar Stuart, Sir Charles Cayzer, 3rd Baronet, Richard Hutton, Arthur Burlton, Ronald Samuel Ainslie Williams, William Marshall, Sir Samuel Roberts, 1st Baronet, Robert Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley, John Edwin Sandys, Joseph Bosworth, Harry Topham, Benjamin Spilsbury, George Augustus Auden, Nick Gallop, Gilbert Curgenven, Martin Linton Smith, Alexander Spearman, Alan Hyman, Martin How, George Barrington, John Veale, Henry William Scriven, Julius Bertram, Jeffery Day, Percy Exham, Maxwell Homfray Maxwell-Gumbleton, Leslie Lang, Hugh Brogan, John Rolleston, Henry Wolfe Baines, Robert George Tomlinson, John Human, Kate Allan, Richard Shilleto, Irven David Edwards, Arnold Henry Page, Henry Curgenven, Richard Sale, Herbert Simmonds, Michael Henderson, John Peile, Clement Charlton Palmer, George Frederick Clucas, Anthony Otter, Sir Walter Jones, 2nd Baronet, Stafford Lightman, Eric Murray, Edwin Hardwick Moore, Sir Fred...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=265586 ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Frederik Willem de Klerk, Basil Rathbone, Steve Nash, Ernie Els, Gary Player, Helen Zille, Graeme Smith, Dave Matthews, Wayne Odesnik, Beth Tweddle, Olaf Kölzig, Daniel Lapin, Kgalema Motlanthe, Matt Prior, Frank Fenter, Ashley Callie, Paddy Driver, Al Bowlly, Craig Johnston, Jon Ekerold, Miriam Makeba, John Charles Daly, Jonathan Lewis, Jackie Selebi, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Dave Wittenberg, Jake White, Ronnie Kasrils, Rian Malan, Henry Benson, Baron Benson, John Perlman, Alistair Cragg, Jan Wilkens, Danny K, Justin Rose, Steven Pienaar, Gordon Hodgson, Dean Geyer, Samuel Kinkead, Esther Barsel, Ted Purdon, Danie Voges, Sharon Tandy, Neil Mckenzie, Aaron Mokoena, Pieter Aldrich, Davide Somma, Andrew Hall, Kitch Christie, Johan Botha, Kevin Carter, Kevin Anderson, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Nan Cross, Joe Vaz, Charl Schwartzel, Clive Rice, Kevin Harmse, Okey Geffin, Hermann Niebuhr, Neill Blomkamp, Hugh Baiocchi, Janet Suzman, Sydney Mufamadi, Steve Mokone, Sheila Piercey Summers, Stephen Salter, Kokan Popović, Andrew Surman, Hugh Beaver, Lindiwe Sisulu, Bill Perry, Justine Waddell, Jonti Richter, Isaac Witkin, Arnold Taylor, Andrew Parkinson, Michael Lumb, Matty Pattison, Gert Potgieter, Dimas Teixeira, Can Themba, Patrick Duncan, Robert Hunter, Ian Player, Roy Mclean, Ilana Kloss, Louis Hayward, Mickey Arthur, Jimmy Cook, Prince Leka of Albania, Robert Z. Lawrence, Fabio Barraclough, Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, John Kongos, Neil Dexter, John-Laffnie de Jager, Martin Israel, Aura Lewis, Justin Miller, Phyllis Spira, Nic Pothas, Joannette Kruger, Raymond Rahme, Allan Mcleod Cormack, Njabulo Ndebele, Hymie Kloner, Luca Bellisomo, David Smiedt, Manfred Mann, Gavin Hood, Mike Connell, Caron Bernstein, Gordon Schachat, Chris Goldie, Arthur Goldreich, Glynis Barber, Albert Johanneson, Richard Farrer, Cliff Durandt, Sinclair Beiles, Harold Hanson, Greg Albertyn, Brendan Venter, Lindsey Carlisle, Adrian Kuiper, Yunus Mohamed, Keri-Ann...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=346029 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Compilation of Dusty Tales
For the record, it is very likely that Basil Rathbone had nothing whatsoever to do with the publication of this book. His name and face appear on the cover, and that seems to be the extent of his involvement. There s no forward by Rathbone, no introduction, no dedication, not even a blurb on the back cover.

With that aside, this book is simply a collection of four public domain tales of suspense, all of which were penned by classic and respected authors. The stories include:

The Black Cat, by Edgar Allen Poe - Poe's immortal cautionary tale for anyone thinking of combining uxoricide with minor home improvements.

Rappaccini's Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne - A moral-heavy tale of poisonous science, poisonous love, poisonous dating, and poisonous flowers. Considering that Poe was often critical of Hawthorne's works, it is slightly ironic that these two tales were placed together in this book.

The House and the Brain, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton - Originally published as The Haunted and the Haunters, this is a classic haunted house story.

The Trial for Murder, by Charles Allston Collins and Charles Dickens - These two famous authors teamed up to tell this rather meager tale of clairvoyance and jury duty.

Green Tea, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - One in a series of mystery/suspense stories starring the deductive Dr. Martin Hesselius, in which a distraught clergyman is haunted by a specter in the form of an evil monkey.

A Terribly Strange Bed, by Wilkie Collins - A gambler on a winning streak is attacked by a canopy bed.

Old may not always mean better, but it can often mean cheaper. Chosen primarily for their lack of copyright, these six short stories are all roughly a century older than this book, and considerably older than Basil Rathbone. The oldest among them, Poe's Black Cat, was first published in 1843, a full 122 years before this title's first printing in 1965. While this isn't precisely a bad thing, book readers who purchased this back in the sixties were probably not prepared for a lesson in historical literature of the mid-eighteen hundreds.

There is a rather cool picture of Basil Rathbone's disembodied head on the cover, mind you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Basil Rathbone's autobiography is a great read
Reading Basil Rathbone's autobiography gave me the feeling that I was strolling alongside this consummate actor as he travelled through his life.I'm sure that most of us over fifty think of him primarily, or perhaps exclusively, as Sherlock Holmes' film protrayer.And even though he deserves a lifetime of kudos for those marvelous performances, we would honor his memory more appropriately if we also give him credit for his many magnificent stage performances in addition to other films where he wasn't wearing a Deerstalker hat and smoking a Meershcaum pipe.

I look forward to re-reading this book at least once every year from now on.It's a great trip alongside a very classy, well-educated, compassionate and talented human being.

... Read more

Product Description

Welcome to the Golden Age of Radio and the best in classic mystery.

From 1939-1946 Americans gathered around their radio to listen to The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- featuring Basil Rathbone as the high strung crime solver and Nigel Bruce as his phlegmatic assistant, Dr. Watson.

Witty, fast-paced and always surprising, these great radio plays -- written by the prolific writing team of Anthony Boucher and Denis Green -- are as fresh today as they were then.

The latest audio technology was employed to bring the best audio quality and fidelity to the original performances, which feature nostalgic war-time announcements, original commercials and radio narrations.

This special CD edition includes 12 of the series' best episodes:

• The Unfortunate Tobacconist and The Paradol Chamber
• The Viennese Strangler and The Notorious Canary Trainer
• The April Fool's Day Adventure and The Strange Adventure of the Uneasy Easy Chair
• The Strange Case of the Demon Barber and The Mystery of the Headless Monk
• The Amateur Mendicant Society and The Case of the Vanishing White Elephant
• The Case of the Limping Ghost and The Girl with the Gazelle ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Classic 40's radio mystery
If you like old time radio shows then this seriesis a 'must buy'. I owned the cassette tapes from the original release of these sets back in the late 80's. True reproduction right down to the Petri winecommercials. It's a neat trip to the past and is a must every Rathbone / Bruce fan.

"People have such difficulty with my name"
By 1945 the "Sherlock Holmes" radio series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce relied mostly on original stories written by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green, interspersed with a few Conan Doyle adaptations.The episodes on this first set of CDs are entirely original stories.As was inevitable when a writing team was commited to creating a new Holmes adventure every week, some of the stories are disappointing, but a few rank alongside the better prose pastiches that have been written over the years.

"The Unfortunate Tobacconist" is reminiscent of such Canonical tales as "The Engineer's Thumb" in that it presents an effective and memorable central situation, the resolution of which tails off at the end into offstage confusion in which Holmes and Watson are not directly involved.Nigel Bruce's Watson is even dumber than usual here, never having heard the expression "kick the bucket" and having to be told by Holmes to hide behind a counter rather than under it!

"The Paradol Chamber" is based on one of Watson's references in the original stories to unrecorded cases Holmes investigated.I had always imagined the Paradol Chamber to be a room in which someone was killed or in which Holmes and Watson were trapped and in danger of suffocating.The radio version fulfills both of these expectations, but the story constructed around them is extremely unsatisfactory in every other way.Mary Morstan Watson is depicted at the outset as far less than the intelligent woman she was in Conan Doyle's "Sign of Four", before suddenly becoming a deductive genius and saving Holmes and Watson at the end.

"The Viennese Strangler" is a highly enjoyable, campy story, especially memorable for the over-the-top character of an Italian opera diva.Unfortunately, it shares with "The Notorious Canary Trainer", the other story on the same CD, the device of Holmes frightening a confession out of the criminal in an unbelievable way.Conan Doyle himself actually left unwritten a Holmes story he had outlined -- "The Adventure of the Tall Man" -- apparently because it would have forced him to use such a denouement.

"The April Fool's Day Adventure" is unusual in being an extremely early case for Holmes and Watson, occurring less than a month after "A Study in Scarlet".The newness of Holmes and Watson's friendship is demonstrated by Holmes seriously considering Watson a potential suspect at one point.The climactic twist is lots of fun, although I saw it coming ten miles away.Rathbone seems to be making an effort to sound younger, but Bruce sounds as old and stuffy as ever; thus one must think of the story as being filtered through the elderly Watson's remembrance."The Strange Adventure of the Uneasy Easy Chair" suffers from its plot being somewhat given away by its title, which is not actually mentioned on the radio broadcast, presumably for that reason.

"The Strange Case of the Demon Barber" involves an actor playing the role of Sweeney Todd.Holmes himself is more likeable than usual in this episode."The Mystery of the Headless Monk" is an unusually dark story, particularly in its conclusion, which features some of the most chillingly effective acting in the series.One suspects that the reference to William Hope Hodgson's supernatural investigator character Carnacki sailed over the heads of most 1940's American listeners, let alone the modern-day audience.

"The Amateur Mendicant Society" -- another unrecorded adventure mentioned in the Canon -- is profoundly disappointing.Its first half is one of the best openings to a Holmes pastiche I have ever encountered, but the second half is a major letdown in which the story turns out to be about something entirely different from what it seemed."The Case of the Vanishing Elephant" takes place in India.The episode implies that Holmes -- wildly uncharacteristically -- has made the long, dangerous journey from England **without knowing what his client wants him to investigate**.

"The Case of the Limping Ghost", like "The Headless Monk", is a tale of debunking the supernatural.Amusingly, an American character seems to be voiced by Harry Bartel, the series' announcer, who is usually heard delivering the commercials for Petri wine!"The Girl with the Gazelle" is a Professor Moriarty story in which, as in Conan Doyle's "The Valley of Fear", Moriarty himself remains off-stage.It is a highly satisfying story of an ingenious scheme inspired by the Professor's love of the French artist Greuze.

Overall, this is a fun collection for anyone willing to countenance further adventures of the Great Detective beyond the sixty tales of Conan Doyle, and whose teeth are not instantly set on edge by Bruce's somewhat inauthentic (but loveable) characterization of Dr. Watson.

Really quite good
The stories are very good, and paint a suprisingly vidid picture.Nigel Bruce is a standout as always.I found that sitting quietly in a room listening to the "radio" was a bit dull, and was obviously replaced with television for good reason.However, while commuting, a long car trip, or on a flight, this radio series is an excellent way to enjoy the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.The old time commercials are a great touch.

Pure ambrosia!
I can only add my enthusiastic approval to that of the previous reviewers -- here is a happier world of mystery, mood, and the magic of radio, where two fine actors bring the beloved Holmes & Watson to glorious life. The period commercials are a delightful bonus, as is the ever-present organ music. The stories themselves are superb examples of pastiche, written with a deep knowledge & understanding of the characters. But in the end, it's those wonderful actors, Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce, who bring the listener back time & time again. Was there ever a Holmes as precise & eloquently spoken as Rathbone's? And while Watson was actually a stronger figure in the Doyle originals, who can resist the warm, avuncular version of Nigel Bruce, all "Harrumph!" with a jolly twinkle in his befuddled eye? So sit back, relax with your glass of Petri wine, and let these long-ago voices return you to a golden age. You'll want to get every collection in this series -- most highly recommended!

2nd IN THE SERIESA MUST HAVE!!
The radio programs are exactly as they were 70 years ago, crisp, new refereshing, a time when the world lay on the brink of world war, here people could forget for awhile. I have all 4 sets of the series, it is a must for anyone wishing to slip back in time and hear what the imagination can conjure up.
Top Drawer!!!! ... Read more