The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 1)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For several years, the London doctor and war veteran John Watson was privileged to be a companion and friend to Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all time. Following along on his investigations, he chronicled their various adventures - the scandalous, the dangerous, even the occasional minor diversion - in these stories.
REVIEW: After the character Sherlock Holmes proved wildly popular, Doyle featured him in several short stories beyond his novels. This, the first collection of those stories, includes many titles made famous by various interpretations through the years. Sometimes Holmes seems a little too brilliant to be believable, and one story at least - the infamous "Case of the Speckled Band" - simply could not happen in our universe, but even at their most implausible the characters remained interesting and singular. Given my notoriously poor luck with anthologies, I gave it an extra half-star for not boring me to tears or making a mockery of its stated subject matter. I expect I'll be reading more of Holmes in the future, especially as the originals have lapsed into public domain (and are therefore available free on my Kindle.)
(I've also greatly enjoyed the latest BBC revival of the character; the more stories I read, the more references I'm finding in the new Sherlock episodes.)
Nice post about the Sherlock Holmes canon :)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the Russian adaptation with Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes.
Cheers!