November 2011

Oh, Sherlock Holmes, where have you been all my life?

"Abstinence works!"
--Rick Perry

Murder! Intrigue! Theft! Blackmail! Here, in two novels and 36 stories, are some of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by his trusty friend and sidekick Dr. John Watson, from their first fateful meeting to Holmes's apparent death and surprising return, and beyond--featuring murderous Mormons, Klansmen without Konscience, mysterious American ladies with mysterious pasts, kidnappers, waywar More...

Sherlock Holmes become popular for decades and most of his adventures had been adapted to movies, graphic novels, animation and books related to him. But who's this guy who created the best detective of all time? Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish physician and a writer, created one of the best classic detectives. He was born weak when he was young and become alone most of his life but writing is never a hindrance on his part.

He was inspired to write Sherlock Holmes when he practice his medicine in More...

This is the first of a two volume set containing all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s published works featuring Sherlock Holmes. Collected here in order of original publication, this first volume includes the first two novels (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four), followed by the first two collections of short stories (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) and ends with the third novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Overall, it a wonderful collection featuring some of the m More...

It's amazing how much English literature became less dense between Austen, Dickens and Thackeray to Doyle. I admit I was avoiding reading this because I thought it would take the same level of time and commitment as a Dickens novel, but I was (pleasantly) surprised by how much easier it was to read.

I really enjoyed reading this compilation of four of Doyle's Holmes novels. It's easy to see why so many people love Sherlock Holmes and the books are so widely read.

However, I have to admit that "A More...

Since 8th grade I have been head over heals for Holmes. I guess I just like moody intellectuals. It is so intertaining to watch him demonstrate his superior intellect again and again. I am really glad I picked these up a B&N. It's great to have all of Sherlock Holmes in two volumes.

While not exactly what I would call compelling reading, this is a nice collection of stories that are probably best enjoyed over breakfast, or perhaps on the subway ride to work. I know it's sacrilege, but I find Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories to be a bit underwhelming, though completely readable. They are expertly written, but very dry (after the British style of the day) and the setting up of each mystery usually takes about three times as long as the subsequent investigation and rendering of More...

Since I’ve been reading this off and on since February (yeah, that’s right, ten months!), I’ve forgotten a lot of particular criticisms and compliments for individual mysteries. So, although I can’t be exactly in-depth with this, I can account for the general, over-all feel of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

When I first started reading, I found it difficult to picture Holmes and Watson as younger men. They’re in their mid-30s, probably, but for some reason the tone of the book makes them feel like More...

Usually, I foolishly use all 10,000 available characters to ramble on pointlessly about lackluster fare including Owen Brookes’s “Inheritance”, Michael Hornburg’s “Downers Grove”, and Jack MacLane’s “Just Before Dark”; pedestrian trash with little substance that no one is ever going to bother reading, much less reading reviews on. These books are generally short and pointless, but I always have some tangent I feel I need to rap about, wasting my time and yours as well (the latter isn’t such a bi More...

You wanna know why I love Sherlock Holmes so much? Really? And why I've read every novel and story Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote concerning the character, as well as many of the modern adventures and nearly all the film and TV adaptations? Because Sherlock Holmes is a magnificent a--hole. Seriously; because he's brilliant, and haughty, and doesn't affect a false modesty to appease any of the dimwitted swarm around him, and is actually rewarded for this in Conan Doyle's Victorian London world, in More...

Well, i am still due the second volume but this won't prevent me from writing a review for volume 1

To be honest, i am a dieheart sherlock Holmes fan and hence i am all praises for it. It is brilliant piece of work for people who basically enjoys the intelligent reading where while you reading your mind is also at work with the famous protagonist.

What makes it different from other novels or stories of the same genre is its basic approach toward the logic and inference. The readers are subjected More...

I found a lovely old edition with the same contents as this one in a library book shop, published in 1950 by Heritage Press, with a bas relief portrait on Sherlock Holmes on the front cover and a selection of the magazine illustrations that accompanied the stories when originally published. I mostly wanted the book itself--I like it as an object--but decided to read a bit. Two weeks and about 800 pages later, I'm through it, and my admiration for Conan Doyle's achievement is higher than ever.

Th More...

Elementary reading

Of course, the stories and novels themselves are classics that are beyond criticism. Extremely influental till the present day in all media (from Basil Rathbone's seminal portrayal over Benedict Cumberbatch's nicotine addict over Robert Downey Jr's kung-fu-fightin' man to Johnny Lee Miller's facial antics clownery), there is not much to be said about them that has not been said a hundred times over.

Thus many people will know Sherlock Holmes - but a large percentage probably ha More...

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Reading Sherlock stories in their order of creation is enlightening, especially with Kyle Freeman’s introductory commentary. Rather than merely enjoying each story as an individual for its fun dialogue and plot, you can watch the personality growth of Watson and the writing style shift of Doyle as the adventures of Sherlock progress.

Unfortunately, despite the fun in the science of deductive reasoning and in Sherlock’s pretentious genius, Doyle’s writing lacks energy. It is very steady and withou More...

The actual edition that I read was:
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Kyle Freeman (Editor)

I am unable to locate that edition on the Goodreads search engine.

The Holmes canon is one of my lifetime favorites. I read and re-read my thick compilation of the stories and novels many times as a child. This was my first return to them since then.

In the meantime, I grew up (some), and wrote a few books. Being a writer, I take a different More...

Not a review but notes written for the sole enjoyment of Dr. Snort:

1. Read both Volume I and II in one sitting, which severely diminished my reading pleasure. Nobody to blame but myself, but I was determined to finish every single story because I was afraid I'd abandon it if I took a break to read something else.

2. Sherlock Holmes is easily one of the most enigmatic characters to exist in literature. I see why many rational adults worship him.

3. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle belongs to the "tell, More...

This is a collection of the Sherlock Holmes stories in order.

My summation: I like it.

It's classic literature. It's enjoyable to read not just for the stories contained within, but because of the tone and way its written. Watson narrates the goings on of Sherlock Holmes from his own perspective and it very much gives off that sort of feel. It's his perspective so we see what HE sees, and not necessarily what Sherlock sees... or rather... deduces.

Its always a fun time trying to see if you can f More...

Hardly the best thing written under the sun for a number of reasons:

-Occasionally dull passages, especially the entire back story to a Study in Scarlet

-Horrible blatant racism that can be attributed to the times

- The difficulty of the reader to only see through Watson's eyes... you always wind up feeling like it's impossible to understand Holmes.

But, for all the strikes the friendship that lies in between all of the mystery and crime is what makes the series interesting so far. Watson and Holmes More...

A delight to read! I suppose there are a reason some books become classics, and after reading it I can certainly see why the adventures of Sherlock Holmes are one such thing.

"The Hounds of Baskerville", unsurprisingly, is my favorite. "A Study in Scarlet" is the first of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories, and it's clear he doesn't have the pacing perfect yet. I was pretty confused when we jumped to Utah after the first part, and I was seriously concerned Doyle was never goin More...

I started with A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four back in 2010 & was instantly intrigued with Doyle's style & the character of Sherlock. I picked up the volume again last summer & read thru the 12 Adventures. I liked the short story format; it was good for quick little snippets of reading. I picked the volume back up again in January & read through the 11 Memoirs; finishing them up last night. I decided to dive into The Hound of the Baskervilles last night as well and ended More...

My dad is a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, so I know a lot of the stories from seeing the Jeremy Brett version of the Mystery TV Series, but I don't think I've ever really read the stories. This edition from Barnes & Noble is amazing--the introductions (yes, two!) alone are worth the price. They give such insight into the character and the stories. The most interesting thing was learning that all of the trappings we typically associate with Sherlock Holmes--the deerstalker cap, the cape, the curv More...

I'd read most of these stories already, but there were a few I needed to say "I've read them all!" I enjoy Holmes and Watson immensely. I don't get as put off Holmes' personality as many people do because some of his more bombastic-sounding statements strike me as merely Victorian rather than the product of a very difficult genius (maybe it's because I've read so much Dickens? I don't know). I'm not saying he isn't a genius, but he's definitely a product of his era. He even gets downright sentim More...

It's not often that I can thank Barnes & Noble. So thank you, Barnes & Noble, for having a fantastic classics section in general and, specifically, two volumes devoted to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

I've never read any of Sherlock Holmes before. The funny story is that I saw the film (the 2009 version, directed by Guy Ritchie, and featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson) and was confused by two things: Sherlock Holmes has some boxing ability, and More...

Okay, this volume compiles the first five published Sherlock Holmes in one collection.

I have rated each individual work like so:

A Study In Scarlet -- 3 stars
The Sign of Four -- 4 stars
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- 4 stars
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes -- 3 stars
The Hound of Baskervilles -- 5 stars

This averages out to four stars.

The first selection segueways into a third person section that I don't think quite works. The second selection has an intriguing and thought-provoking villain. The More...

Wow, there is a reason why these stories are so enduring. Everyone is familiar with at least some of Sherlock Holmes stories, or at least some of Sherlock Holmes' characteristics - he is the master of deductive reasoning - an eccentric man always accompanied by his long-suffering sidekick and friend Watson. But you realize when you read his stories (and there are many of them - more than 750 pages worth) that movies are still being made about this guy because the stories are really very well wri More...

I've only read A Study in Scarlet from this collection, which was my intention. I'd lean toward 4 stars but I can't say how the rest of the book turns out. I definitely want to read the rest of the book--which totally suprises me--but not right at the moment. I've always been anti-Sherlock Holmes. Turns out he's not so bad after all.

4 stars, why? The obvious, far too repetitive. I'm sure that when these where written they were wonderful works, most all of them. But alas, for the current reader they are far too repetitive, going through all of Holmes' methods every story. This begins to become tedious work reading about the exact same thing over and over again, understandably.

Overall though the stories where quite interesting, each giving insight into the brilliant mind of Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson. Holmes' methods More...

I'll admit my interest was first piqued by the 2009 depiction of Holmes and Watson by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, but wow, these stories are entertaining. I love Holmes; for me there has rarely been a character I have found so beloved or identified with so readily (though it was more for his odd habits than his insightful observations). Each story in this volume follows a pretty standard formula of getting the case, investigating, and then solving (most of the time) but for some reason, it r More...

I read some of these a long time ago with Brandon, then just finished the rest on my own. I love Sherlock Holmes! His methods are so fascinating and entertaining, and I enjoy the writing style. I do think, though, that often Doyle was less concerned with accuracy than with sensationalism in the way he portrays other cultures. His depiction of Mormons in A Study in Scarlet was all you could expect, I suppose, from someone who had only heard rumors that had traveled across a continent and ocean. A More...