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 he occasionally takes cocaine. This led me to decide that I actually know nothing about Sherlock Holmes, and if I was going to get in on that debate about whether or not he's actually using deductive reasoning, I'd need to read the stories. (My opinion, by the way, is that he is using deductive reasoning).

People who want to read the stories in order are going to be a little out of place, though it's not for lack of organization on the part of Karl Freeman, who wrote the introduction and notes, or on Barnes & Noble. Indeed, the stories seem to be published in the order in which Doyle wrote them (which is not necessarily the same as publishing order), so what can you do except blame Doyle himself. By reading the introduction, you get a fair understanding of Doyle getting a bit tired of his masterful Sherlock Holmes, but heck, the stuff keeps selling, (view spoiler)[so Sherlock Holmes comes back from the dead (in the second volume) and everything. (hide spoiler)]

One thing that threw me off is the introduction of Professor Moriarty. Freeman talks quite a bit about Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty in the introduction to this volume, since the story is within the volume itself, but the story is pretty short and, before you know it, it's rather over. Somehow, for me, that kind of fits in with the Sherlock Holmes literature in ways I can't entirely explain. All of the stories contain some familiar markers in that Sherlock Holmes is somewhat predictable in attitude and action, but the stories really range in development, plotline, and outcome.

What I like so far about the stories is that Sherlock Holmes is fairly consistent. He's described as machine-like in his logic, but the man laughs and is astonished like the rest of us (perhaps a little more so, when he's acting a bit mad). To be honest, one of the main reasons I wanted to read these stories is to learn of the relationship between Holmes and Watson, and I was in no way unhappy with the result. Sherlock Holmes may only have one friend, but that friendship is clearly a deep and important one.

Surprisingly easy to read and understand, the stories are wonderful, and I'm glad that I finally took the time to read half of them. Now on to the other half!