The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

[MiA]

Good to know. Thx Karena and Ali. :D

[Joseph “Millennium Man”]

I finished "A Study In Scarlet." The story began with the background of Dr. Watson and how he became to know Holmes.

[Robert]

Today I completed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. My review is here.

After letting it sit for a few days, I picked it up and again and moved forward. It's a fine read, but nothing particularly special, imo.

I may tackle Memoirs . . . in my effort to move forward in the chronology.

[Kel]

I confess, despite having seen a number of film and television adaptations, I had never before read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories of Sherlock. I've now read two and, though they were entertaining, I felt like the mysteries were pretty simply solved.

Even with Watson only noticing and/or presenting half the clues, I knew where things were headed. Of course, I'm inclined to think it due to my having seen the film/TV adaptions, not to mention various crime dramas; but it does make me wonder whether I'd be able to solve the mysteries otherwise or, like Watson, stand back and be amazed.

[Rayann]

I must say that BBC's Sherlock had me interested in the stories. I still haven't read them all though I've enjoyed the ones I've finished!

I just wished I'd discovered them earlier and without the prompting of the tv show. However, I'm thankful to Moffat & Gatiss for that!

[MiA]

I enjoyed some of the adventures but others didn't appeal to me much. Some of them were really obvious and I believe that a good detective story shouldn't be this way. Maybe because it's a collection of short stories that there were no place for elaborate details and grand schemes. I think I'll try one of the novels of Holmes, A Study in Scarlet perhaps, because I'm curious about how Holmes and Watson came to work together in the first place.

[Christopher]

Marwa wrote: "I enjoyed some of the adventures but others didn't appeal to me much. Some of them were really obvious and I believe that a good detective story shouldn't be this way. Maybe because it's a collecti..."

Marwa, you have got to remember the time that these were published (late 19th Century-early 20th Century). They weren't the first detective novels (Wilkie Collins 'The Moonstone' was the first)or the first short stories (Edgar Allan Poe was the first to do that) but COnan Doyle was the most prolific until Agatha Christie. There is some psychological depth in them but not much. All Conan Doyle was really interested in was plot development and because most of them were short stories character depth was not his priority.


if you do want a story to start with, 'A Study In Scarlet' was the first story. 'The Hound of the Baskervilles was the best novel that Conan Doyle wrote (apart from 'The Lost World)Also, whoever said that Conan Doyle was predictable has not read Hound of the Baskervilles where it is Watson and not Holmes who is mostly involved in the action.

[MiA]

Christopher wrote: "Marwa wrote: "I enjoyed some of the adventures but others didn't appeal to me much. Some of them were really obvious and I believe that a good detective story shouldn't be this way. Maybe because i..."

Thanks a lot for the insight, Christopher. Of course, I wasn't saying that Doyle was the first to write a detective/short story. I was merely pointing out that they weren't as exciting as I expected the mighty Holmes to be (personal opinion). Even the plot wasn't developed in the way a riddle should stimulate the brain for the subtle clues laid before it (again it's a personal opinion). There were times when reading the narrative of Holmes's client solves the puzzle instead of giving you ample time to figure it out during Holmes's investigation of it, as in the Red Headed League and a few others. So it was at some points enjoyable to me but not exciting as a good detective story should be.

[Jess :)]

For the reading group I fit in A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I am now slowly making my way through Adventures. This really has not drawn me in as the two novels did, though I am enjoying the book. The stories are entertaining & very light---a perfect diversion from the novels I have going!
I agree that the short stories are less mysterious and of course have little plot development. I'm just not sure that I can criticize Doyle for this. How subtle can 30-page detective story really be? Sure, he could invent a solution that is not at all obvious, but unless the reader can piece together some parts on his/her own, that would likely be even less satisfying.

[Mart]

I haven't read Holmes since I was a wee whippersnapper and I'm thoroughly enjoying going through them again. Great choice for this month CWatC-ers.

[Jenny]

I finished Adventures last week. They didn't grip me as much as I thought they would, but I did enjoy them. As others have said I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. My favorites were The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, The Man with the Twisted Lip, and the Adventure of Engineer's Thumb. I have the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes, but I don't think I'll be in a rush to continue it.

[Danaë]

My goal was to read the complete works this month, but I only made it halfway through. Turns out I can only read/listen to so many detective stories back to back before they start to blur together. :) The Hound of the Baskervilles was definitely my favorite of the 3 novellas I read (A study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four were the others). I read the Adventures and the Memoirs too. I think my favorite stories were the Copper Beeches and The Yellow Face. I listened to most of the stories as Librivox recordings and found it interesting how Sherlock could come across as abrasive or congenial depending on the reader.

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished reviewing A Scandal in Bohemia (chapter by chapter).

I enjoyed it very much!