It's like a magician's trick of misdirection. The second story in the volume, 'The Red-Headed League,' is a real head-scratcher, a mystery with one of Doyle's clever solutions that seems obvious after it is revealed-an irony that Doyle has Holmes himself point out in many a story. It's not the greatest mystery, hardly a mystery at all, but an entertaining tale of police work, almost a thriller. In my opinion, however, and probably that of most readers, Doyle's version is better. To be fair, Doyle's story is itself a variation on a much earlier detective story, Edgar Allan Poe's The Purloined Letter of 1845. This story as it is often singled out for television The first Adventure, 'A Scandal in Bohemia,' brings him up against the woman who to Holmes However, two of the most popular-and enduring-Holmes tales lead off The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. But it isn't at all required to read the stories as given in order to appreciate them. They do follow some kind of chronology-though 'Watson' jumps around a bit with the order, which gives Holmes fanatics (whose numbers are legion the job of figuring out when in real time each of the fictions is thought to have taken place. Most of the stories appeared in The Strand Magazine in London before being collected into book volumes. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, because there are great Holmes entries in each of these volumes.īetter yet, pick up a complete works (they're cheap enough now) and delve into them at will. Several stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes along with some from later volumes, namely The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes then gets right down to it, with its 12 short stories pitting the sleuth and his narrating sidekick against some of his best puzzles and cleverest enemies.Ĭhances are, however, you won't easily find this particular volumeīut will more likely lay your hands on a collection of Sherlockiana that includes The Sign of Four had developed Holmes's persona and surroundings further.

Watson had first met Holmes but which had featured the detective for less than half the story. But if you're looking for an introduction to the famous works, The Adventures opf Sherlock Holmes (1892) is a good choice, as it presents Doyle's detective character fully fledged-and includes some of his most intriguing mysteries.Īt this point in the canon, before The Adventures, Holmes had already appeared in two novels, starting with A Study in Scarlet, in which Dr. When we're talking about Arthur Conan Doyle's contribution to detective literature, we really mean the entire oeuvre of fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories, plus four Holmes novels.

The adventures of sherlock holmes book