”My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the character of Sherlock Holmes -the greatest detective of all time. If you haven’t read even one story of these adventures, you should at least read the novels: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear.
The main characters in the book, Sherlock Holmes & Dr. John Watson are pretty interesting. They are deep (well at least Sherlock is) and I enjoy how they can work together despite Sherlock being bored vigilante, drug addict and misanthrope. One other interesting character for me is also Irene Adler. She basically appears in only one of the stories and you never quite know who she is.
“I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes
Probably some of the stories might seem a bit boring but you’ll find ones that will be your favorite ones too. I think towards the end the stories got a bit more dull than the ones in the beginning. For me, it was quite long read because even if you are fast reader, the story (and Sherlock) are building up slower.
“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
I’d give this book 8/10
How-To Read Sherlock Holmes
1. Start by finding edition that has all of the stories. It might be painful to find all books if you want to find all the stories in separate books.
2.Depends on the amount you read but I would recommend this book for above 12 years old. Also, editions that have all of the stories are also quite lengthy, over 1000 pages. If you prefer reading ebooks, they are all in project Gutenberg.
3. Sherlock Holmes does not once use the sentence “elementary, my dear Watson“. He also doesn’t call himself a psychopath, but a highly functioning sociopath. Not in the book.
4. You will like this a lot if you enjoy mystery novels and detective stories. You might be annoyed by the fact how seemingly superior skills Sherlock Holmes has. Also if you are used to American English, then British English might make you think of some sentences and words.
5. Look into the multiple great movie and television adaptations, you will definitely find one or two that you will enjoy watching. (Newest Sherlock series (2010-) is definitely my #1 at the moment.)
6. It’s very nice to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes, at least there’s always enough of different adaptations. However, it’s important not to expect this book to be similar to those.
What Sherlock Holmes story is your favorite? What adaptation of a movie is your favorite one?
As this is my last post in 2014, I want to wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015! Keep writing and reading great blogs! See you next year!