The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1986) - Plot & Excerpts
A Study in Scarlet: The first novel featuring the prototypical detective, it was a page-turner that made me excited to read the rest of the Sherlock Holmes canon. I was unnecessarily concerned when the second part of the novel opened in America, and did not seem to concern the original mystery that was set in England, but it came back and tied it together successfully. The Sign of the Four: Not only was this story's mystery on par with the Jefferson Hope case, it also fleshed out the characters of both Holmes and Watson, making them more three-dimensional and interesting.The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: 'A Scandal in Bohemia' was very reminiscent of Poe's 'The Purloined Letter.' 'The Red Headed League' was especially engaging, possibly because it was the first mystery I solved before Holmes exposed his thinking to Watson at the conclusion. 'A Case of Identity' was a quick and not particularly fulfilling case. 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' was really interesting, but was the first that seemed to end abruptly. 'The Five Orange Pips' was also quite interesting, and also ended abruptly. 'The Man with the Twisted Lip' seemed to be a darker tale, with its opium den intro, but did not maintain its macabre mood after it left that setting. 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' was reportedly Arthur Conan Doyle's favorite Sherlock Holmes story, and with good reason. It was definitely one of my favorites so far. That story, and 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle', both showed interesting takes on Holmes view of legality and morality. 'The Adventures of the Copper Beeches' was a fitting conclusion to the book.The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: I loved that the idea of unsolved cases, and cases which Holmes got wrong, was touched on in 'The Yellow Face.' I also really enjoyed the second case of Holmes foiling a bank robbery con, 'The Stockbroker's Client.' 'The Gloria Scott', told as a memory of Sherlock Holmes's first case, served as an origin story of sorts for the detective, which gave it more weight than any other stand-alone tale. 'The Musgrave Ritual' was a continuation of Holmes recantation of his earlier cases, and was interesting for that reason, as well as for being reminiscent of Poe's 'The Gold Bug.' I appreciated this collection of short stories more than the first because it delves deeper into the main characters' lives -- such as meeting Sherlock Holmes's brother Mycroft in 'The Greek Interpreter' and his nemesis Professor Moriarty in 'The Final Problem.'The Hound of the Baskervilles: This mystery will be hard to top, and I understand completely why it is considered the greatest of the Holmes stories. I especially enjoyed Watson's more prominent role in the case.The Return of Sherlock Holmes: I enjoyed that some of the cases in this collection involve plots beyond Holmes's deduction, which are nonetheless interesting -- such as 'The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,' where Holmes and Watson save the day without solving the crime logically, and 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,' where they witness a murder while committing a crime themselves. 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton' may actually be my favorite Sherlock Holmes story to date.The Valley of Fear: This story had the same structure as A Study in Scarlett, but in this case, the reader is warned that the second half of the tale is set in America and assured that it will return to Baker Street. The second part that didn't feature Sherlock Holmes was actually more interesting than the first part, which started off slow and a little stale, but picked up as it went.His Last Bow: 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box', a story so dark it was taken out of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes due to its controversial subject matter, is one of Holmes's darkest cases, one which I enjoyed reading. 'The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans' was a top-rate mystery, featuring a rare appearance by one of my favorite characters -- Mycroft Holmes. 'The Dying Detective' and 'His Last Bow,' which was told in the third person, were also unique. I am impressed that even after reading this many stories featuring the detective and his chronicler, Arthur Conan Doyle's mysteries are still both fresh and interesting.The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: After reading the preface by the author, I honestly felt bad for Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes had clearly become a monster, akin to Frankenstein's creation, for him. Reading the first story, 'The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone,' I am glad that he stopped after this collection, as it was not on the same level with his previous stories. Apparently, it was a (failed) attempt to adapt a stage play.
Sherlock HolmesBy: Tej KuruvillaSir Arthur Conan Doyle had a great mind that has masterpieced some of the greatest mystery stories ever, known as Sherlock Holmes. He has made a variety of stories for suspenseful readers to bury oneself in.The ones that I’ve read are The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge, The singular experience of John Scott Eccles, The Tiger of San Pedro (of which are all one big story), The Adventure of the Cardboard box, The Adventure of the Red Circle. Each story consists of marvelous conundrums that are all cracked beneath the hands of the ingenious Sherlock Holmes.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had these short stories that are not common. It would seem like forever you were kept amongst his stories. The one thing I loved about his stories is some of his sayings. He wrote “‘What is the meaning of it, Watson?’ said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. ‘What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.’” Which I think this symbolizes peace. I think that because he is saying how there is violence all around us and if we do not stop God just may punish us forever.I think that my favorite part in the whole book is in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box when they talk about what happens when Miss Cushing gets a parcel from Belfast, Ireland. I love how they show suspects and also talk about what is in the parcel. The Newspaper said “Miss Susan Cushing, living at Cross Street, Croydon, has been made the victim, of what must be regarded as a peculiarly revolting practical joke unless some more sinister meaning should prove to be attached to the incident. At two o’clock yesterday afternoon a small packet, wrapped in brown paper, was handed in by the postman. A cardboard box was inside, which was filled with coarse salt. On emptying this, Miss Cushing was horrified to find two human ears, apparently quite freshly severed. The box had been sent by parcel post from Belfast upon the morning before. There is no indication as to the sender, and the matter is the more mysterious as Miss Cushing, who is a maiden lady of fifty, has led a most retired life, and has so few acquaintances or correspondents that it is a rare event for her to receive anything through post. Some years ago, however, when she resided at Penge, she let apartments in her house to three young medical students, whom she was obliged to get rid of on account of their noisy and irregular habits. The police are of opinion that this outrage may have been perpetrated upon Miss Cushing by these youths, who owed her a grudge and who hoped to frighten her by sending her these relics of the dissecting-rooms. Some probability is lent to the theory by the fact that one of these students came from the north of Ireland, and, to the best of Miss Cushing’s belief, from Belfast. In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, being charge of the case.”I think that this shows me, and possibly many other people, perfect clarity of what just happened and is needed to know.Finally, I think that these stories aren’t just the greatest of mysteries, but the whole root of mystery-making itself. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle master pieced these stories from one single idea thought upon his head. With this, he created the unmitigated Sherlock Holmes that has suspense readers clinging on the edge of their seats waiting for what would happen.
What do You think about The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1986)?
The Complete Sherlock Holmes...I happened to finish Dan Simmons's The Fifth Heart recently, and was a little put out about how he treated Sherlock in some spots. Having now finished the complete stories and novels - okay, yeah. Lots of inconsistencies, many stories a long stone's throw from fair, repetitive plotlines, and those stupid stories that are Sherlock intro, Sherlock epilogue...and a mass of adventure from America that I couldn't care less about. Sherlock is a heartless bastard, all right, maybe not as catastrophically hopeless as a human being as in The Fifth Heart, but definitely not a nice guy. Lots of brilliance here, of course - but lots of stories that don't ring even remotely true.
—DeAnna Knippling
I just started it and love it already. It needs to be the next book club book.I am almost done with the first story, A Study in Scarlet. I have loved reading it, but I wanted to warn any friends who were planning on reading this to be aware, at the end of the mystery Doyle takes the reader to America to explain what just happened in the mystery. You need to remember that Doyle was living in England and probably had no contact with anyone of the LDS faith. Probably all he'd ever heard were outrageous rumors about the Church. It seems that he put them all, as well as some imaginings of his own, into the last 60 pages of the story and it's all very anti-Mormon. I have about 20 pages to go to the end and I am assuming the last 20 pages will be just as anti as the preceding 40.The story is still interesting and fun to read, despite the incredibly stupid things he thinks about Latter-Day Saints. I am assuming the rest of his mysteries have nothing to do with the Church and therefore, I still plan on reading the rest of the book.
—Kellie
The best versions of this books are those that include the original (and approved by the author) illustrations, which add a lot to the experience. I recommend the Collector's Library Omnibus Edition, if you can find it now.As for the stories themselves, they are classics for a reason. They are not proper mysteries in the modern sense, since the reader doesn't get all the clues needed to solve the problem before the detective explains it. Of course, not having to follow such rules also allows for more variety and suspence in this case. Holmes gets to investigate everything form murder and abduction, to jewel theft and fraud, with some non-criminal scandals in between. There are also a few spy stories thrown in. And almost every time he manages to solve the case by observing all the details everyone else misses, and considering every possibility, even if it makes people wonder if they should be getting him into the asylum instead of asking him to help. Between cases, he spends his time keeping records on every crime and criminal in England, studying every subject which might help in an investigation and getting to know every person in London who can give him behind-the-scenes information when he needs it. In each story, the reader is shown every step he takes in the investigation, and once in a while might guess the solution by the steps Holmes takes. This, and the fact that Holmes is good at giving very logical explanations of how he deduced something is what makes him and his methods belieavable. In fact, the police of that time picked up a few tricks straight from these books and the author used the methods he wrote about and solved a couple of real crimes on his own.Apart from that, there are plenty of the action scenes and human drama one can find in the crime genre, even if they aren't what made the books so famous. The main characters are also great. Sherlock Holmes is a perfect gentleman with a strong sense of justice on the outside, but is also quirky, snarky, unsociable and a bit of a jerk. He is fun to read about and the occassional moment where he shows he has a good heart deep down are quite touching. Watson is a good sidekick who worships the ground Holmes walks on, helps with the fights and the legwork, once in a while has to do an investigation on his own and mostly fails, asks all the questions the reader wants to ask and is also the narrator of the stories. And there are the other characters like Mycroft, Moriarty and Irene Adler, although they don't appear as much as adaptations would lead you to believe. All around, there is enough to keep the casual reader interested in reading 60 stories of one detective.There are four novels and five short story collections, which is 9 books and 60 stories. The series starts with the first novel "A Study in Scarlet". It's not as good as later stories, since the story is simple, half the book is the criminal's backstory is the Wild West and we don't get any explanations until after that. It is only an introduction to Holmes and his methods, and the story of how he and Watson met, and the impatient reader should start with the stories in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection or with The Hound of Baskervilles. Otherwise, the order I would recommend is:A Study in ScarletThe Sign of the FourThe Adventures of Sherlock HolmesThe Hound of the BaskervillesThe Valley of FearThe Memoirs Of Sherlock HolmesThe Return of Sherlock HolmesThe Casebook of Sherlock HolmesHis Last Bow
—Madeleine27
