Das war... lang.
Aber es sind ja auch eigentlich 5 Bücher die ich in einem gelesen habe.

Es gab definitiv einige Aufs und Abs beim Lesen. Die Romane sind im Vergleich zu den Kurzgeschichten tatsächlich etwas speziel. Ich mag A Study in Scarlet aber sehr, weil sich Holmes und Watson kennenlernen auch wenn die Hälfte der Story nichts mit Holmes Art zu ermitteln zu tun hat, sondern die Vorgeschichte der Tat erzählt. Die Vorgeschichte fand ich aber super interessant.

Die Kurzgeschichten sind auch sehr durchwachsen.
In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes gibt es ein paar coole Fälle aber zwischendrin ein paar, die weniger interessant sind. Durch Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes musste ich mich etwas kämpfen, weil ich da sehr viele der Fälle schwach fand. Das Ende mit The Final Problem war dann aber doch emotionaler als ich erwartet hätte. The Return of Sherlock Holmes hat mir am meisten gefallen und ich hatte das Gefühl, dass die Fälle hier viel spannender waren. Zumindest haben mir hier fast alle gefallen.

Was ich am schönsten an den Stories finde, ist die Entwicklung der Freundschaft von Holmes und Watson. Ich mag wie sich die Charaktere weiterentwickeln, wie sie sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und wie kontinuierlich die Charakterentwicklung von statten geht. Es wird immer wieder auf alte Fälle Bezug genommen und die beiden ziehen Konsequenzen aus Ihren Abenteuern. So ist besonders in The Return of Sherlock Holmes die Beziehung zwischen den beiden so ausgeglichen, intim und eingespielt, dass es einfach nur Spaß macht, ihre Dialoge und Erlebnisse zu lesen.

Ich bin jedenfalls gespannt, was Volume II so mit sich bringen wird.

3 1/2 stars. Took me FOREVER to finish this book! I enjoyed it, but I think it should be split into two volumes.

Wow, there is a reason why these stories are so enduring. Everyone is familiar with at least some of Sherlock Holmes stories, or at least some of Sherlock Holmes' characteristics - he is the master of deductive reasoning - an eccentric man always accompanied by his long-suffering sidekick and friend Watson. But you realize when you read his stories (and there are many of them - more than 750 pages worth) that movies are still being made about this guy because the stories are really very well written. Most of his stories are no longer than 15 pages (perfect for a subway ride to work), but instantly engrossing. How is it that a physician, with no formal training in writing, can be so prolific, so talented? I found myself constantly musing over that - he was a full-time doctor who wrote these stories on the side for a bit of entertainment. These stories made me so interested in Sir Authur Conan Doyle the person - I am definitely going to read his autobiography. Although I know a little about him through the book "arthur and george", which was written about his real-life involvement in exonerating a man convicted of a serious crime, I want to know more! For instance, he obviously was a great lover of science and reasoning, yet was very famous for his obsession with mysticism and believed you could contact the dead. Given the chance, I would definitely invite this guy to dinner. He and Julia Child. They both knew how to live big.

Usually, I foolishly use all 10,000 available characters to ramble on pointlessly about lackluster fare including Owen Brookes’s “Inheritance”, Michael Hornburg’s “Downers Grove”, and Jack MacLane’s “Just Before Dark”; pedestrian trash with little substance that no one is ever going to bother reading, much less reading reviews on. These books are generally short and pointless, but I always have some tangent I feel I need to rap about, wasting my time and yours as well (the latter isn’t such a big deal to me).

tDue to these annoying habits, I have to admit I’ll probably never be able to review some works, basically, the ones that are worthwhile and awesome reading, such as “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Les Miserables”. The collected works of Sherlock Holmes will suffer the same fate, as I would normally be inclined to incessantly spew forth my pointless gibberish for each of the case files which Dr. Watson chronicles while following his man Holmes around. Thus, the fact that Bantam chose to publish these stories en masse means that I am personally incapable of providing any feedback. In lieu of an actual review on the stories, I can only provide some commentary on the slick packaging of these new editions of Conan Doyle’s legendary detective mastermind.

Material Included in This Contemporaneous Collection:

The Book
Stories: “A Study In Scarlet”, “The Sign Of Four” and all tales under the headings The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (12 cases), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (11 cases), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (13 cases).

Bonus DVD Material
Behind the Scenes: A compelling look at the famous duo, Holmes and Watson. Of particular interest is a cognac-chugging competition between the two, in which both besotted badasses mumble a few things they probably regret. Watson brags about his bachelor days prior to meeting Mary Morstan in “The Sign of Four”, in which he describes (in details which would make Laclos blush) his “experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents”: Mrs. Watson can probably attribute some flashy updates to her wardrobe to John’s slip of the tongue.

Outtakes: Eight never-before published case files from our favorite sleuth from a serial under the working title “No Shit, Sherlock”. Think of the science behind Mythbusters meeting the gritty street wisdom of Iceberg Slim, told from the point of view of Holmes and Watson with their shirtsleeves down on the foggy avenues of London.

The Not-So-Quotable Holmes: In an effort to wean Holmes from the dread menace of cocaine, Watson offers a few statements from the investigator that didn’t make the cut in the stories. “You see, my dear degenerate Watson, when a relatively innocuous event transcends from the commonplace to the sublime, the result is singular, indeed! Veteran skills of deduction can now surmise the perpetrator, my fine chap, provided my nose stops bleeding long enough to go actually apprehend the fellow. Ah, screw it, be a dependable crony and cut me another rail, how much damage can one orangutan running amok really do?” (A loud snorting noise, followed by laughter) "Hey Watson, I suspect that orangutan is going apeshit". (More laugher)

Holmes – The Next Generation: Nearing retirement to the island Hedonism, watch as the torch is passed from Sherlock Holmes to the lovable Encyclopedia Brown. After dipping into Holmes’s stash of the 7% solution, we get a candid glimpse of Brown rapping to his peeps about how he’s hooking up with the Baby-Sitter’s Club, with the intention of ‘ho running’.

The indefatigable Detective Sherlock Holmes wows London with his amazing ability to solve mysterious cases that baffle even the police force of Scotland Yard. “Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume I by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle features thirty-six such cases, narrated by Holmes’ partner, Dr. Watson.

This volume is quite large, divided into three sections, with a group of stories in each. Watson narrates but he tells the stories as he documents them for a novel of Holmes’ greatest cases. The inner workings of Holmes’ outstanding mind are detailed, and each and every case was intriguing and engaging.

Doyle was a Scottish doctor who, finding himself unsuccessful in medicine, turned to writing. Sherlock Holmes is by far his most recognizable and famous protagonist, and with good reason. Doyle’s writing style is somehow reflective of the early 19th century, and yet is completely understandable today. I was able to follow Doyle’s writing easily, and each plot flows smoothly.

It has been many years since I read Doyle, although I have seen a few iterations of Sherlock Holmes in Hollywood versions, and it only took a few pages to be reminded of why Doyle is the literary icon that he is. Not only is Holmes’ brilliant and mysterious, but the cases themselves are just curious enough without being absurd and unrealistic.

As this particular collection is quite large, I won’t be able to tackle volume two right away, but I am eager to delve back into the unbeatable duo of Holmes and Watson.

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


Fast-paced even with thorough storytelling. Simple yet baffling mysteries.

These are just few of the reasons that will keep you flipping through this book to find answers, mysteries or sort of both. Considered as a great milestone in crime fiction, the Sherlock Holmes stories will surely have your thinking caps on.

This book was written at a time when science was not yet prominently used in criminal investigations that some of Holmes' methods of deduction may seem common sense now. Nevertheless, the storytelling was perfectly done that it preserved the story's elegant air of mystery until modern times.

Read the full review at my blog :)


Until next bookdragons,
K.

I just love sherlock!

“A mind needs a book as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge.”
– George R.R. Martin

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
February 8, 2020

Ironically, it was through the most serendipitous of circumstances that this collection was suggested to me. Following a lengthy discourse with my economics professor a long time ago in which I asked what he thought was the best way to learn logic, he, in his classic fashion, suggests not a textbook, but Sherlock Holmes! At the time, thought it was a joke myself. Interestingly enough, he wasn’t joking.

Here, now, many years later, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes was how I was introduced to logic through great fiction to boot.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s magnum opus, Sherlock Holmes, features characters that are rather unique but very believable; the setting is always authentic, the mysteries abound, and there’s puzzles wrapped in enigmas all woven into phenomenal fiction as well. This is one of the great reasons rereading this series is so easy and serves as a fictional fall back for reading, especially when a lot of modern fiction is quite lacking in logical substance.

In more modern times, there have been great mystery writers, and many imitators in countless ways, but none has truly come close to creating a fun, readable, witty, critically thinking, logical, and intriguing series in the way that Arthur Conan Doyle did when the Sherlock Holmes series. Those who attempt to follow in the author’s footsteps fall quite short, even when the authors have a template of what worked in the past. This is why, after my fourth reading of this series, it’s still a great as ever, and nothing really compares. And what’s more, there’s always something to learn from it, too.

Let’s boil it down. Great fiction is great because it allows wonder and imagination to take flight, and sparks creativity like nothing else. Sherlock Holmes definitely creates auspicious and believable adventures upon which any curious mind would Love to venture.

This fictional series does way more than that though. If it had only sparked imagination, it would have been a really good, or even a great series. But even so, it offers so much more. Sherlock Holmes is a veritable crashcourse into how to critically think and employ logic, wrapped up in a fantastic fictional package that is as timeless as it is robust.

For me, this book falls within what Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren referred to as the top tier of books. As the authors note in their landmark How To Read A Book – The Classic Guide To Intelligent Reading:

“Of the few thousand such books there is a much smaller number – here the number is probably less than a hundred – that cannot be exhausted by even the very best reading you can manage. How do you recognize this? Again it is rather mysterious, but when you have closed the book after reading analytically to the best of your ability, and place it back on the shelf, you have a sneaking suspicion that there is more there than you got….In fact, you cannot put your finger on it, but you know it is there. You find that you cannot forget the book, that you keep thinking about it and your reaction to it. Finally, you return to it. And remarkable things happen.”[1][Bold & Underline Emphasis Added]

Just as so:

“…if the book belongs to the highest class – the very small number of inexhaustible books – you discover on returning that the book seems to have grown with you. You see new things in it – whole new sets of new things – that you did not see before. Your previous understanding of the book is not invalidated; it is just as true as it ever was, and in the same ways that it was true before. But now it is true in still other ways, too.”[2] [Bold & Underline Emphasis Added]

For me, this book – all of its fictional stories – accomplishes all of the above and more.

Granted, there are many other books in classical and even modern literature that offer many life lessons. However, none teach the individual the foundation for critical thinking and logic like Sherlock Holmes does. This is why this stands above and beyond countless other books when it comes to those two crucial points.

If you homeschool, if you’re an autodidact, a self-directed learner, or simply someone that wants to read a great book, then read this. You will not regret it.

____________________________________
Footnotes:

[1] Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren, How To Read A Book – The Classic Guide To Intelligent Reading, p. 333.
[2] Ibid., p. 333.
____________________________________
Socratic Logic V3.1 by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren
Philosophy 101b by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
A Workbook For Arguments – A Complete Course In Critical Thinking by David Morrow
The Imaginative Argument – A Practical Manifesto For Writers By Frank L. Cioffi
The Trivium – The Liberal Arts Of Logic, Grammar & Rhetoric by Sister Mary Joseph Ph.D.
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Rotten To The Common Core by Dr. Joseph P. Farrell & Gary Lawrence
A Different Kind Of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
Weapons Of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
Drilling Through The Core by Sandra Stotski & Contributors
Tavistock Institute: Social Engineering The Masses by Daniel Estulin
A Mind Of Your Own – The Truth About Depression & How Women Can Heal Their Bodies To Reclaim Their Lives by Dr. Kelly Brogan

5 sherlockian starz for this classic masterpiece of the mystery genre.

I was a bit worried about the way in which ACD's writing has withstood the test time, but I would say that about 95% of this book's content is as fresh now as it was then and Sherlock Holmes as an original character seems as wickedly intelligent now as he did more than 100 years ago. The world that he inhabits reminds us, in its colourful depiction, of our contemporary times, as crime has been and (presumably) shall be a constant of human society. In those days SH's freedom of action was little bridled by the police, who depended on his astuteness to solve the most bizarre cases. I love how ACD places SH so close to being an antihero by emphasizing the fact that SH would have made a great criminal himself, had he not chosen the side of justice :D And sometimes, H imparts his own kind of justice, one that is closer to the common sense idea of a "just world" than to the law system. Amazed by his brilliance, criminals are always ready and willing to confess to him (but often they are telling him nothing new, as he has already deducted the course of events from infinitesimally small clues). As for Watson... is he really necessary in this equation? He narrates the story and allows SH to manifest himself as the genius that he is, by listening to his reasoning and supporting him when necessary (also by weaning him off coke :D). So yes, Holmes without Watson would be an incomplete recipe :)

I will take a break before vol. 2, but I will surely read it, as there are so many other seminal cases in that one too.

As some of the first “adult” fictional stories I’ve ever read as a child, this one had a heavy dose of nostalgia for me. Holmes embodies the super power of observation while still showing the human qualities of vanity and pride. There were a couple times he had to swallow some humble pie and that was fun to read.

If you are a fan of the TV show Sherlock, I wouldn’t recommend reading this. The Sherlock of the Victorian era is way more well adjusted than Benedict’s adaption, in my view.

All in all it was still a good read. It’s fun following Sherlock’s puzzle solving process and trying to establish if the logic is realistic or certainly a work of fiction.

I love this book. Sherlock Holmes is such a well-known character purely from a name-recognition basis, but then when you read the stories and learn the extent of his idiosyncrasies you're introduced to a whole new man. I can't wait to continue on to Volume II...

idk how to log it but i read 7 books from home library which is full catalog