A highly enjoyable collection of short stories. Arthur Conan Doyle has here found the perfect length for detailing the thrilling adventures of Holmes and Watson. Witty, charming and an escapist bit of fun.

the unrelenting urge to call sherlock holmes a british word for a cigarette

I had just seen the newest take on Holmes starring Robert Downing, Jr and Jude Law and began to wonder if the plot resembled the canon do Doyle' cranky detective. I have read and loved "Hound of the Baskervilles" For many years.As I began to read the earlier novels and short stories, I have been thoroughly enthralled by the characterizations, the plots, and the historical backgrounds.

I seldom find myself in tears over a read, but at the climax of "Valley of Fear"', I wept for the gallant Birdie Edwards' death. Doyle has captivated my imagination as well as inspiring my own writing endeavors. What a joy to find such a wonderful canon at this time in life when I needed clever ideas and good writing to keep me interested.

Really good stuff here and none of it "elementary" in the least.

LOVED THIS! Fun, intriguing, awe-inspiring short lovely stories.

tImagine this, you, riding in a hansom cab on a solemn morning. The sound of the horse’s hooves echo in the silence. You’re on your way to assist a client in need of serious help; being falsely accused of murdering their father. Being known for unimaginable deeds that stumps even the greatest of minds, you must retain your reputation. What would you do? Your own being may take many steps, but undoubtedly none like the prominent Sherlock Holmes.

The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is great for avid and passionate mystery novel readers. Every single adventure and memoir in the book is unique in their own way. Although some cases may appear to be identical at their start, the results are always unalike. In this magnificent read, detective Sherlock Holmes and doctor John Watson undergo and solve numerous cases (sometimes those that are introduced to them by Lestrade, an officer of the Scotland Yard). These instances usually occur within London during the late 1800s and early 20th century.

This mystery genre of literature surpasses what one may think when the name of Sherlock Holmes is resounded in their ears. The story is well organized, although it may not be easily fathomed to a person with a lower range of vocabulary due to when the originals were written. There are plenty of twists to keep the reader on the very edge of their seat. The characters are realistic and believable, with the exception of Sherlock’s incomprehensibly high intelligence, but perhaps not too relatable based on an “ordinary” life. The difference causes the experience to be invigorating, giving rise to the desire to become Doctor Watson and engage in the cases alongside Holmes. The book, dismayingly, doesn’t transpire to be a satisfying conclusion, yet until that portion the publication is worth the read. Overall, the majority of the content outweighs the end result. A possible lesson to be learned from the reading of this story is that evil never prevails over good.

The voice the writer chose to utilize greatly benefits the book. In Doyle’s action of choosing to write emotionally, it injected the book with very lively and animated scenes. “Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like a vice upon my wrist in agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh, and put his lips to my ear,” is an example of the emotional voice in The Adventure of the Speckled Band. “Without a word [Sherlock] grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door of which was standing open,” can serve as another example taken from The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb. In this way, an emotional voice has impacted the book in a positive form.

The audience the story is geared towards is somewhat difficult to identify. The book has entertaining components. This leads to the conclusion that it was written for young adults. On the other hand, the style of writing and vocabulary may be higher than for that specific intended audience, leading to the idea that it was created to amuse adults. Because of this, it is assumed the book was written for a mixed audience of adults and young adults.

tDo you now too wish to experience the escapades of Sherlock and Watson? If so, be sure to pick up a copy of this book. It is indeed skillfully created with awe-inspiring plots and characters. Every soul should have and take up a chance to peruse it. The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is perfect for zealous mystery readers.

It would be an easy assumption that the stories of Sherlock Holmes would quickly get boring. Though each story has a cast of colorful characters and unique details, they all follow the same general structure. The stories are so short that you soon pick up a rhythm of what is about to happen based on how far into the story you are. It was to my complete surprise, then, that I was thoroughly captivated by every single one of Holmes’ tales. It was not so much about what happened in each story, but rather how Doyle strung together seemingly incoherent facts into a continuous scheme. There was something so cathartic about the “Ha!” I felt when Sherlock explained the villain’s plot in the most common-sense terms. The variety of stories Doyle created out of such a simple “mystery-hunt-solve” formula was also impressive. My personal favorite was the Redheaded League, simply for how nonsensical the premise was.

Another really cool thing was reading this book as I traveled the UK for the first time. Sherlock’s journey from Paddington to Swindon was far more enjoyable when I had taken the same journey myself just days prior. As they described the scenery and towns outside of the 19th century train, I tried to imagine matching those buildings and hills to the ones I had seen on my travels. Instead of my American brain trying to imagine towns and streets in a land across the globe, I was able to be far more immersed in the ambiance of Holmes’ London.

My one and only gripe about this book was that the last story, The Final Problem, was so disconnected and out of nowhere. I did learn that Doyle had wanted to conclude the series at that point in time, and that he did later retcon this ending. Even so, making such a compact conclusion to this behemoth of a series lessened its impact and made it feel very rushed. Unlike the other Holmes cases in which the end is only the cherry on top after all of his calculated discoveries, The Final Problem felt like Doyle wrote the end and just wrote in anything to get the story to that point.

i love it :)
classic holmes

Ok obviously this was pretty good if you like that sort of thing, we’ve all read Sherlock Holmes blah blah. I had a fine time reading these, most of which I had actually read before (this book has been in my bedroom since I was a wee lass) but I think it would be better for anyone to read the stories one or two at a time not all at once. But I’ve never been that good at “short stories”. Just give me a whole book!

This was probably my third reading of these tales and I enjoyed reading them as much as I did the first time, even though I remembered most of the solutions to the mysteries. The solutions weren't all that important. When I read the Holmes tales, I'm taken on an adventure and am fascinated by the details of the narration.
I know I'll be reading them again in the future. Holmes and Watson will live forever.

I liked all those stories about Holmes’ and Watson’s adventures. The last one was so sad though. I can’t wait to read other books from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Giving this one four stars because of two major points: one, it is at some points in the story horribly slow, and two, there are some stories I simply did not like. I'm not going to talk too much about those though.

There are two stories in particular which I absolutely loved, and one that I liked a great deal. This sounds so formal.

A Scandal in Bohemia
This might be because I started reading this book right after I watched the show, and still had the distinct image of the actors in mind when I read this, but I absolutely loved this. It had intrigue, it had action and it was very mysterious. I love how I had no idea how Bohemia used to actually be a country until I read this, and how the story resolved itself.

The Silver Blaze
This story has got to be my favourite Sherlock Holmes story so far. It was fast paced, funny, and contains one of the most well-known quotes of the whole canon:

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

The Final Problem
At this point Conan Doyle was tired of writing Sherlock Holmes so he kills him off. Sorry for not spoiler-proofing this, but the book is a hundred years old. I thought this particular story should be a lot more fleshed out, at the length of A Study in Scarlet for example (which is incredibly long, with a lot of shortcomings). The whole 20-something pages felt a bit rushed, but were certainly exciting.


I see from my review of A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four that I was happy not to have seen the Cumberbatch adaptation of Sherlock. Oh, what a sweet summer child I was cackles manically about Johnlock in the background

the plots can definitely pull you in. also i love Sherlock Holmes personality. my only critique is that I wished they would mention when they left somewhere or did something more