A truly awesome collection of short stories and novels. There's no doubt in my mind that Sherlock Holmes is a master at his craft. Thoroughly entertaining; can't wait to dive into Volume II!

4 stars. The stories in Volume 1 of The Complete Sherlock Holmes provided a good escape for me as a reader. The diversity of the stories in this collection kept my interest and I enjoyed reading this Sherlock Holmes collection.

The character Sherlock Holmes is an icon of literature and rightfully so. What I believe makes that character so memorable is because he’s ultimately a force for good. Look past the facts that he’s cocky, and his methods and personal habits have a lot to be desired - his morality defines why and how he lives his life. There’s a lot to be said for that!

It's amazing how much English literature became less dense between Austen, Dickens and Thackeray to Doyle. I admit I was avoiding reading this because I thought it would take the same level of time and commitment as a Dickens novel, but I was (pleasantly) surprised by how much easier it was to read.

I really enjoyed reading this compilation of four of Doyle's Holmes novels. It's easy to see why so many people love Sherlock Holmes and the books are so widely read.

However, I have to admit that "A Study in Scarlet" was not in the least my favorite, because of its stereotyping of Mormons and its mischaracterization of Brigham Young and overdramatization of polygamy, which members of the LDS church (aka Mormons) practiced at the time and abandoned more than a century ago.

An overall fun read. Ever since the release of the Sherlock Holmes movies, I have envisioned Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law when I read these stories! It was such great casting and it made the book even more enjoyable. As for the stories themselves, they have the potential to be a bit repetitive. But if you read one story at a time as they were originally intended to be read, then it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Anyways, like I said, a fun and entertaining read, can't wait to start on the second half! =)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born of Irish-Catholic parents in England in the mid 1800s. Alcoholism plagued his father which ultimately led to his parents separating and reuniting during this period. Doyle spent much of his childhood in tenement housing until his father died in the late 1800s. Doyle, supported by wealthier members of his family, would attend school with a focus on medicine.

Doyle would later attend University of Edinburgh Medical School. It was during this time that Doyle met surgeon and professor Joseph Bell, who would serve as the inspiration behind the greatest detective the world has ever known: Sherlock Holmes. Doyle had spent several years in the medical field, ranging from serving as a surgeon on a ship, to studying eye disorders in Vienna. However, it would appear, even based upon his writings in medicine, Doyle had a fascination with solving mysteries and crimes Doyle would publish a little over 200 stories and and articles. The most popular of all his creations, the crime solving duo of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, was almost never to be. Doyle had a very hard time trying to find a publisher that would take a chance on his characters. In fact, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson did not achieve mass appeal until the publishing of the duo’s second short story, “Scandal In Bohemia.” Three novels, and 23 short stories later, Doyle tried to kill off his most famous detective; only to be forced to bring him back due to public outcry.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 contains these four novels: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and the 23 short stories compiled in two books. This first volume of stories was published between 1890 and 1902. Reading through this volume feels akin to bingeing a long running series on streaming. The reader joins the duo through their early encounter on 221B Baker Street, to Watson reconciling the endless work of private detective business with the needs of his new wife, to Holmes facing his greatest adversary, Professor Moriarty, and “dying” in an attempt to bring him to justice.

Sherlock Holmes has achieved immortality in Western Culture. Generations today can identify the trademark deerstalker hat and pipe. However, it is his powers of observation and deduction that have fascinated and thrilled readers for over a hundred years. Holmes serves as a testament that human beings learn a lot from each other by simply observing each other.

Doyle’s stories are a quick read. One might argue that these were entertaining as serialized stories, much like Law and Order is entertaining as a show that airs every week. Taken as a whole, though, it is evident that Doyle was as methodical about writing as he was about studying medical science. A mysterious crime happens, Sherlock Holmes and Watson are called to investigate it. A series of strange occurrences, red herrings, and stories are told to the dynamic duo. Doyle’s use of 3rd person limited point of view and Holmes’s secrecy regarding his inner thoughts make the reveal at the end of each story a surprise, but makes the writing formulaic. This is not a problem when consuming these stories in serialized form, after all look at how many seasons and off shoots Law and Order has had as the result of this style of writing. However, when reading straight through this collection, the same thing happens when you binge a T.V. series: it all becomes a blur.

Despite this, Doyle has made some stand out stories. Sign of Four, Scandal in Bohemia, and some unknowns like the Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, contain the same cerebral thrill that many recognize as invaluable to Western literature. As Holmes says in the Sign of Four: “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” As it is impossible to erase the character of Sherlock Holmes, as improbable as it may be that Doyle wrote a character that will endure forever, it must be the truth.

n  "My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."n

n  Reread: May—June 2020n
I sort of reread this on a whim after recently reading n  A Study in Charlotten and finally watching the very last episode of BBC's Sherlock. It had been so long that I really only recalled the outcome of a few of these stories, so my perspective was able to remain much more fresh and objective than I would have expected in such a reread.

To be honest, Sherlock Holmes is not as impressive as I remember finding him at fourteen. I think I was more in awe of BBC's Sherlock than I was of Conan Doyle's original character, and that may have tainted my initial impression. What really surprised me, though, was the lack of action present in these stories. Nearly all of them are relayed secondhand to Watson, who then relays them thirdhand to the reader, so that there is a certain distance from the immediate drama of the crime which I found rather disappointing. I also found I can't really stand Watson himself anymore, as here he came across to me as somewhat annoying and, rather than opening up the intricate world of Holmes' mind, somewhat of a bumbling hindrance to much of the stories' unfoldings. The whole approach of Watson as chronicler just seems so lazy and unnecessary to me now.

In this reread, I really ended up enjoying the novellas best, particularly The Hound of the Baskervilles, and I think this was because they actually contained a much larger amount of action than the typical short story did, centering upon dramatic action unfolding across the wild moors or the American West rather than focusing on a client unburdening his woes in Baker Street and Sherlock subsequently disappearing to solve the mystery alone.

I'm leaving my rating the same as before, as I can truly appreciate Conan Doyle's inventiveness and the legacy of these works, but I am maybe not as much of a proponent of Sherlock Holmes' as I was before. I now know what I like in a good mystery, and, unfortunately, Holmes and Watson did not quite live up to my preferences upon this little revisit.

Having undertaken the journey of reading ALL the Sherlock Holmes stories due to my recent infatuation with the terrific BBC television series Sherlock, I am pleased to say I am pleased! Though Sir A. C. D. himself once insisted that he would be disappointed if he were only remembered for creating the character of Holmes, I have to object to such a statement. You should not be disappointed, sir!

These stories are brilliant. They aren't the most quickly-paced things, and they aren't exactly dripping with imagery, but I fail to see how anyone could be unimpressed with the ideas the author thinks up. It's amazing! Each mystery was filled with its own little quirks and turnabouts.

My favorites were The Red-headed League, Silver Blaze, The Final Problem, and (of course) The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Some people might remain dubious concerning the worth of detective stories. And I refer them to a quote I discovered in the Comments & Questions section of this book:

"The narrowest street possesses, in every crook and twist of its intention, the soul of the man who built it, perhaps long in his grave. Every brick has as human a hieroglyph as if it were a graven brick of Babylon; every slate on the roof is as educational a document as if it were a slate covered with addition and subtraction sums. Anything which tends, even under the fantastic form of the minutiae of Sherlock Holmes, to assert this romance of detail in civilization, to emphasize this unfathomably human character in flints and tiles, is a good thing."

Thank you, G. K. Chesterton, for eloquently expressing my wonder at everything human.

I loved this book! However, I'm a slow reader and it took me about a year and a half to finish. But if you're like me and love mystery, then I would highly recommend this book.

The edition I read was from Doubleday and had a preface by Christopher Morley. This was the best detective series ever. It's only shortcoming is that when you finish, you wish you could read them all for the first time. The stories also give some insight to the culture of the time.

I have also read the apocryphal (not really) works. The best is The Seven Percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer followed by The Giant Rat of Sumatra and Meyer's West End Horror.

tThis is the first of a two volume set containing all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s published works featuring Sherlock Holmes. Collected here in order of original publication, this first volume includes the first two novels (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four), followed by the first two collections of short stories (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) and ends with the third novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Overall, it a wonderful collection featuring some of the most well known mysteries such as “The Red-headed League”, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, and “The Final Problem”. Indeed, “Speckled Band” is reportedly Doyle’s personal favorite of all the Homes tales.
tDoyle’s first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, is clearly his weakest, though it is amusing for the Holmes fan to see the introduction of the now-famous consulting detective to the world. The second Holmes work, also a novel (The Sign of Four), is a little better, but still falls short of Doyle’s general quality. To the casual reader, I would recommend skipping these two and jumping straight into the two collections of short stories and the third novel.
tThe short stories from the Adventures and Memoirs collections range from amusing (e.g. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”) to the bizarre (e.g. “The Five Orange Pips” in which Holmes and Watson take on the Ku Klux Klan) to the truly disturbing (e.g. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”), but they are always clever and endearing. My favorite stories are “The Man with the Twisted Lip” and “The Musgrave Ritual”, but the best tale in this volume is Doyle’s third Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles which is far improved over his early novels.

a majority of my annotations during this re-read were just comparing the bbc series to the original text. i’m basic, my favorite stories were still a scandal in bohemia, a case of identity, the final problem, and hound of baskervilles.

It doesn't matter how many times I've reread these stories. With each revisitation, I always find something new to admire and appreciate.