Some enjoyable stories, more thoughts to come !

And a month later here are those thoughts, now what was it about ?

This read , my first according to GR, but in reality many times that, was for a Buddy read I ran of all the Sir ACD short stories and Novels of the great Sherlock Holmes in the English Mysteries Club group .

This was the penultimate book we read as I took the liberty of slightly changing the reading order to ensure we were all on Dartmoor for Christmas and New Year hunting or hiding from a terrifying dog in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Anyway this book for the English market contained 12 short stories. I think (maybe with the exception of the novel above) Sir ACD is better known and more highly praised for his Holmes short stories than the novels and these are no exception, some of them excellent whilst some are just good.
I suppose the biggest difference with this collection is that not all are narrated by Dr Watson, quite are few are Holmes himself relating the story. Which gives a different complexion to the story telling. I like the fact that at one point Holmes has to grudgingly admit that Watson's telling of his stories are maybe more exciting.

All in all an enjoyable collection and a great lead up to a literary visit with Watson to Dartmoor.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short Sherlock Holmes adventures. This is the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Comparatively, this collection fell slightly short of previous short-story collections of Sherlock Holmes. Except for a few, most of the stories were ordinary. Holmes's brilliance has been deliberately subdued by treating him like a man with a superhuman mind beyond any human power of deduction. In the few stories that shone above others, Holmes was presented in his natural genius as we know him.

The twelve stories of this collection are:
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client - 3.5 stars
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - 2.5 stars
The Adventure of the Three Gables - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs - 4 stars
The Problem of the Thor Bridge - 4 stars
The Adventure of the Creeping Man - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Lion's Mane - 3.5 stars
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Shoscombe Old Place - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman - 5 stars

The unique and interesting feature of this collection was that the great detective himself narrated some of the stories. The stylistic difference between the narratives of Holmes and Dr. Watson was quite interesting. It's true that this collection didn’t stand up to the previous ones. However, no matter what flaws you may find in comparison, it is hard not to enjoy Sherlock Holmes adventures.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

Done with all of em

Ta seria mogłaby mieć tysiąc tomów, a ja nadal wszystkie bym je przeczytała i uwielbiała na zabój. Wszystko jest tu wyjątkowe nie do opisania, nie wiem co mogłabym jeszcze dodać, po prostu polecam każdemu.

Reread: uwielbiam

first book of 2025 and so sad that i’m done with every ACD sherlock holmes :’(

this one was unique because of a few stories in SHERLOCK’s pov (amazing), and an adventurous mix of murder, money trails, confessional stories, missing items, and more.

can’t wait to forget everything so i can read all of these books all over again in a few years <3

4,25/5

Dobre i przyjemne jak zawsze

I thought that the final Holmes short story collection was the weakest of the lot - perhaps one as a reader is a bit satiated even with these great stories when one has gotten this far, or it may be true that the author was thoroughly fed up with his hero by here. Anyway, does not matter much, the rating is still a (possibly rounded up) 4-star and this is well worth your time.

Final de trajecte. Última obra de les nou que conformen l’anomenat “cànon” de Sherlock Holmes.
Recull de dotze narracions publicades entre els anys 1921 i 1927

Com és habitual, el narrador és el doctor Watson, amic i company de aventures de Sherlock Holmes. Però, per primer cop, hi trobem excepcions.

n  “El soldat esblanqueït”n i n  “La crinera del lleó”n són narrats per el propi Holmes, atorgant així, em sembla, un valor excepcional a aquest recull doncs, per primer cop, escoltem directament els seus pensaments.

n  n    Pobre de mi! Quina manera d’ensenyar les cartes quan sóc jo qui escriu el relat!n  n

Hi trobem, també per primer cop, un conte, n  “La gemma Mazarin”n, narrat enterament en tercera persona.

Les narracions són, en general, una mica més breus que en els altres reculls. Cinc són de mida conte, sent les altres narracions relats més curts.

En tota aquesta sèrie de Sherlock Holmes, dins la col·lecció El cercle de Viena, la traducció de Xavier Zambrano m’ha semblat meravellosa. És quan no te’n adones, quan llegeixes com si fos escrit originalment en català. Sovint pensava, “...ostres, Conan Doyle sembla talment que usi girs i frases fetes catalanes”. Però, és clar, això és mèrit de Zambrano.

n  n   
―There is no getting past you, Mr. Holmes!
―Vostè reconeix els coixos ajaguts, senyor Holmes!n  n

No us sembla genial?

n  “El soldat esblanqueït”n, n  “El vampir se Sussex”n, n  “La crinera del lleó”n, n  “El pigmentari jubilat”n... que difícil escollir quina m’ha agradat més, però indicaré n  “El client il·lustre”n i n  “La gemma de Mazarin”n, aquesta última un exercici fascinant confinats dins la sala de rebre de 221B Baker Street.

n  n    ―Em sap greu ―va dir Holmes―. Els meus casos acostumen a tenir un misteri en un dels seus extrems, però tenir-ne en tots dos extrems resulta massa confús.n  n

Hem vist la sèrie de Granada TV. Ens ha agradat molt la interpretació de Jeremy Brett. Diuen que aquesta sèrie és la més fidel als llibres de les que s’han fet. Sovint dèiem: “... mira, això ho diu exactament com al llibre”. I és que els diàlegs de Conan Doyle són fantàstics. Rèpliques i reflexions d’aquelles que se’t queden gravades.

Al breu pròleg d’aquest recull, el propi Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fa un repàs meravellós del que ha estat per a ell escriure la sèrie Sherlock Holmes.

Fent el seu comiat meu,

n  n    “... ara dic: adèu Sherlock Holmes!”n  n

i sí

n  n    “... els pensaments m’han envoltat d’aquella manera que només és possible en el regne imaginari de la ficció.”n  n

3.5 stars

The Adventures of the Illustrious Client****
The Adventures of the Blanched Soldier****
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone***.5
The Adventure of the Three Gables***.5
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire***.5
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs***
The Problem of Thor Bridge****
The Adventure of the Creeping Man**.5
The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane***
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger***
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place***.5
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman****

Nemôžem uveriť, že mám za sebou všetky príbehy Sherlocka Holmesa! A trvalo mi to len 7 rokov

There's something preposterous about these short stories, always summed up into nicely convenient bite-size chunks and this volume #9 is no different, which is a good thing as I was expecting mostly dregs and out-takes. None of that, this is solid stuff in the continued Sherlock Holmes canon of works.

Stories consist of far-fetched investigative secrecy that lead up to sudden conclusions. Rarely does Holmes discuss his doubts or mental reasonings, even with Watson, but in this volume he goes into more detail about his methods and results, which lends to a more inclusive and realistic experience. Many stories seem like reprints of previous tales though, with the same scopes and ideas, but volume #9 feels like even more mature writing. It's a shame that this back-end work will be missed by many people as excessive bloat, or maybe I'm accustomed to the writing style now and expect less from it, always remembering that it’s entertainment first and foremost and not science.

Some of the stories are excellent, there's even an unusual vampire tale of sorts. There are two stories told from the first-person perspective of Sherlock Holmes himself, which are super rare, including more detailed descriptions on how he goes about his investigative business, making it easier to second-guess the mysteries through your own detective work.

Unfortunately, there are negative racial stereotypes abound and multiple uses of the N word - tolerable back then - but intolerable today and should be edited out. There are also repeat descriptions of mysteriously beautiful women in so many chapters, each being incredibly attractive and always out of reach, suggestive of rehashed ideas but also, and more importantly, emphasizing the permanent bachelor status of Holmes as a man too engrossed in his own affairs to get involved with fickle relationships, indicative of the incorrigible and almost perfect detective we know and love.

This literally is the final volume - volume #9 out of #10 - because the final set of short stories is really brief and not directly focused on Sherlock Holmes. Also, by completing this book, you will have read everything about the great detective. It's a challenge and a slog in places, but worth it.

Po zapoznaniu sie ze wszystkimi dziewięcioma tomami opowieści o Sherlocku Holmesie mogę z niemalże całkowitą pewnością stwierdzić, że Sherlock jest fruity

A tak serio to nie wiem co teraz zrobie jak już przeczytałom wszystko, chyba zaczne czytać od nowa