The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories

by Arthur Conan Doyle

There is one literary detective who stands above all others, whose powers of deduction are known the world over, whose influence can still be felt in todays most modern whodunits. Who is it, you ask. Why, its elementary! Sherlock Holmes, the famous gumshoe of 221B Baker Street. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the man who made him famous in such tales as The Hound of the Baskervilles and A Study in Scarlet changed the world of mysteries, inspiring legions of devoted fans. Whether you're a devotee or you've yet to be awed by Holmes's powers of deduction, you'll love this Canterbury Classics edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles famous works, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four, The Valley of Fear, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. The perfect book to complete any bookshelf, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories features an eye-catching leather-bound cover with gold foil stamping, as well as fine ivory paper with gilded edges. Youll be spellbound by Conan Doyles descriptive prose, and then delight in displaying this beautiful book in your home.

Genres: Classics, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Adventure, Collections, Thriller

1052 pages, Leather Bound

Published November 8, 2011

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[Elevetha]

One of these days I'll get around to reading my glorious beautiful pretty pretty copy. One of these days....

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherlock Holmes is an all time favorite of mine, and despite several others, I don't need to be in a particular mood in order to enjoy him. Several of the stories in this edition were favorites and others were brand new, so it was a wonderful combination, and balance of the two. The Copper Beeches read somewhat darker than anything I had ever read by him, and there were equally a large number of Gothic overtones in The Engineer's Thumb as well. Both stories were new and enjoyable in new ways because of their dark suspense.

[Carl Bluesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a massive book filled with classic tales at their best. Everyone knows this character but not everyone knows the things that he was addicted to outside of the mysteries. Many of the stories were built like they could have been comic books, only before comic books were a common thing. There are stories that are action pack and adventurous and others that are suspenseful and scary.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend bought me this years ago and for years it took me to go through it. Now I finally completed it and it was great to read many of the classics I knew. The Final Bow being one of them. It was also great to read stories I didn't know about, the least popular ones, and they to were enjoyable in their own way. Some seemed similar and repetitive to others which I score them lower on the star level but all in all enjoyable.

[Nicole Aroca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I did not like the last two books I read about Sherlock Holmes this book I loved was surprising with the variety of cases that Holmes and Watson resolved.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, very intelligent. Obviously, the language is somewhat on the older side, but it's a great perspective on the world near the turn of the 20th century.

[Bookbringer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intruiging at first but super dry overall.

[julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years I had wanted to explore the world of Sherlock Holmes but I wanted to do so properly: to start with the first work in the canon (which I learned is the novel, A Study in Scarlet) and to continue chronologically through Watson's accounts of his friend's case work. One day recently, after finishing my last library book, I found myself in the utter absence of fresh reading material. Utterly bored, at my wit's end, a thought occurred to me and I raced upstairs, from the living room, to plumb the shelves of my brother's bookcase: meticulously placed within was a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as also was The Hound of the Baskervilles. Having carefully deduced that the former recounts earlier events than the latter, I chose to abandon my original plan and to delve into Holmes's adventures, hoping that my blindness to any insights or history detailed in the first adventure I wouldn't prove to be too great a disadvantage.
Thus, after reading another edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , I was all too eager to begin at the beginning with A Study in Scarlet. Had I read this novel first, I would have been only more enthusiastic about following Holmes in his detection. The novel is entirely riveting. I adore the method Conan Doyle employs--(is it accurate to deem it in media res?)--of presenting the case and then using a flashback to fill in the background of the story. It is ingenious and I would imagine was a novel device at the time of its publication. Of course, Conan Doyle's style throughout his works is thoroughly readable and entertaining. More than once have I stopped mid-story to attempt to solve the case for myself. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has an affable manner of writing, through Watson's writings, which paints a familiar portrait of both men. One feels as though he knows the two characters like friends as he's reading of their exploits. The friendship between the two men is endearing and delightful. This particular edition is wonderful in that all the stories are contained within and in a beautiful binding, so that it is easy to consult past stories for reference. At the time I borrowed this book, I also borrowed an annotated copy but found myself desirous to read without the interruption of commentary. A glance through this annotated edition may prove insightful, however, and I intend to look through it after I finish this edition. It is proving to be a delightful read and one that I can foresee myself enjoying time and again in the future.

[Josiah Muhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while, but I finally made my way through these stories. I think with any prolific work, like Sherlock Holmes, there are bound to be a few stories, here, or there that blend in with the others, or fail to stand out. However, I found that it largely holds up really well by today’s standards, and many of the ideas are incredibly unique and creative. I can see why they had such a large impact on pop culture.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hound of the Baskervilles was one of the best books that I have ever read. A Study in Scarlet, not so much--it had this enormous flashback that was admittedly interesting but incredibly disorienting.

Sherlock Holmes is really fun to read overall, although the character itself can be somewhat inconsistent--really sympathetic to victims in one story and dismissive in another, disdaining fame yet being famous, for example.

I'm probably going to commit some kind of foul by mentioning a TV adaptation but seriously, do not watch BBC Sherlock without reading the stories first.

[Joshua Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half or so of the collection but it starts to drag after a bit with a lot of the stories being very similar. I’d still recommend this book however as they are easy to read and as a fan of the various Sherlock Holmes adaptations on tv/film it was interesting to read the original stories and see the links especially with the modern TV series.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed reading this (and even managed to guess some of the culprits) but it's taken me longer than usual to read so I guess I've not been riveted by it. Because it's a collection of stories rather than 1 long story I've not got caught up in it like I would normally do as a book progresses.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yay! I have been converted to a Holmes fan.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was incredible.

[Morgan Schmidt · Rating 2 out of 5]

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done."

When I tell you that finishing this book has taken a weight off my shoulders, I am not lying. This book has been hanging over my head since I started it in January, and finally having it done and being able to 100% devote myself to more enjoyable books is a great feeling. I'm also shorting myself by counting this as one book because it was actually 8, but all well.

I quite enjoyed the first couple of books. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four were actually intriguing, and I loved the short chapters (newspaper serials must have been a blast), as it helped my short attention span when reading classics. However, as the books progressed, I got bored. The stories were no longer continuation chapters, but short stories within a book, and that annoyed me. 10 pages of a story is not enough for me to be invested in the plot or the characters. Then you notice that Conan Doyle also becomes disinterested in Sherlock and the writing becomes repetitive and incredibly dry (and we all know Conan Doyle believed that too). The effort wasn't there anymore and I felt it. Hence why this took me the entire year to read. Why didn't I put it down, you might ask? I do not know. It wasn't all bad, but it certainly wasn't good. I'll stick to BBC's Sherlock.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book with 1032 pages... this definitely means it has its highs and lows. There are quite a lot of moments that have not aged well (in some places the racism and sexism are really running rampant), but it has to be said that Sherlock Holmes stories are classics for a reason.

They are surprisingly funny, and in some places the characters differ greatly from the personalities of their counterparts in adaptations, so some select stories are definitely a worthy read for everyone who lies somewhere between having a passing interest in Sherlock Holmes and John Watson or everyone who finally wants to find out what hides behind the image of the world-famous detective.

At this point I would like to apologize to Arthur Conan Doyle. I know he hated these stories, but I couldn't help but enjoy them and get invested.

It also should be noted that while this story collection is missing twelve stories, which feels unbelievable when you look at the length this book already is, so I guess my journey is not quite over yet.

P.S.: From all the characters mentioned in these stories that deserve more love (like John Watson, that man gets overlooked so often), Irene Adler is definitely at the top. If she didn't already work this hard to get her happy wedding, I would totally ask for her hand in marriage. She is awesome and an absolute badass. I really love her.

[Alan Ibbetson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to my three girls out loud. It took us 2 summers and the school year in between. We loved it so much (me more than them but they did enjoy it). We would read one of the stories and then watch the same story video. The BBC did a TV series in the 1980s where they did an episode for almost every story in the collection. There are a few missing but most where done. The actors in the show were incredible too. So good in fact, that it ruined them on any other adaptation. My oldest daughter will only watch Jeremy Brett.

[Ivan Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lecturas extremadamente interesantes. Algo que me gusta es que no es estrictamente necesario seguir un orden, uno puede leer cualquiera de las historias al azar.
El lenguaje no es del todo como el inglés actual, sin embargo resulta ameno.
Sin duda, leer un poco de Sherlock Holmes resulta estimulante para cualquiera que aprecie conocer un buen relato.

[Chris Pooler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mercy. This took me like a year and a half to read. It's been on my bucket list to read all of Sherlock Holmes, and while it was a dry read, I enjoyed it. But you know what sucks? I'm still not done because this damn collection is missing the last 12 short stories. So now I'm gonna have to buy a whole 'nother book that is actually the complete collection. So the game, for now, is still afoot.

[Anna Shiverdecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course some stories are better than others, but it's Sherlock Holmes. Classic and so fun. Here are my favorites:

The Speckled Band
The Copper Beeches
The Musgrave Ritual
The Greek Interpreter
The Dancing Men
The Solitary Cyclist
The Priory School
The Abbey Grange
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Dying Detective
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
The Devil's Foot

[Dor Shmoish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Study in Scarlet: 5/5
The Sign of the Four: 4.9/5
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: 4.5/5
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: 4.2/5
The Return of Sherlock Holmes: 4/5
The Hound of the Baskervilles: 4.5/5
The Valley of Fear: 4.8/5
His Last Bow: 4/5
---------------------------
Book Quality: 3/5
Overall: 4.3/5

[Robbie Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read twice

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an enjoyable read-aloud. It took us several months to read all the stories. I think one of my favorites was The Scowrers.

[Tricia Small · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its a long book but well worth the read.

[Mattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i keep getting recommended different sherlock holmes stories but i don’t think goodreads understands that i have Read them All

[Rich Canlas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still read the stories in this book from time to time. The adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson never fail to amuse me.

[Moriartea · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨️fruity✨️

[Marqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Valley of Fear is my most favorite of Sherlock Holmes’ stories

[Gaurav Kapoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a high lexile collection of the many mysteries solved by Sherlock Holmes. The book is through the view of John H. Watson, a veteran doctor who served in Afghanistan, as he follows Sherlock through the most complex and vexing cases that even the detectives of Scotland Yard fail to solve. Throughout many of the stories Sherlock shows Watson and the detectives of Scotland Yard what a man can do with the ability of being observant and having an unbiased way of thinking.
This book is written in a very complex format and requires the ability to understand high lexile material. Besides the complexity of the book by reading the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories the way I looked at the world completely changed and by I was half way through the book I could follow the logic of Sherlock and even predict alongside him the solution to the case. In one of the stories a man of short stature was being accused for the murder that involved an old sea captain and a whaling harpoon through his body, while the men of Scotland Yard were closing the case Sherlock was looking for a skilled whaler, who was handy with a harpoon. I believe this book is for people who want to challenge their ability to read complex works or to see the world through a genius’ eyes. I would recommend this book for high lexile readers and people who need another way to see the world. I give this book 4/5 stars, because even though it contains complicated and foreign phrases the book was still able to portray, in a powerful manner, the miracles that can be performed with understanding what happens around you and what secrets they reveal.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories can be formulaic but it is a formula that works. One of their chief strengths is their brevity. These adventures are enjoyable because Watson distills the important elements into single-serving morsels without any filler. A novel-length version of the Red-Headed League would be painful but, as it is, it's amusing.

My one complaint is that the details Holmes uses to solve a case are not always described to the reader until he is offering his final explanation, precluding the reader from working it out on their own.