The Extraordinary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

by Arthur Conan Doyle

"Conan Doyle was very dismissive about his greatest creation -- but he'd bottled lightning. The public just loved it. People couldn't get enough of Sherlock and they've never got enough of him since." --Mark Gatiss


Herein lie the a stolen jewel, the inexplicable death of a young woman, the disappearance of one of the most remarkable racehorses in England, a missing butler, the curious symbols of dancing men, a broken bust of Napoleon, a possible kidnapping and the bad business of a coachman shot through the heart.

The solution? Elementary my dear friend. Call the super sleuth famed for his rapid deductions, his swift intuitions and ingenious solutions -- Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street.

Genres: Classics, Mystery, Short Stories

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2013

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

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having listened to the radio dramas it was good to sit down and read the stories themselves. Glad to see that the BBC dramas are basically word for word from the stories - which made reading them so much easier (had Watson's voice in my head the whole time)
I am a genuine nerd I love all things Sherlock - and watching the latest Sherlock series (BBC) I wonder what Arthur would think of hos creation these days. I think he would be ok with the way Sherlock has been embraced and has grown in all forms of media :)

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sherlock Holmes is one of the great characters of literature - who can resist the aloof arrogance and limitless self-satisfaction which stems from that intellectual superiority with which he squishes all the dodgy baronets and rum foreign coves that turn up in the mysteries presented to him by the clients who never fail, when recounting their tangled tales, to speak in perfect paragraphs full of precisely recollected speech in a style exactly like a Conan Doyle story? I love the love story between Holmes and Watson - they may or may not be closet cases, but yes it is rather interesting how in "The Man with the Twisted Lip" when Watson stumbles over Holmes in disguise in an opium den from where Watson is retrieving the erring husband of his wife's friend late one night, without a second thought, Watson packs the stoned husband into a cabriolet and sends him home whilst he goes off with Sherlock to spend the night – never mind what a fretting wife will be thinking! Watson is of course the Boswell to Sherlock's equally-eccentric Dr Johnson and just as the great doctor got rather aggravated at Bozzy at times and swatted him like a fly, so we get this rather grim pronouncement from Sherlock - they are discussing the accounts Watson writes and publishes of Sherlock's cases, the very accounts we have been reading in this book, yes, rather postmodern of Conan Doyle.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t the best book i’ve ever read. The cases were really clever though and well thought out. Makes you actually wonder what Conan Doyle actually got up to.

[Amanda Broughton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this is a kids version? Not a huge fan of the short stories, a bit gimmicky.

[Lowri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's so interesting to read the inspirations behind episodes of Sherlock! Makes me want to watch the series again :)

[Hania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so “The Extraordinary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Arthur Conan Doyle... Again, I read this book when I was around 14, so I honestly don’t remember most of it, but I do remember enjoying it. In fact, I was supposed to be studying for my chemistry exam that day, but instead I picked up this book like “Wow, what a perfect day to read anything except study for my exam.” Though, one thing that did stick with me was the code language, Dancing Men. I learned it back then, and I still remember it today, which I think is a pretty cool little souvenir from this book. So yeah, another solid 3 stars Sherlock Holmes experience.