Conan Doyle Stories: Six Notable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Collection that includes "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of the Four", "A Case of Identity", "The Red-headed League", "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", and biographical notes about the author.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 60-12425

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Mystery

494 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1960

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

[Andrew Bien]

I read the Bohemia and Red-Head stories, and most of the Study in Scarlet. They effected in me an improbable admiration for both the writer of the book and of the Cumberbatch adaptation, the latter of which I watched recently. I found both parties contributed clever content absent in the other's, suggesting the adaptation is a rare adaptation that honors yet augments its source, and that not in a discordant spirit. Take the Study in Scarlet for example: the novel is, of course, distinguished in introducing characters that have so far proved immortal, entertaining as they are; and in fabricating a plot worthy of said characters; and, simply, in its talent for prose; but the TV episode, on the other hand, expertly translates all of this to a new medium, in a new time period, and with new plot elements that simultaneously feel harmonious and elevated relative to the source. I'm impressed with Doyle, and impressed with his adaptors. The series borrows generously from the stories, yet leaves its own stamp as an enrichment thereto. It's all very pleasant.

And pleasant is about where it ends. I don't plan on reading the rest, until I'm so sore with greater ambitions that I stoop to guilty pleasures. And this won't nearly be the first I reach for. But I'll keep it around just in case.

[Nick Mclean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, this uneven volume includes two novels and several shorter stories. Neither of the novels are the best Holmes, in my view, but some of the shorter novellas are better. I liked Scandal in Bohemia, the Boscombe Mystery best in this volume.

[Barbara Gingras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a good read

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sherlock Holmes stories are great fun. Many turn out NOT to be murder mysteries but simply great tales of Holmes' deductive sleuthing and Watson's lively and humorous story-telling. My next venture will be to read the remaining short stories (this collection contained about 15 or so) and then the four Holmes novels.

[Sarah Mariah]

freakin' page-turner!

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfection. Now I want to read more detective fiction.