Baker Street Irregulars discussion

I saw this article this morning on a site called "Book Riot" - ranked the Sherlock Holmes stories from worst (The Three Gables) to Best (The Hound of the Baskervilles.)
Found myself not agreeing with a lot of it, it seemed like the writer was overly influenced by what she saw as racism. I mean The Sign of Four ranked at #58?

I would probably rank the novels and the short stories separately. Of the novels, I would actually put SIGN first because it does not suffer from the weaknesses of the other three. STUD and VALL both go into extensive back stories that don't involve Holmes at all (though I think VALL is underrated) and HOUN has Holmes off stage for a lot of the story.
Of the stories, I rank COPP, CHAS and ILLU highly because they capture that sense of Victorian era melodrama.

Ew, Hound as the best? That’s my least favorite of the stories. A Holmes story with a shocking lack of Holmes 😕 yeah, their ranking system seems a bit odd, lol.

I like Hound because it is atmospheric and has a pretty well drawn cast - Mortimer, Beryl, Frankland, are all pretty interesting and I it also seems pretty modern in its take on spousal abuse, both Laura and Beryl. I wish there was a better movie of the book - seen a few and none of them seem to nail it.

silver blaze the speckled band

I like The Speckled Band because it is the closest to one of the classic "locked room" murder mysteries. There are parts of other stories where the victim is found inside a room, but this one comes closest to the how-did-the-killer-get-in-and-out.
Also the Jeremy Brett episode of this tale was really good.

i agree with you 100%!!

I remember seeing that article as well and thinking it was more of a ranking of the most to the least politically correct (in 2020) than an actual ranking on the quality of the stories. Now there’s nothing wrong with discussing how the stories hold up to our current values. I think we should be discussing such things. And honestly a PC ranking sounds rather interesting.
But naming it “ALL 60 ORIGINAL SHERLOCK HOLMES NOVELS AND STORIES, RANKED” one imagines that w/o stating “...RANKED [on racism, misogyny, etc]” the ranking are going to be on a general literary good to bad scale. Instead the reader is left thinking “okay that story is more racist than I remember. But is that one actually BETER than that one?”
I guess the controversy is good for the comments trend. Hopefully, BookRiot gives ranking the canon another go.

Here's a BSI ranking of the canon from 1999
http://www.bestofsherlock.com/story/p...

i agree with most of the rankings,,and am glad silver blaze is in 3rd place!!

i agree with most of the rankings ..am glad silver blaze is in 3rd place!

There are a few I would probably put higher than The Empty House, which is just okay as a mystery, the real interest is in Holmes "resurrection."

brett does that one well plus he adds a murder to it!

Nickleby wrote: "I remember seeing that article as well and thinking it was more of a ranking of the most to the least politically correct (in 2020) than an actual ranking on the quality of the stories. Now there’s..."

I think if you are going to apply our PC standards to writing of the 19th and early 20th century, you are going to have to get rid of a lot of classics. And a story like The Three Gables, even though I have a lot of problems with it, and find the Steve Dixie scenes embarrassing and racist, it is overall an interesting problem. The affair between poor Douglas and Isadora, the racy book about their affair, the nasty Stockdales all make for a lively adventure. Plus, like the other tale that involves race, The Yellow Face, it's one of Holmes' failures. He might squeeze five thousand pounds out of Isadora, but he never gets the manuscript.

Barbara I agree with you.

I was NOT saying I believe we should “get rid” of Classics because they don’t conform to our 21st PC standards or otherwise. I did say I think we can and probably should have discussions about how the Classics do/don’t align with our attitudes today; and that said conversations would probably be rather interesting.
Not purge our libraries of them because they make us feel a little uncomfortable today. Just candid conversations concerning the differences.

But what I was really trying to say was I didn’t appreciate that way initial article had gone about it. If the article’s author wanted to talk about how SH stories can racist or sexist, OKAY, but be up front about from the beginning. Tell readers that that is what you’re going to be discussing in the article’s title.
I believe if an article is entitled Ranking Best & Worse SH Stories (unless otherwise mentioned in the title) than rank the stories on their (tradition) literary merits of good and bad; not on their 21st Century PCness. That all I was saying.

But I’m NOT advocating for Classics to be gotten rid of.

Nickleby wrote: "Barbara I agree with you.

I was NOT saying I believe we should “get rid” of Classics because they don’t conform to our 21st PC standards or otherwise. I did say I think we can and probably should ..."


No I didn't mean "you" - I meant more, that if readers or teachers or librarians or the public is going to go back to the classics and apply politically correct standards, a lot of classics would be gone.
I also didn't appreciate the way the article went about it. Like I said, the two stories that really involve race - The Three Gables and the Yellow Face - have some interesting plot points, they are examples of Sherlock Holmes' failures, they present Holmes with interesting problems

stop trying to intellectualize the stories just enjoy them!!!

The blue carbuncle and Silver Blaze definitely my two favourite short stories and a Study in Scarlet is my favourite novel!

I love The Blue Carbuncle, and the Granada episode of that, which was one of their first seasons episodes, is one of my favorite TV episodes. It's annual holiday viewing at our house. So perfectly cast!

Any rating that doesn't have Scandal in Bohemia at the top isn't one I can ever agree with in good conscience tbh, it's got to be one of the most iconic and fun Holmes stories. Closely followed by the Blue Carbuncle and Silver Blaze. The Sign of the Four struck me as one of the most unequivocally racist and messed up stories and frankly if that ranks near the top for anyone I'd be very concerned about good taste

I found an article that said in a 1927 issue of The Strand, Conan Doyle was asked to list his top 12 Sherlock Holmes stories. This came after the magazine had some kind of competition for their readers to name their top Holmes stories, and so they asked Doyle and put "Scandal" at #5 - his his was
The Speckled Band
The Red-Headed League
The Dancing Men
The Final Problem
A Scandal in Bohemia
The Empty House
The Five Orange Pips
The Second Stain
The Devil's Foot
The Priory School
The Musgrave Ritual
The Reigate Squires

I have to say, I think Orange Pips is one of the weakest stories - no way it would make my top 12. And I'm not sure I'd put either Final Problem, or Dancing Men above Scandal.

Some the stories are "of their time" and other feel "un-PC in our time" so without prejudice and taking the above into consideration here is my list of only 10 from the short stories (but I do love them all so it's a hard decision):
Silver Blaze
Bruce-Partington Plans
Empty House
Dancing Men
Red Headed League
Second Stain
6 Napoleons
Naval Treaty
Blue Carbuncle
Musgrave Ritual