Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer, who created the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer; other than 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”, helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

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The Hound of the Baskervilles

Laura1 Comment on The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles

, Book # 5
Signet
August 1901
Paperback
256
English
November 25, 2020 December 27, 2020

We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?

About the book

The Hound of the Baskervilles is perhaps Doyle’s most famous book. And I have to say that it is the one that I liked most. We finally get to know Mortimer and I must advise against reading the books in the order that Goodreads says to read them. Read the anthologies of short stories after the novels. Unfortunately in the anthologies there are references to Mortimer that come out of nowhere and therefore the story is not known. Indeed, it is not known even now after reading a novel with him as the protagonist (or almost).

Be that as it may, the book is about an old legend or curse that all Baskervilles are forced to endure. But Sherlock doesn’t believe in curses and therefore tries to find out what’s behind this rumour.

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The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Laura3 Comments on The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
,

, Book # 5
Wisehouse Classics
1904
eBook
396
English
June 22, 2020 June 27, 2020

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories were published in the Strand Magazine in Great Britain, and Collier's in the United States.

The book was first published in February 1905 by McClure, Phillips & Co. (New York) then on March 7, 1905 by Georges Newnes, Ltd. (London) and was the first Holmes collection since 1893, when Holmes had "died" in "The Final Problem". Having published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901–1902 (setting it before Holmes' death) Doyle came under intense pressure to revive his famous character.

The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891–94, a period called “The Great Hiatus” by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.

About the book

Another collection of stories dedicated to Sherlock Holmes always narrated by the faithful Watson. For this book, too, I will not summarise all the stories and also the review is not long as I still don’t like collections of stories. But to read the whole series you have to read them right?

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Laura4 Comments on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
,

, Book # 3
Penguin Books
1892
Paperback
302
English
June 13, 2020 June 18, 2020

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the Strand magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The detective is at the height of his powers and the volume is full of famous cases, including 'The Red-Headed League', 'The Blue Carbuncle', and 'The Speckled Band'. Although Holmes gained a reputation for infallibility, Conan Doyle showed his own realism and feminism by having the great detective defeated by Irene Adler - the woman - in the very first story, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.
The editor of this volume, Richard Lancelyn Green is editor of The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. With John Michael Gibson, he compiled the Soho Series Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle.

About the book

This book is also a collection of short stories that, as usual, I hardly ever read because I don’t like collections but if I want to read all of Sherlock Holmes I have to read these too.

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The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Laura2 Comments on The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
,

, Book # 4
Atria Books
1894
Paperback
154
English
March 28, 2020 March 31, 2020

Silver Blaze
The Adventure of the Yellow Face
The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk
The Adventure of the "Gloria Scott"
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
The Adventure of the Reigate Squires
The Adventure of the Crooked Man
The Adventure of the Resident Patient
The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter
The Adventure of the Navel Treaty
The Final Problem

About the book

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 11 short stories all dedicated to the most particular investigator in British history. There are 11 cases, up to the final case in which Moriarty, Sherlock’s famous enemy, is introduced. All are narrated by the faithful friend, Watson, who in the meantime got married to the woman he met in a previous book and bought a medical practice where he practices his profession, so he no longer lives with Sherlock.

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The Sign of the Four

Laura5 Comments on The Sign of the Four
The Sign of the Four
,

, Book # 2
Penguin Books
February 1890
Paperback
129
English
March 26, 2020 March 27, 2020

As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman - Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her. And in the ensuing investigation - which involves a wronged woman, a stolen hoard of Indian treasure, a wooden-legged ruffian, a helpful dog and a love affair - even the jaded Holmes is moved to exclaim, 'Isn't it gorgeous!'

About the book

Second book in the most eccentric British investigator series in history. In this volume Sherlock is grappling with a particular case, a young woman asks him for help to resolve the disappearance of her father many years before. Following the track Sherlock and his faithful friend will find the roots of the mystery in India and the Andaman islands chasing a disappeared treasure.

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