The complete Sherlock Holmes
My friend gave me this book cause he knew that I am very much interested in Mystery Stories and what better book to read than the one on the Greatest Detective known to mankind.
Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this book is the comprehensive collection of all of Sherlock Holmes adventures and all of them absolutely mind boggling. It really shows the power of simple observation.
Much has been said about the detective, but in reality everything boils down to simple observation and as said by the maestro himself, “observing in the right places”.
The book follows the following sequence of story dividing or segmentation:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
His Last Bow
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes
These again contain 10 to 15 stories. Each of them was a separate book, but then brought together they have made one great volume.
It makes very good reading because it all follows a whole sequence. Like in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the final story “The Final Problem” has the death of Sherlock Holmes. Now what happened here was that the author was very tired of Sherlock Holmes and decided that the character must go for ever, and thus brings the final chapter of the detective.
But then growing public demand and request by the detectives fan base caused the author to bring him back to life (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ???)
The narrative in all of the stories have been done by his faithful friend and confidant
Dr Watson, except in “The Case of the Blanched Man” and “The Case of the Lion Mane” where the narrative is by Sherlock Holmes himself.
To read this book, utmost concentration is required because hidden between those words is the answer which will give away the crime and criminal. Never keep this book down half way through a mystery because then you will have to start all over again (I have been subject to that a lot of times.)
The language used in this book is English in its purest form. The one more thing for this book other than “observation” is the pure English language and a lot of new words….
I’m sorry because I cannot give you details of the contents of the book because it contains all of the mysteries that the detective has solved, so please excuse the outlined review of the book.
Comments and criticisms welcome…