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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Author Arthur Conan Doyle
Categories Mystery / Detective, Fiction, Audiobook, Short Story Collection
Language English
Series No. 5 in the Sherlock Holmes series
Published 1892
Notes

I. A Scandal in Bohemia
II. The Red-headed League
III. A Case of Identity
IV. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
V. The Five Orange Pips
VI. The Man with the Twisted Lip
VII. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
VIII. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
IX. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
X. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
XI. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
XII. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Approx. 105,161 words.

Excerpt

ulting you."

"Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more.

"The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you."

"Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea fishes.

"Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person, wr

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Average Rating:

2007.08.13
Bipolar Writer

Doyle's stories have aged; younger readers who crave big suprises, action, action, and more action will be disappointed with this collection. But if you're a voracious reader, or you appreciate every little Of course! moments, then downloading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes will be worthwhile for you. 3 stars, to avoid misleading anyone. d=

PS

Smart, and very Brit. I have Doyle's entire collection at home, illustrations and all, and I keep it in a treasure chest. =D

2006.10.22
Richard Bohan

Arthur Conan Doyle was always a better writer of short stories than of novels. This first collection of short stories of Sherlock Holmes has always been regarded as the best, although I suspect that is more because of its novelty at the time of publication than because of any lesser quality in the later short stories.

Present day readers will be surprised at the selection of advantures (and Doyle was obviously generous in his use of the term adventure. Five of the twelve stories in this volume do not involve crimes at all. Some of the others involve only minor crimes and, while Holmes does solve the mysteries to his satisfaction he very rarely "catches" the criminal in the sense of having him arrested or tried.

It says something about Doyle's perception of England that only three of the stories involve murder, and in each of the cases the murderer is either foreign or has spent much of his career abroad.

None of this is meant to disparage Sherlock Holmes of his creator. It is impossible to read this book without becoming involved with the characters of Holmes and Watson, or developing an admiration for Holmes'work.

2006.08.07
Fernando

Classic Sherlock Holmes short stories... Great stuff!

2005.10.16
Lainey

Each of Holme's cases (at least those that we know of) are always interesting. It's not action-packed, there are not that many chases through the streets of London and though Mr. Holmes packs a mean punch, he hardly resorts to violence. What makes this great is Holmes' genius combined with loyal Dr. Watson.

2004.09.25
Wikipedia

This collection of twelve Sherlock Holmes stories were originally published in the Strand Magazine.