SOURCE: Borrowed
TYPE: Hardcover
TITLE: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes)
AUTHOR: Arthur Conan Doyle
SERIES: Sherlock Holmes (#3)
PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble Classics
PAGES: 166
GENRE: Mystery, Classics, Historical Fiction
RATING: 5/5 Stars
Blurb:
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'.What I Liked:
- There were some really great stories in here, and my favourites for sure were the interesting ones that had great twists in them. These included: 'The Red Speckled Band' (my favourite of them all), 'The Copper Beeches', 'The Red-Headed League' and 'The Man With The Twisted Lip'. Until this point I didn't really think the previous stories were interesting in the way that I had expected. These ones were definitely interesting.
- I also liked 'A Scandal In Bohemia' because it introduced Irene Adler. I'm told it's the only story that she appears in, but I always thought she was an interesting character in the various media adaptations I've seen her in. This story really did her justice and I like the idea of Sherlock really admiring him because she 'beat' him. It's the closest thing we'll see to a crush in Sherlock Holmes.
What I Disliked:
- There were a couple of stories that felt unfinished or weren't wrapped up very well, which was a little disappointing. Especially as they had the premise of such great stories! 'A Case Of Identity' and 'The Five Orange Pips' were the biggest examples of these. Sherlock solved the cases to an extent, but then Doyle's chose ending just didn't satisfy me in any way. I'm glad this was only the case for one or two of the stories, and not all of them!
Overall Conclusion:
This third installment to the 'Sherlock Holmes' series is by far the best in my eyes, and I liked very much the short story style he chose to adopt, preferring it to the longer individual stories. Most of the stories were so interesting and felt a little different to the kind of Detective stories I'm used to. There were a few stories that I felt could have had better endings, but for the most part Sherlock and Watson remain my favourite Detective duo and I look forward to reading more from them in the future.
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