The Memoires or Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Memoires or Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short tales about the feats of Sherlock Holmes written in the form of Memoires by his ever faithful sidekick Dr. Watson. They give what purports to be the most interesting of Holmes’ cases, including his finale with Professor Moriarty and how Holmes came to his death. Fortunately for us, the readers of the day kicked up such a fuss about killing Holmes off, that Doyle resurrected him in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Having read both works recently, I can see why Doyle did what he did. First of all, there really is no other suitable death for Holmes because his character simply isn’t one that would grow old contentedly. Imagine a old, decrepit Holmes unable to go about his business chasing after criminals. He’s not particularly stable at the best of times, but inactivity would send him over the brink. Death by and with Moriarty was the best possible scenario in my opinion. However, Doyle was a bit premature with killing off his character and was forced to bring him back from the grave so to speak. Since Moriarty really was dead, that particular scenario couldn’t happen twice (that would have been cheesy anyway). I

I can also see why he was so eager to kill off Holmes. The more you read, the more similarities you start to see between the cases and they becoming increasingly easier to solve yourself, or at least to imagine where Doyle will take the reader. I think Doyle might have been afraid that he would become stale and tried to do what so many others before him should have done, i.e. quit while he was ahead.

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the book, because I did, it’s only that I can see Doyle’s reasoning. 5 out of 5 for this lot because how could you give Holmes any less!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

This is a collection of 12 short adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The narrator is the iconic Dr. Watson who plays assistant to Holmes during his investigations. According to the doctor, he made notes of the cases at the time and only wrote them up after enough time has passed to prevent anything revealed in the telling of the tales from harming innocent people.

What I think is most interesting about these mysteries is contemplating them from the viewpoint of someone reading them at the end of the 19th century. As a modern reader, it’s very easy to think that much of it is just a matter of forensics, which it really is nowadays. However, for those living back then, it must have all seemed quite fantastic and ingenious. Don’t get me wrong, there are elements, which are still quite brilliant today. Some of his deductions and reasoning is nothing short of genius. However, quite a lot of the magic is dispelled when viewed from a modern standpoint.

The question is, do we really want to dispel the magic? I think the answer to this is fairly universally No. Why dispel the enchantment when there’s so much more to be had from suspending disbelief and thoughts of modern day forensics which destroy the romanticism of the age when it’s much more fun to pretend you’re watching the story unfold with no knowledge whatsoever? That’s the point and the relevance of Sherlock Holmes today, in my opinion. He’s there as a mark of progress and genius of the past. After all, was Einstein any less of a genius because much of his work has progressed passed his own developments? Each successive generation always builds on the past generation and without that past, there would be no future. Ergo, Homes and his tales will always be relevant, even if we do find his methods a bit antiquated.

The only criticism I have is that Doyle does paint Watson as an idiot. “Elementary, dear Watson” isn’t just a saying, it is a fact. He misses quite a lot of elementary elements and simply winds up looking like a fool much of the time. I know Doyle did this on purpose to form a contrast with Holmes and make his deductions seem all the more wondrous, but he very nearly overdid it and wound up with an absurd and incredible sidekick.

I enjoyed reading (or listening to) the stories and they get a 5 out of 5 from me.

Challenges:
Classics Challenge 2010
Marple, Poirot, Holmes Challenge
Typically British

A Study In Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Long ago when I was a wee little tyke, I read A Study in Scarlet. It was my fist introduction into Victorian England and I’m afraid it didn’t make a good impression. I found it dark, dirty and rather repugnant in general. In the meantime, I’ve learned to love Victorian literature, but I think I have to admit that my first impression of Victorian England was probably more accurate than the romantic view of it I have today. Fascination goes a long way when overlooking the negative points in the past.

Rereading A Study in Scarlet was interesting from that point of view. I still found it quite a dark book with its description of lodgings that are less than elegant and people who are less than savoury. However, my imagination is now more prepared to clean up the picture Doyle draws and make the setting more palatable. Concentrating less on the setting allowed me to concentrate more on the story this time around and I have to say, it wasn’t very pretty. Holmes’ bit of detection work was a fascinating as ever, but the perpetrator’s tale of how motive evolved felt evil, all the more so because, from what I’ve read and heard from others, much of that particular setting was true. On the one hand, I can’t really say much without giving the plot away and on the other, I don’t want to get involved in any religious/historical discussions or to offend anyone with my opinion.

So, that all being about as clear as mud, I liked the book, although it wasn’t a particularly pleasant read. I find Doyle often dwelled on the less pleasant side of humanity and used it to underline Holmes’ brilliance as a detective, while making his own social statements without actually preaching. I give it 4 out of 5 for being a cleverly woven story.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 stories, the first of which tells the story of how Holmes, contrary to popular belief, survived his fall over the Reichenbach Falls and remained hidden for three years in order to protect himself and further foil the evil plans of Moriarty’s remaining gang. Holmes returns to reside with Watson, who has taken it upon himself to draft their exploits for publication in the future.

I quite liked this collection. The stories are short and sweet and less likely to lose you than the novels are. I’m tempted to dub it a children’s version of Sherlock Holmes since you don’t have to have a terribly long attention span to be able to enjoy them. Personally, I often found the novels long and complicated and often got lost in the twistings and turnings, which is actually the point I suppose. Sherlock was supposed to be the genius, not the reader, so you had to get lost to make him look good. However, with these, I was often able to keep up and see where he was going with his research before he got there and even guessed at what happened a couple of times. The only thing I didn’t like about these was that Watson was depicted as especially stupid. Obviously this was supposed to make Holmes look all the cleverer, but it really just made me think Watson was a complete idiot. It kind of made the two look like a Pinky and The Brain combo. I’m not sure that’s exactly what Doyle intended.

5 out of 5. If you like mysteries and Holmes, you should like these.