Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Genre: Short Fiction
Year: 1892
Pages: 300
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 4 nods out of 5
In recent years, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has received amorous
glances from the Worm. Two book-reading seasons ago the first Sherlock Holmes
adventure, A Study in Scarlet, was read; whilst last year’s book reading season
began with a read of The Sign of the Four. What better way, then, to kick-off
this (rather delayed) review than with yet another from the Sherlock Holmes collection.
The twelve stories that make up The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes (A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, A Case of
Identity, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Five Orange Pips, The Man with the
Twisted Lip, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Speckled
Band, The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, The Adventure of the Noble
Bachelor, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, The Adventure of the Copper
Beeches) were first published in the Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1892;
being collected and sold in book form later in 1892. They show Sherlock Holmes
and his trusted companion, Doctor Watson, in a series of adventures in which
the duo really come into their own; establishing the power of a myth that has
endured right through to the present day.
These twelve short stories manage to show Holmes at work in
a greater variety of situations that the previous novels. Again, the
distinction is drawn between the shut-down when not working on a case, as he
drifts into his ‘drug-created dreams’ before arising when ‘hot upon the scent
of a new problem’. As Holmes himself explains, he feeds and thrives off the action
of the cases of crime: ‘It saved me from ennui… my life is spent in one long
effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help
me to do so.’
Holmes’ unorthodox practices and reasoning is further
detailed by a mystified and intrigued Watson. This includes Holmes needing to
go into a slumber when smoking what he deems ‘a three-pipe problem’:
‘He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put his pipe down upon the mantelpiece.’
We also witness Holmes becoming the master of disguise (in A
Scandal in Bohemia
The collection established the Holmes-Watson connection.
Furthermore, it has cemented the legend of other characters, notably that of
Irene Adler (‘To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman’). The short story
format provides greater energy to Holmes-Watson tag-team. The earlier novels (A
Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four) lose interest throughout the reading
experience; far better to concentrate Holmes within smaller – and sillier –
mysteries that allow his full personality to spill out onto the page. For this
principal reason, the Worm sees 4 nods as a fitting return for stories that
have cemented themselves as classics.
