From the Bookshelf of Easley Library Bookworms…

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4)

Arthur Conan Doyle

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jun 07, 2019 Werner rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, mystery-crime-fiction, books-i-own

Note: Jan. 30, 2022: This is another review that was originally written piecemeal, so I've now edited it into a unified whole.

This is Doyle's second collection of canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, containing a dozen tales originally published in The Strand magazine between Dec. 1892 and Nov. 1893. It's included in an omnibus volume of Holmes books that my wife gave me several years ago, The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which is enhanced by all of the original black-and-white drawings b Note: Jan. 30, 2022: This is another review that was originally written piecemeal, so I've now edited it into a unified whole.

This is Doyle's second collection of canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, containing a dozen tales originally published in The Strand magazine between Dec. 1892 and Nov. 1893. It's included in an omnibus volume of Holmes books that my wife gave me several years ago, The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which is enhanced by all of the original black-and-white drawings by gifted artist Sidney Paget. All of the stories embody the characteristic features of the author's Holmes fiction: challenging intellectual puzzles that present opportunities for pure deductive reasoning, a satisfying period ambiance, human drama (sometimes with exotic features), and the comfortable Holmes-Watson interaction. (I won't comment on all of them individually.)

I'd already read four of the stories elsewhere before starting this book. These are: "The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk," which is included in Great English Short Stories though I didn't comment on it in detail in my review of that anthology (and which is actually difficult to comment on without a spoiler); "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual," the antiquarian flavor of which, built around a strange centuries-old family tradition, make it one of my favorites in the Holmes corpus; "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box," in which the titular box, mailed to a respectable and demure middle-aged spinster, draws the reader in immediately with its grisly contents: two severed human ears; and "The Adventure of the Final Problem." The latter story is the only one Doyle wrote in which Prof. Moriarty actually appears (he's alluded to in The Valley of Fear). As well-read Holmes fans already know, it's also very pivotal in the history of the Holmes canon --but no spoilers here! :-)

"The Adventure of the Yellow Face" was my favorite here; it's also a rare Holmes tale in which the great detective's theory of the case proves to be wrong (that's no spoiler, since Watson tells us so in the first paragraph). "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" involves the disappearance of a race horse favored to win a major race; and though many Holmes stories don't involve murder, this case is one that comes with a corpse. I did not figure out the solution --though of course it seems pretty obvious once Holmes explains it!-- and the racing milieu might appeal to Dick Francis fans (I haven't read any of his work myself, but my wife has). In "The Adventure of the 'Gloria Scott'" Doyle looks back into Sherlock's college days, to recount his first brush with the world of crime. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's more observant and analytical brother, is introduced in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" (in the original canon, I believe he only appears here and in one other story). Finally, "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" is one of a few Holmes cases that involve high stakes for British national interests.

With critics who disparage "genre fiction" (as if general or "mainstream" fiction wasn't a genre of its own!), it's axiomatic that mysteries, for instance, don't address serious philosophical issues. Of course, mystery readers know that bringing characters face to face with issues of good and evil, crime and punishment, extremes of human moral behavior with serious stakes, is uniquely apt to suggest questions about right and wrong, meaning and purpose in the universe, and theodicy (to say nothing of social and psychological questions). True, Holmes doesn't often wax explicitly philosophical. And when he does, he's more apt to prompt readers to ask themselves the questions rather than to pose answers. But the former is something that the best of serious fiction does. I'll close with a couple of quotes:

"What object is served by this cycle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever."

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion.... Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers." ...more

54 likes · Like · see review

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls