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Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin Classics) by Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle, Iain Pears, Ed Glinert ISBN: 0-14-043771-1 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Inconsistant in quality.
Comment: I like most of the stories in this book (a merger of 2 seperate anthologies) but some are quite bad. Still tho, I like Holmes and he gets plenty of room here to show off his skills.
These stories are presented in chrological order of their publication in 'Strand' magazine and follow immediatly after 'A Study in Scarlet' and 'The Sign of Four'. Tho their timelines bounce around all over the place and it's hard to keep track.
My fave stories would be 'The Speckled Band' or 'The Engineer's Thumb'. Both of which are from 'Adventures'. The only story I really enjoyed from 'Memoirs' is 'The Silver Blaze'. Many of them seem to be rehashes of his older plots.
Tho highly regarded in the literary community I find Conan-Doyles writing style to be confusing and inappropriate. As most of you know the stories are told from the point of view of Watson, Holmes' sidekick. But his narration of the events takes a backseat to very, very lengthy dialogues (which are mostly overwritten monologues). The narrative shifts back and forth and all over the place. It's not uncommon to see '''" before a typical line of speech. If you get lost, don't worry...I did too. The story 'The Musgrave Ritual' especially is badly told, plain and simple.
Plus Watson's function in most of this hardly ever reaches out of 'The Casual Observer'. All he does is witness Holmes' crime-solving techniques. Which usually only last a couple of pages as most of each story (typical length 21 pages) devotes about 13 pages to set-up. Hardly well balanced is it?
The last story 'The Final Problem' isn't even a mystery at all and just seems like a badly thought-out excuse for Conan-Doyle to kill of a character he felt totally indifferent about. Even tho the public loved Holmes. Why Moriarty is seen as a massive villain is beyond me because he hardly does anything at all.
The overall quality of the short stories is average. The full novels is where Holmes and Watson REALLY have something to other than fool around in low-level stories. You'll definitely be interested in some of the stories in this certain edition, but they lack meaning or purpose.
This particular edition comes with extensive notes at the back with numbers for each story to help clear up any confusion. Some of them are helpful for when you are reading and the rest give away plot points and ruin some of the developements.
As I am a Holmes completist I stuck it out and finished every one of these stories. If you are too then I'd recommend this Penguin edition over the others. They seem to always print the best copies of Holmes.
Rating: 5
Summary: Introduction and footnotes make for excellent edition
Comment: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES are here collected into a single volume in this Penguin edition. Two compediums of short stories published after the detective's introduction in the novels A STUDY IN SCARLET and THE SIGN OF FOUR, these are concise bits that are just as good a first exposure to Holmes as the novels.
Because the cases of Sherlock Holmes, dutifully chronicled by his companion Dr. Watson, may not appeal to everyone, I won't focus here on reviewing the stories themselves, as it is the features of this particular edition that are of note.
Iain Pears' introduction is quite enlightening, showing the tendency of Arthur Conan Doyle to make the troubles in Holmes' stories come from England's colonies, which is strange considering Conan Doyle's support of equality and respect for all peoples. Pears' also discusses the change in the style of the Holmes stories, from the rational youth of Conan Doyle to the latter days of his life when he was interested in spiritualism and mysticism.
There are footnotes to each story, compiled by Ed Glinert. An expert on literature set in London, Glinert explains the geographical settings of the Holmes stories, and defines anachronistic terms that are no longer use. He also points out the mistakes Arthur Conan Doyle frequently made in his stories, which are often quite amusing (Watson's wife calling him by the wrong name, contradicting timelines, etc).
Because of the illuminating introduction and the helpful footnotes, I'd recommend over any others this edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.
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Title: The Sign of Four (Penguin Classics) by Arthur Conan Doyle, Peter Ackroyd, Ed Glinert ISBN: 0140439072 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.00 |
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Title: The Valley of Fear and Selected Cases (Penguin Classics) by Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle, Charles Palliser, Ed Glinert ISBN: 014043772X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: A Passage to India by E. M. Forster ISBN: 0156711427 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 1984 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ISBN: 068983571X Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Leo Damrosch ISBN: 0451527321 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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