Books with title Best of Sherlock Holmes

At the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, the most famous detective in fiction, most stories were told in parts in magazines over many months. The problem with that, Doyle thought, was that if readers happened to miss the first part, they would not be interested in picking up the story later. So he decided to write stories that were complete in one issue and had main characters that reappeared in future adventures. Edgar Allen Poe wrote the first detective story, but Doyle reinvented it with the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.One reason people like to read detective stories is because in real life crimes can go unsolved and unpunished. A crime causes disorder. A detective's job is to solve the crime so our social relationships can be put back on order. The heroes of detective stories show how even very puzzling crimes can be explained. This helps us believe that justice is still possible.Sometimes Holmes solves mysteries that do not involve a crime. But in any case, his techniques are the same. First, he makes keen observations. He looks very closely at what the details of a person's appearance reveal. Second, he is strictly logical. He always finds as many facts about a case as he can before he starts thinking about a theory that would fit them together. Third, he is ready to use disguises and a little trickery to find clues. Furthermore, Holmes always tries to learn more general knowledge so that he can have a greater chance of solving new problems. He also studies the history of crime so that he can compare his cases with other instances of mysterious and wicked behavior.Just as vivid to us as Holmes, with his deerstalker cap, his caped overcoat, his pipe and his handy magnifying glass, is his companion, Dr. Watson, who narrates these adventures. A war veteran and a married man, Dr. Watson adds common sense and coolness in the fact of danger to Holmes's brilliant reasoning.Doyle's storytelling made this pair seem so real that his fans tend to speak of the sleuth and his sidekick as if they were actual historical people and not simply made-up figures. In Doyle's day, Sherlock Holmes became so hugely popular that Doyle decided he must write a story in which Holmes died in order to be free to write about a different subject. So he suggested that Holmes plunged to his death in a gorge while wrestling the evil genius Professor Moriarty. Readers howled in protest. Even Doyle's mother told him he was wrong. Doyle gave in and began writing more Holmes stories.

"...it was reading the Sherlock Holmes stories as a boy that first turned me on to the power of writing and storytelling." (Stephen Fry)Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scottish born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of deductive reasoning (somewhat mistakenly - see inductive reasoning) and astute observation to solve difficult cases. He is arguably the most famous fictional detective

From his Baker Street apartment, Sherlock Holmes wields his powers of deduction in pursuit of justice and truth, venturing out into foggy Victorian London accompanied by his faithful sidekick Dr Watson. This classic collection of Holmes tales includes many of the detective's most-loved exploits: Holmes is confronted by a venomous snake in 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band', mystified by a missing thumb in 'The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb' and beguiled by a beautiful opera singer in 'A Scandal in Bohemia', never once losing his famous cool.

What would the genre of detective fiction be without the inimitable Sherlock Holmes? One can only speculate as to its state given the absence of its most famous character. Based on Doyle’s own list of best stories and expanded to include several other reader favorites, this collection includes his very best tales. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, includes a preface by the author, and includes the following stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Adventure of the Red-Headed League,” “The Five Orange Pips,” “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” “Silver Blaze,” “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire,” “The Final Problem,” “The Adventure of the Empty House,” “The Adventure of the Dancing Men,” “The Adventure of the Priory School,” “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons,” “The Adventure of the Second Stain,” “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” and “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot.”

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. A London-based "consulting detective" whose abilities border on the fantastic, Holmes is known for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to adopt almost any disguise and his use of forensic science to solve difficult cases.Holmes, who first appeared in print in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories. The first novel, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 and the second, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. The character's popularity grew with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine, beginning with "A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional short-story series and two novels (published in serial form) appeared from then to 1927. The events in the stories take place from about 1880 to 1914.All but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson. Two are narrated by Holmes himself ("The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" and "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"), and two others are written in the third person ("The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow"). In two stories ("The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" and "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott"), Holmes tells Watson the story from his memory, with Watson narrating the frame story. The first and fourth novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear, include long passages of omniscient narrative of events unknown to either Holmes or Watson.