Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

By Arthur Conan Doyle and Bruce F. Murphy

With each spine-tingling mystery, the legend of Sherlock Holmes comes to life. Page by page, Holmes uses his uncanny deductive skills to solve the toughest of cases. After reading this classic collection, you’ll discover why this eccentric detective from 221B Baker Street in London rose to celebrity status throughout the world. This book includes such favorites as The Red-Headed League, Five Orange Pips, and Adventure of the Speckled Band.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Mar 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411435063

Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

Reviews for Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading)

[david7466 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These are some fun and sometimes weird little stories that showcase not only Holmes' ability to solve mysteries, but also his relationship with Watson. The only down side that they do tend to be off the beaten track of Holmes actually catching a criminal and mostly around him figuring something out that doesn't result in anyone being brought to justice. Still fun reading though.

[jintster_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As far as I recall, this was the first adult book I read, age 11. I became obsessed with detective novels, burning through pretty much the whole ouevre of Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, GK Chesterton and others by the time I was 14. While Conan Doyle certainly didn't invent the English fictional detective (that honour goes to Wilkie Collins, I believe), he did set up certain formulas which others have followed. Familairity is key with this genre of fiction - Holmes and Watson play their parts in a predictable manner and there's always a warm fire burning at Baker Street. I enjoyed re-reading these books. They're very precisely written and I enjoyed how the descriptions of late Victorian London are both familar and alien at the same time to a modern Londoner. The plots are just complex enough - you can usually work out the nature of the crime if you think about it a bit but they're still quite challenging (by contrast I always found Christie to be impossible). Nevertheless I feel I've outgrown the genre and have no desire to plunge back into it.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've read this multiple times, having first come to Holmes as a teenager. This was the first time I've listened to them, and having Stephen Fry narrate is a stroke of genius. He has that patrician voice that seems to match nicely with the tone I can hear in Watson as he narrates the stories. The short stories make it easy to listen while commuting. That and the fact that as I listened to them I could remember what the puzzle or situation involved meant this was a bit like revisiting an old friend and finding them both changed and reliably the same.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first collection of Sherlock's shorts and they were super fun. Witty, varied, self-referential, Holmes is a much gentler fellow in these tales than he appears in recent incarnations. He fights for the underdog and cares about the wronged. Some of these stories seem to have been told and retold in every detective series ever imagined but they shine here in their original forms.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection of a dozen short stories recorded by Dr. Watson showcases the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes. The crimes range from murder to blackmail, robbery, and missing persons. They’re not in chronological order. Watson is married in some stories, and in others he is a bachelor sharing rooms with Holmes. The impression one gets is that Watson is writing up cases from his notes as something triggers his memory of a particular case. This time around I listened to the audio by Ralph Cosham. I prefer Edward Hardwicke’s narration of the Holmes stories, perhaps because he played Watson in the Granada TV series.

[anneofia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first met Sherlock Holmes in high school, and have been on friendly terms with him ever since. The dozen stories in this book include: A Scandal in Bohemia, 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 Cornet, and The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

[oscarwilde87_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories centered about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. There is no direct connection between any of the stories but some of them include references to earlier Sherlock Holmes cases. Being a collection of short stories, there is not much sense in summarizing the plot. What the stories have in common, though, is that the cases that are presented to the protagonist are seemingly trivial at first sight but soon complicate and become interesting.What I liked most about these Sherlock Holmes stories is how the cases are related through the eyes of John Watson, Sherlock Holmes' assistant. I especially like the way Doyle as an author uses Watson to narrate his stories and thereby raise their credibility. As a reader, I always find it easy to believe the stories as Doyle manages to give them a sense of being real events in late 20th century London. This technique is quite clever, to my mind, as it makes Holmes' deductions, which might otherwise seem quite far-fetched, more reasonable and credible. John Watson serves as a trustworthy reporter and additionally provides for some humorous sketches of an unsusual detective.As a collection of short stories, the book can easily be read in twelve instalments. As I see it, this does not take anything off the reading experience as I quite enjoyed reading the book on twelve separate nights with one story each. I would recommend The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes both to people who already like Sherlock Holmes stories as well as to people who have never read Holmes but always wanted to. Although chronologically not the first book, it can definitely serve as an introduction into the intriguing cases of Sherlock Holmes. 4 stars for this one.

[csweder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After reading Hound of the Baskervilles, which is a full length novel about an adventure of Holmes, I was a little disappointed that this novel was ALL short stories. Short stories have their place, certainly, but it wasn't as engaging as a novel is.

There was nothing spectacular about this book. Just dozens of stories of Holmes solving problems no one else could. It was fun to try to solve them first...but I'm not that good.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think I prefer Sherlock Holmes stories one at a time. This many all at once just made them seem so similar. I can appreciate how Doyle was a pioneer in the mystery field, but the story that I liked the best was the most gothic, "The Adventure of the Copper Beaches".

[jesssika-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book included 12 adventures titled:
1. A Scandal in Bohemia
2. The Red-Headed League
3. A Case of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man with the Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
9. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

I loved these. It was awesome to read the mystery to which Sherlock needed to solve and see his mannerisms. Then out of absolutely nothing it seemed he had solved it! I loved how the story included through Sherlock on how he solved cases. Noticing the little things was mostly how he did it and I found myself trying to use those same tricks as best I could from reading to figure things out. It was a fun and awesome read.

[maowangvater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This series of a dozen short stories first saw print in the English magazine The Strand in 1891 and 1892. Although Doyle’s eccentric detective and his accomplice Dr. Watson had already appeared in two previous short novels serialized in magazines in the U. K. and the U. S., this collection of short stories made his fame by more regularly displaying for the reading public Holmes’s métier of observation and inference that allows him to startle prospective clients and Watson with details of their recent activities by the mud stains on their attire or their trade by the relative strength of their hands, his scrupulous reading of tracks in the snow, and his careful observation of window sills with a magnifying glass. More excitingly, he lays in wait for criminals to catch them in the act of an attempted bank robbery or a murder, meanwhile fighting off deadly snakes and unscrupulous relatives, and protecting royalty from scandal. He quotes his “old maxim…that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”And in a delicious irony, Dr. Doyle, the true narrator of the tales, describes Holmes in a bored and petulant mood grousing at the fictional narrator Dr. Watson, accusing him of sensationalizing these cases. “Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.” Yet these adventurous tales of brooding detection followed by swift action insured the fame of the author and his most popular character.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Either Holmes is better in a short story format or he's growing on me. I'll still take a good Agatha Christie any day (at least you can anticipate some of her clues), but Holmes character is more palatable in this format.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. This work contains twelve different Sherlock Holmes cases:1. A Scandal in Bohemia2. The Red-Headed League3. A Case of Identity4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery5. The Five Orange Pips6. The Man with the Twisted Lip7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band9. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet12. The Adventure of the Copper BeechesThey are all moderately entertaining, if not spectacular.

[drled_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review: This is a collection of mysteries from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some are better than others, but all are interesting.

[kelley.logan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this ages ago...when I was but an egg. But Sherlock stands to time and Doyle has a very interesting way into a story. But you should read the Hound of the Baskervilles first. That first chapter is all you will ever need to know about critical thinking.

[kingoftheicedragons · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I remembered reading the Hound of the Baskervilles when I was younger, and remembered that I liked it. Also, Sherlock Holmes has been an interest of mine since childhood, despite not having read many of his stories. So when I found The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as a free e-book, I downloaded it and read it. I must say that I have had some mixed opinions about the book. The fact that it, like many of the Sherlock Holmes stories, are told from the point of view of Watson instead of from the third person perspective diminishes the book to some degree. The author in essence took the easy way out of telling detective stories from the point of view from someone who doesn't know about solving mysteries--in other words, the author--Sir Conan Doyle--apparently did not know about what he was writing about. Mysteries were being solved sometimes as quickly as he was being given the facts--and there were quite a few facts that the reader is never given but yet what Sherlock Holmes apparently "knew." I'm someone who likes to try to solve the mystery along the way as I'm reading, and with most of the stories, that just isn't possible. With the exception of the last story in the book, which I would have to say is my favorite, which can be solved easily by reading it. Maybe that means it's too predictable or the plot has been overdone many times throughout the years, I don't know. In these stories, you will find the story of the women who was able to defeat Sherlock Holmes, the mention of his drug addiction, as well as his axom of "once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, most be the truth."

[neale_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short stories that are about non-murder mysteries on the whole and are enjoyable to read if not for the pre-1900 descriptions, but for Sherlock's deductions. An Australian link to one of the stories as well.

[callmecordelia1912 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sherlock Holmes posses an uncanny knowledge of almost everything, which allows him to see through every case. My personal favorite of the short stories was A Scandal in Bohemian, featuring the only woman to ever outsmart Sherlock Holmes...while The Adventure of the Speckled Band kept me on the edge of my seat. This is a must read for any mystery fan.

[8f_sam · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book started off pretty good, but then it sorta got more and more boring as it went along. But int he beginning, Sherlock Holmes was so cool! He would say something about someone, and I would be so suprised! Then he would explain how he got it, and it would seem so simple that even I could do it! He's really amazing! But his stories are slightly predictable. I think my favourite one of the short stories in here would be......the Bombsco Vally Mystery. That one was so cool! It involved a murder mystery, and all the evidence points to the murdered man's son, but Sherlock Holmes doesn't think it was the son. But the story was SO predictable. As soon as I heard Sherlock tell the mystery, I already knew who did it! But all in all, it was a pretty good book!

[391_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first volume of short stories, containing the stories written after the Sign of Four and published in the Strand. Doyle's style is enhanced, I think, by the abbreviated style - The Sign of Four and A Study in Scarlet both had the same problem with dragging and tedious narrative in the second act, while the short stories simply have no room for wandering digression. They still aren't at top form, though, I think, though they are fabulous. Doyle has an excellent turn for description; "All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like untamed beasts in a cage." Some of my favorites in this collection are The Adventure of the Red-Headed League (hilarious!), The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches and The Boscombe Valley Mystery, which are all rife with an intriguing mystery and dramatic intent. We see the extent to which Holmes has come to depend on Watson, as well, and are introduced to more of the man's peculiar habits - cocaine, bending steel pokers, and loitering in opium dens which makes for a hilarious opening sequence (even in a rather lackluster story).

[sirthomaspc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my most favorite re-reads. I enjoy picking up this tome and running through one of Sir Arthur's stories and being taken to a time past. The words bring me to London (or elsewhere) in a time before tech. I can see Holmes and Watson talking in the sitting room, looking at evidence. The twists and turns are enjoyable, as is the vast cast of characters we are introduced to. A great read for bedtime for young readers.

[lizzybeans11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read a few other Sherlock Holmes stories in school and was interested in reading more so this seemed like a good compendium. I like that the stories are short and you can pick them up on and off. I think they are most enjoyed once-and-a-while as opposed to straight-through, as they can became tedious and unexciting.I listened to this in audiobook format thanks to LibriVox. The reader was ok but obviously not a professional.

[momma2_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed immensely the first few stories about Holmes however by the end of the book some of the themes were recurring and tedious. Holmes and Watson are a wonderful team and I do enjoy Holmes deductions. I did find some of Watson's preamble a little unnecessary but overall this book was an entertaining read.

[rameau_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I decided to revisit Holmes after watching the excellent new BBC update. Still as good as I remember. I didn't notice till now however that 3 cases have the same motive.

[sbarrow57 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Even though I had never read any of the Sherlock Holmes books before, he is such a well known character that I knew what to expect. The book did not disappoint, with each of the twelve short stories following a mysterious case that only the ever-observant Sherlock Holmes could solve. I enjoyed Watson's narrative that seemed to make the cases feel real, even the more far fetched ones.I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more Sherlock Holmes stories in the future.

[m3dalziel331071 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Sherlock Holmes – a consulting detective with a dark side, solving crimes by the dozen with his trusty partner, Doctor John Watson; the pair of Englishmen are an unstoppable team, Watson under the training of his dubiously intelligent brother of bond, the famous detective known only by the name of Holmes. Sherlock is quite the interesting character, being emotionally unattached to his cases and his only friend, and only strives to solve the mysteries at hand – his work is his only true interest, other than the woman, Irene Adler, who makes short appearances in his life throughout the many stories. Most see him as ruthless and inconsiderate, but he is merely doing what he does best: his job. He considers his job to be his life, and even though it’s the only thing he is committed to, he manages to maintain a relationship with his Boswell, John Watson. John Watson is a loyal man, one of great medical skill, and slowly learning the way of work through his unemotional partner along the way, and is more interested in social life then Holmes. Ironically enough, the two are completely different, yet they share a bond unthinkable to most, one that can never be broken, even through the toughest of hardships. These two are unstoppably unpredictable, and I find their reign wondrous.These two men face much conflict throughout the book, seeing as though it is not one story, but twelve very interesting ones instead. From photographs, to stolen identities, to cases of a governess, the possibilities they face are endless, though not unsolvable. Holmes can solve a case by simply examining the words stated by his client, making sense of nonsense, so it seemed to most. How is it that he solves such mysteries that occur? He examines anything and everything that comes to his eyes or his mind, there’s not a thought that brushes past this claimed madman’s mind, and if there is, well, he’s certainly in for some struggle, but he won’t prevail, nonetheless. It is due to his partners help that he is successful, he admits it often. The two are like opposites, but when you put them together, they make sense of the confusion through observation.These stories take place in nineteenth century London, a time of industry and wealth for the British Empire. The city is alive; the streets are filled with people, not necessarily full of joy, but filled, nonetheless. New business, new trade, new industry, new populations arising, London is reaching its pinnacle of success and standards. The Victorian era only makes the gloomy city all the more interesting, hiding many secrets beneath its surface, having much crime, which makes it the only place where Holmes would have been successful during this certain time period. Holmes isn’t Holmes without his London, or that’s the way I see it. Complications would have been different elsewhere, and much less interesting. The United Kingdom was extremely interesting during the late eighteen hundreds, much more than any other location during this time. This book has taught me that there is always an answer. Just because it isn’t seen at first glance, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to solve it anyhow. You’d be surprised what wonders observation and solving can bring you. It can make you more intelligent and open to what life throws at you, open your eyes anew to its inviting arms. All in all, this book has inspired me endlessly, and is my all-time favorite piece of classic literature.

[ragwaine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet (Son is accused but daughter stole it, son got it back.)-The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (Steals the jewel then loses it. Good.)-The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (Hired to impersonate, daughter because she's locked up.)-The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb (Not really a mystery. Just a tale. Bad guys got away too.)-The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor (Bride finds outher old husband is alive and disappears.)-The Boscombe Valley Mystery (Average, Holmes style mystery with killer who is not really a bad guy.)-The Five Orange Pips (Way to short. Cool that the KKK guys died but Holmes didn't get a chance to punish them.)-The Red-headed League (Too short but the red-headed league was very original.)

[aprildt_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book consists of several bite-sized nuggets of mystery, each of the tales being 20-25 pps long. Holmes usually has the answer to the case before he hears the end of the story, and Watson always tries to be as perceptive as Holmes, but fails. However, we need Watson because he is the narrator! I can't decide which was scarier: The Speckled Band or The Engineer's Thumb. Gripping! I am glad to have finally discovered Watson and Holmes!

[freddiefreddie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Recently I read a Yahoo! article that stated many Brits (I forget the percentage) believe Sherlock Holmes was real. For that alone, Doyle deserves four stars. Extra star for the writing.

[ireed110 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A series of short mysteries narrated by the good Dr Watson. Interesting enough, rarely riveting, sometimes clever.