Arthur Conan Doyle Books

With the DVD remastering of the 1925 film of "The Lost World", this book makes a fascinating companion. I read the novel in my teens and it was fun to re-enter Doyle's world and remeet the fascinating Prof.

Get the book and the remastered DVD - making sure you get the restored version.

A Classic. I have to agreee that I do not think Micheal read this book. One of Doyles best with out a doubt. Challenger is as good a hero as Holmes. Thank god for America releasing the 1925 film on DVD.

This handsome (Wessex = listed here as Gasogene) edition of an enthralling yet sadly neglected masterpiece by Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, is enhanced by dozens of insightful annotations, all the original illustrations, as well as a stockpile of in-depth, illuminating essays on the origins of the work itself, its adaptation to the silent screen, and more. Five- star rating both for content and presentation. A collector's item, well worth the price.

Roy Pilot and Al Rodin have obviously spent hundreds of hours researching and gathering together material which explains, informs, and illuminates this important work. The appendix on the silent film alone is worth the price! Wessex Press is to be commended on the care and attention which is evident in the production of this gem.

A classic in the tradition of the scientific romance, in which Sir Arthur introduces the irascible Professor Challenger, discoverer of a plateau of ancient flora and fauna, living fossils. Mr. Pilot and Mr. Rodin's splendid annotated edition enhance the pleasure of the read with bits of history and other background fabric. Especially delightful are the Harry Rountree and Joseph Clement Coll illustrations from early serialized versions of the story, reprinted throughout the book. In addition to the annotations, four appendices provide further history and commentary. You'll even find Conan Doyle and friends disquised as the book's characters in old photographs prepared for the first British edition. Although a little expensive, it's well worth the price for anyone interested in something more than the casual read of this popular novel.

If you want to find facts fast, this is the book. Indices of every story. Clarkson has done an admirable job!

THE CANONICAL COMPENDIUM will become a Sherlockian's constant companion. It's a gold mine for the Canonically inclined, but certainly not just for those Sherlockian wizards who know the saga backwards and forwards, upside down and downside up. Any reader who wants to know more about the Sherlock Holmes stories will be helped by the compendium because of the way Stephan Clarkson has structured his presentation of all things Holmesian. I was especially impressed by the story indexes, one for each of the sixty wonderful tales.

Calabash Press has produced a beautiful book that's big enough to contain a staggering amount of research but still not cumbersome to just pick up and browse; the compendium is a handsome volume that's bound -- by the publisher -- to last a lifetime.

Behold the fruit of pensive nights and laborious days (Or vice-versa). This is a helpful, splendidly accessible, and thoughtful compilation of Canonical people, places and things by a second-generation Baker Street Irregular of impeccable pedigree. Although the alphabetical lists are as individual and quirky as Sherlock Holmes's own, Clarkson has a genius for minutiae and a brain of the first water. Never get caught in a trivia contest with this man! Highly recommended.

"The Canonical Compendium" is the answer to a maiden's prayer! (provided, of course, that the maiden is a Sherlockian) With this book in hand, you will be able to answer any questions you might ever have about the Canon. Buy it!

There are many wonderful features to the Canonical Compendium, but four in particular set it apart from other index tools I have used. The first is its indexes to the indexes, which makes it easy to find the various categories and subcategories. The second is that the references are given in context, so that the researcher can find out immediately how the name or word is actually used in the story. This arrangement also spares the researcher from having to know the context in order to find the item in the first place. A third feature is the page layout and size of the book. The spacious two-column format allows the eye to scan the page quickly and accurately, and the book stays open to the page you are working on - no trivial matter on a crowded work table! The book's size also prevents concealment by any Gilchrists who might be tempted to use the Compendium to cheat on Sherlockian quizzes! But the greatest feature of the Compendium is Steve Clarkson's sense of humor. Take this reference item, for example: "Dog, Lady Brackenstall's, ignited by Sir Eustace. This is the only mention of a hot dog in the Canon." The Canonical Compendium is loaded with these little gems, making it the reference volume you will use with a grin on your face. How did I ever function as a Sherlockian without this book!

A very entertaining way of looking at the questions of life, using the Sherlockian Canon as your guide.

I found this book a very pleasant surprise. Sherlock Holmes on religion? Surely this could not be a serious book. Then I read a paragraph at random and was fascinated--and immediately bought a copy. Of course Stephen Kendrick edits his quotes from Holmes to show the detective's nobler sentiments; there is none of the negativity here (no reference to drugs or other evidence of the character's darker nature.) The book is very inspirational and is a real pleasure to read. I feel that there is no coincidence that early religious plays were called "Mystery Plays"--Mr. Kendrick argues that we are all detectives investigating the greatest mystery of all.

One should also remember that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was committed to the Spiritualist cause at about the same time he started writing the Holmes stories, and these tales paid for and possibly helped propagandize his own religious views. Kendrick has simply uncovered the message that Doyle wrote in the stories a hundred years ago. He has done a very capable job.

This little book is one of the most insightful books I have ever read. It makes a very convincing argument that Sherlock Holmes had a great understanding of the human spirit, and as a detective, brought both justice and mercy to bear in his cases. The author knows his Holmes literature very well and also pulls in a great deal of other literature from the mystery genre in a way that provokes a great deal of curiousity. I found myself reading and rereading a lot of mystery fiction after finishing this book.

This book will give you many insights into both Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle, along with other mystery literature. I have read the book through several times, and it has really deepened my appreciation of mystery literature and Holmes in general. I would put it into the "desert island" category of books.

Who better than a Unitarian clergyman to explore the spiritual values embedded in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes, the archetype of the coolly detached and relentlessly rational detective? Taking as his premise that detective stories should be read as modern mystery plays, the Reverend Stephen Kendrick argues that the sixty Holmes stories and novels are rooted in medieval fabliau, dealing with taboo subjects in a more human way than Scripture and liturgy with their overtly sacred subjects and explicit demarcation of good and evil. Drawing on the rationalistic and eclectic methods of his own religious tradition, Kendrick attempts to delineate the roots of Holmes' spirituality and finds them in Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, especially in its Zen expression.

His conclusions are threefold: First, he argues that Holmes' attention to detail, a key component of his character, is linked both to the Christian spiritual practice of attentiveness and the Zen practice of bare attention - seeing things as they exactly are. And both of these are inexorably linked to the pursuit of truth, the ultimate concern of all religion. Second, although to Holmes the skeptic God may often be comprehended only as a shadow, central to the stories is one clear and unambiguous aspect of the divine reality, a God of justice who rules a creation where right and wrong, good and evil, light and darkness are understood in all clarity and truth. And third, Holmes the scientist proves himself again and again to be a person of vision, able to see "all united" in much the same way Christian mystics from Julian of Norwich to Matthew Fox have discerned the interconnectivity of all things and all people.

While no one would ever mistake Holmes the "thinking machine" as a man of religious sentiment, Kendrick proves quite satisfactorily that in Sherlock Holmes we can find a man with a great heart for whom religion was found in the details; for whom science taught that the more we know, the more we appreciate the mystery of creation; and for whom mercy and forgiveness were part and parcel of judgment and justice. After all, it was Sherlock Holmes who observed to Watson that "our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers.... [a] rose is extra. Its smell and its color 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."

Stephen Kendrick has done a wonderful job. Holmes has always been fascinating to me. When I discovered a book that mixed one of my childhood heroes with the greatest mystery, I had to buy the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Sherlock Holmes or life's questions. In our information rich lives it is very easy to see and not observe. Kendrick reminds us that the true answers can be found in the smallest things. Buy the book!

I pick this audiobook up recently and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gielgud and Richardson were simply amazing in their respective roles as Holmes & Watson, and I believe the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself would have approved.

Worth mentioning is another item I read recently, The Crime Doctor. This book depicts EW Horung's sleuth, Dr. John Dollar, in his exploits in England and throughout Europe.

Both products recieve 5 stars from me.

I'm 25. I first heard Gielgud and Richardson's "The Speckled Band" back when I was in 6th grade. I found copies of the Baker Street Dozen stories at my local library, and would constantly check them out, over and over again. Around 8 or 9 years ago, I bought my own copies in a cassette boxed set, which have since worn out.

So I was more than thrilled to see this, the Baker Street Dozen stories on CD, and separated into chapters, at that! There are websites that have copies of these stories, but they are in terrible quality, or chopped up. For stories that were first recorded in 1953, they sound like they were recorded yesterday. I have a bunch of old radio broadcasts on CD, ranging from THE SHADOW to MURDER AT MIDNIGHT and THE GREEN HORNET, and their quality ranges from horrible to fair. But THIS, my friends, is British radio at its finest; fully dramatized, with music and sound effects that fit right into the story, characters that come to life, and stories that will keep you listening over and over again.

It seems everyone in America can't look past the Sherlock Holmes ideal with Basil Rathbone and his rendition of the great detective... nobody really bothers to look or listen to other actors' versions of the character. Sir John Gielgud is, in my opinion, the greatest portrayer of Holmes. EVER.

To wrap this up... if you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, GET THIS. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. The acting is superb, the quality is astounding for something that's over 50 years old, and the replay value is higher than high, because these stories are timeless. The game is afoot, and you should come along...

These great recordings were made for the BBC in 1954 and were first aired in the UK that year and in the US in early 1955. The casting is perfect John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson could not be beaten for a radio broadcast, and this probably still holds true to this day 53 years later. Although I think Jeremy Brett would push Gielgud close even without the visual aspect.

The addition of Orson Welles as Prof Moriarty in the story The Final problem is the icing on the cake. That penetrating voice is chilling and truly Holmes/Geilgud meets his match in Welles/Moriarty. Any Sherlock Holmes fan should get these historic recordings - you really don't know what you are missing.

Three kinds of customers will appreciate this well-remastered collection: (1) Sherlockians, who love all things Doyle; (2) lovers of classic radio drama; (3) afficionados of two of England's finest actors of the modern stage, Sir John Gielgud (playing Holmes) and Sir Ralph Richardson (Watson). Since both actors also possessed two of the twentieth century's most mellifluous stage voices, these dramatizations are a feast for the ear. If you're at least two of these three customers in one, this reasonably priced set may be an irresistible buy. Get it now, before it goes out of print.

This 6-CD set contains fully dramatized radio adaptations of twelve stories from the so-called Sherlock Holmes canon -- four novels and fifty-six stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. First aired by the BBC in 1954, these radio plays feature Sir Henry Richardson as Dr. Watson and the incomparable Sir John Gielgud as Sherlock Holmes, with a sinister reading of Dr. Moriarty by Orson Welles.

There are so many good things about Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Dozen. First, the casting, which was so important in the days of radio drama. Gielgud's Holmes is neither too laconic nor too supercilious, the two main temptations in playing this role. Richardson plays Dr. Watson with humor and intelligence -- and no toadying, even when Holmes is asking him to fetch his violin, a whisky and soda, the tobacco from the Persian slipper...

The production itself is superb, from the scripts adapted by John Kier Cross to the original musical embellishment to the clarion-voiced announcer introducing each episode. This is not an an alternative to reading the stories but an audio theater experience -- and a very successful one.

Finally, the stories themselves are, as always, intriguing. Blackmailers, stalkers, murderers, purloiners, all fall to the power of deduction. From the comfortable menage a deux at 221A Baker Street, Holmes prevails again and again. I never made a systematic reading of "the canon" but now I'd like to do that, after listening to this thoroughly enjoyable set. If you are a Holmes fan or have fond memories of radio dramas, this one's for you.

Linda Bulger, 2008

This biographical account of Sherlock Holmes' creator is comprised mostly from the scribe's own personal correspondence. I've read lots of biographies, but never a tome such as this. The majority of this book (85%) is A.C. Doyle's private letters written as early as age 6 all the way up to the year of his death. If you're a Holmes' fan, this is a "must have" addition to your Sherlockiana.

Mention the name of Sherlock Holmes and the name of his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is instantly recalled. Doyle (1859-1930) was a fascinating man whose life story cries out for a biopic! Doyle was born in Edinburgh Scotland to an artist and his intellectually gifted wife Mary. Doyle's father died in an asylum suffering from alcohol and depression in 1893. His mother lived a ripe old age until 1920. It is to Mary Doyle, the mother he adored and confided in throughout his life, that over 90% of these fascinating letters are sent.Several of her own letters to favorite son Arthur are also included.
Doyle became a doctor graduating from the Edinburgh Medical School, traveled to the North Pole as a ship's physician and set up his shingle in the city of Portsmouth in the 1880s. It was during this period he began "A Study in Scarlet" which introduced Holmes and Watson to the British and American public. He also wrote several adventure stories and historical fiction works in homage to his literary idol Sir Walter Scott. His"White Company" about medieval Europe is still in print. While in Portsmouth he wed Louisa Hawkins who bore him two children Mary and Kingsley. Kingsley died from disease in World War I.
With his literary star rising, Dr. Holmes and his famiy moved to London. He there associated himself with the literary world of the day knowing such luminaries as George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Welles, Thomas Hardy, George Meredith. He also socialized with the aristocracy and once sat beside King Edward VII at a dinner.
Dr. Doyle was no stay at home writer. He served in the medical service during both the Boer War and World War I. Doyle enjoyed such varied sports as golf, tennis, cricket and skiing. He loved bicycling and owned a new fanagled motor car particpating in auto races. He and his famiily traveled widely across Europe. He often visited the United States. Doyle liked America and dreamed of a union between Great Britain and the United States. He caught the political bug twice running without success for a seat in Parliament representing an Edinburgh district. He was opposed to Irish Home Rule and along with his friend Winston Churchill was a strong advocate of the British Empire. He and his friend Rudyard Kipling glorified the British soldier.
The brilliant Doyle stuck his neck out by defending persons he thought had been wrongly convicted. He was an advocate for changing England's Divorce Law. He had an often rocky relationship with his five children but by all accounts was a good father. His first wife Louise died iin 1906 and after a brief time he married the lovely Jean Leckie. Jean and he had a happy marriage. They had three children: Denis, Adrian and Jean. It is uncertain whether his affair with Jean was platonic or not prior to the death of Louise.
Doyle was a very busy man who wanted to do away with Sherlock Holmes but continued writing stories of the great detective due to the public insistence for more Holmes adventures. During World War I he wrote a long history of the war which is little read. Science fiction works featuring Dr. Challenger were popular. Doyle was a friend of Baden Powell involving him in Boy Scout work. He was an Edwardian gentleman who was rich, famous and in love with his wife and family. He even delved in playwrigthing and his hero Sherlock Holmes was played on stage by William Gillette. The Holmes character was also seen on the slient movie screen.
World War I saw the death of his son, brother, brother-in law and other
relatives and friends. He increasingly became drawn to spiritualism. He broke with his friend magician Harry Houdini over the spiritualist movement. Doyle lectured widely in Britain, USA, Canada and Australia about spiritualism. He and his wife Jean both believed in seances. He was involved in several public debates concerning spiritualism writing books and articles to defend his position. Doyle was knighted in 1902 despite his objections. He died in 1930 being best remembered for those Sherlock Holmes Stories he thought were minor chapters in his literary oeuvre.
This seven hundred page compendium of the letters between Holmes, mother Mary and others has been edited by three experts on Doyle. Those experts are Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley. These editors put the letters in chronological order from the days when the Roman Catholic born Doyle was a student until 1920. The letters are connected by biographical narrative aiding the reader's understanding of what was happening in the life of Doyle and his interesting family.
The book is lavishly illustrated. If you want to learn about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this book and the recently published "The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes" by Andrew Lycett are the two tomes you need! Elementary My Dear Watson! This book is a winner!

It took me about a week to read this volume, and it became a very comfortable companion. I felt the three editors, men with uniquely close relationships with the life of Arthur Conan Doyle, were intelligent commentators on the material that hovered outside the actual letters, and made good decisions on what the reader needs to understand the text. I have read several biographies over a lifetime of study of Dr. Doyle's most famous creation, but I never before felt a real sense of kinship with the author. All knowledge had been perceived through the filter of each biographer's particular prejudices, not to mention the inavailability of much family material including these letters. Reading this book, I felt the full strength of his personality and the familial forces that had shaped his principles and politics. What's more, his sometimes puckish, sometimes ponderous sense of humor was demonstrated clearly to me for the first time.

Everything about the book -- the photographs and drawings, the clear and handsome style of each page, the careful index -- gave further examples of the intelligent, thoughtful decisions by its editors and publishers. Let me recommend this book.

The presentation represents unique unpublished letters of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The letters were written in the
1860s- some are dated others are not dated. There are
noted drawings and photos in the book including:

o drawings by John Doyle (the son)
o photo of Mary Kingsley Conan Doyle
o Conan Doyle as a country gentleman
o aboard "Eira" ship's master with Conan Doyle

The presentation describes how Conan Doyle dedicated the
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to Joseph Bell who
reviewed the work glowingly in "The Bookman". Clearly,
Conan Doyle learned some of the medical technology from
Joseph Bell. Nonetheless, Conan Doyle attended medical
school where he picked up a considerable body of knowledge
applied in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

This is a wonderful historical document for academicians,
literary buffs, English students, students of literature
and students of the historical period of the 1860s.
The work is worth acquiring as a gift to the student
in your house.

Three well informed editors have done outstanding work in presenting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's personal letters in a clean and understandable format.

While by its nature not a biography, this book certainly helps reveal the very robust, varied, and patriotic life led by the creator of Sherlock Holmes. It is also a touching study in letters of the lifelong love of a son for a devoted mother.

All Baker Street Irregulars, as well as students of English literature of the period, are encouraged to buy this book for their libraries.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Collection

I love this ebook. It contains the greatest Sherlock Holmes collection!

This collection contains twenty-four of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

"The Complete Sherlock Holmes" lets you tag along as the great detective is called upon, again and again, by Scotland Yard, to solve seemingly-unsolvable mysteries. Holmes uses his brilliantly logical mind, his attention to detail, and his vast knowledge of trivia, to do what all the current-day television crime-scene investigation shows are doing.

This book is very readable and highly enjoyable. The only admonition I would give, is to read this book in spurts, which is easily done, with its many short stories. Why do I suggest this? If you try to read it, cover-to-cover, you will see that many of the Holmes stories do follow somewhat of a pattern or formula. That does not come through if you read the book in pieces. It makes a great traveling book, or a book to read before sleep, unless you are highly prone to nightmares (i.e., some people do get killed).

You can't go wrong here. The book is light, the type is large and the original illustrations and reproduced in their original sizes. Plus you have the charm of seeing the actual type laid out when these now classics stories were first read.

My 9 year old carried this edition of Sherlock around with him for a week. The replica images are cool; the type is a bit difficult to read. A great gift.

I'll admit it. Although I am a voracious reader, I have been remiss in my enjoyment of the adventures of Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. I have spent the last few weeks rectifying that lamentable omission in my literary background.

Frankly, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are an absolute joy. Each story is a delight to read. To my mind Conan Doyle's short stories represent the best of mystery writing. They plumb the depth of the human heart and run the gamut of emotion.

No one can truly say that he or she is truly educated in English Literature without reading Sherlock Holmes. (It's interesting -- even persons who tend to dislike mysteries -- tend to like Holmes and Watson!)

Highest of all possible recommendations!

The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a captivating set of over 20 stories of the 56 Sherlock Holmes stories ever written, described from the point of view of Watson, Sherlock Holmes's assistant, living up, if not surpassing, the expectations set by the age-old classic. Each story has a captivating plot, yet all different enough that it leaves you reading and re-reading key parts, trying to figure it out before Sherlock Holmes reveals the answer. I admit, I am yet to reliably put the clues together. As I have found, a large age group enjoys this book, making it a pleasure to share with family. Inside the story, there are plots filled with gentlemen, businesspeople, servants, witnesses, beggars, masked trespassers, and more, that unusually for a mystery book, all have the same likelihood of possibly having a hand in the crime. With stories that show weakness in character, like my personal favorite, (in which it turns out that the people who bring Sherlock there happen to be the murderers themselves!) brings a realistic image of the people involved, calling out to the reader, as if to say, "yes, you are here. This is what has been happening," and, from the moment you begin reading, put you in their shoes.
Occasionally, the plot is not truly revealed, such as in A Scandal in Bohemia, when the suspect escapes before questioning can occur, and the story ends in a question, as to whether or not the villainess escaped permanently, or if her story has just begun. Best set for the advanced reader, I would not classify it as a "light read", and is best read in small pieces, thanks to not only the magnitude of the book, but by the nature of a late 1800's mystery novel. Thanks to wikipedia, I have heard that in 1964, the Sherlock Holmes books were, selling second best in the world, second only to the bible. Sherlock Holmes is one of the most influential mysteries of the 1900's, and is, over-all, a true pleasure, and something I feel everyone should read at some point in their lives.

The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a captivating set of over 20 stories of the 56 Sherlock Holmes stories ever written, described from the point of view of Watson, Sherlock Holmes's assistant, living up, if not surpassing, the expectations set by the age-old classic. Each story has a captivating plot, yet all different enough that it leaves you reading and re-reading key parts, trying to figure it out before Sherlock Holmes reveals the answer. I admit, I am yet to reliably put the clues together. As I have found, a large age group enjoys this book, making it a pleasure to share with family. Inside the story, there are plots filled with gentlemen, businesspeople, servants, witnesses, beggars, masked trespassers, and more, that unusually for a mystery book, all have the same likelihood of possibly having a hand in the crime. With stories that show weakness in character, like my personal favorite, (in which it turns out that the people who bring Sherlock there happen to be the murderers themselves!) brings a realistic image of the people involved, calling out to the reader, as if to say, "yes, you are here. This is what has been happening," and, from the moment you begin reading, put you in their shoes.
Occasionally, the plot is not truly revealed, such as in A Scandal in Bohemia, when the suspect escapes before questioning can occur, and the story ends in a question, as to whether or not the villainess escaped permanently, or if her story has just begun. Best set for the advanced reader, I would not classify it as a "light read", and is best read in small pieces, thanks to not only the magnitude of the book, but by the nature of a late 1800's mystery novel. Thanks to wikipedia, I have heard that in 1964, the Sherlock Holmes books were, selling second best in the world, second only to the bible. Sherlock Holmes is one of the most influential mysteries of the 1900's, and is, over-all, a true pleasure, and something I feel everyone should read at some point in their lives.

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.

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.

Case Book of Sherlock Holmes / 0-425-04822-5

This collection contains the following short stories:

- The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
- The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier
- The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone
- The Adventure of the Three Gables
- The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
- The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
- The Problem of Thor Bridge
- The Adventure of the Creeping Man
- The Adventure of the Lion's Mane
- The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger
- The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place
- The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

This much-neglected collection is often inexplicably left out of Sherlock Holmes anthologies despite the high quality of the cases herein. The Sussex Vampire case, in particular, is especially good and concerns a client who fears that his wife may have vampiric inclinations. Of course, with Holmes on the case, the answer soon becomes clear and is both more and less simple than originally believed. I suspect, in fact, that the disinclination to include this volume in most anthologies does not reflect the quality of the stories, but rather reflects their rarity and the belief that Holmes fans only want the stories they have already been exposed to. If you love Holmes even a little bit, check out this collection and lose yourself in the wonder world that is Sherlock Holmes.

This is the final recording in the series, completing the David Timson readings of the Sherlock Holmes canon on Naxos (there are sixteen in all). Although some of these are among the weakest of Doyle's output, Timson gives them new life with his spirited readings. For example, The Lion's Mane never felt so exciting when I read it in the past. As a bonus, there's a fine pastiche by Timson himself that does justice to his literary talents.

One warning - finding all of these is not easy because Amazon doesn't seem to catalog them all in the same fashion. When you search for "Sherlock Holmes Audio CD", for example, only some of them come up. I had the most success searching for "David Timson Audio CD".

"The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes" was Doyle's last collection of short stories on the great detective. The stories may not have been uniformly as good as the earlier Holmes stories, and some of the plots may have been derivative, but they still entertain.

"The Three Garridebs" rehashed the plot of "The Red Headed League". "The Creeping Man" turned in a creepy tale whose premise has been disproved by later science. "The Veiled Lodger" was not even a mystery.

The rest of the stories were much better. "The Blanched Soldier" presented a conundrum which Holmes solved without visiting the scene. "The Sussex Vampire" had a perfectly natural explanation. "The Lion's Mane" involved violent death, but was there a crime? Holmes worked for an unnamed "Illustrious Client", but you should be able to figure out who it was. We meet Holmes' page, Billy, for the first and last time in "The Mazarin Stone". We meet international intrigue in "Shoscombe Old Place" and an arrogant murderer in "The Retired Colourman". My favorite story of the lot is "The Problem of Thor Bridge", where Holmes assists a young lady of murder in the face of almost overwhelming evidence of guilt.

The BBC production of "The Case Book" was done in three packets of two cassettes, each containing two stories from "The Case Book". Clive Merrison once again turns in a virtuoso performance as Holmes, and Michael Williams portrays a far more capable Watson than Nigel Bruce ever imagined.

Bert Coules and Vincent McInerney took more liberties with the plotlines in this collection than they did in any of their other treatments of the Holmes saga. They write Billy out of "The Mazarin Stone" and replace her with Mrs. Hudson, who participates more actively in the solution of the case than she ever did in any of Doyle's writings. In fact, Doyle's story occupies only about 10 minutes of the production, with 20 minutes of leadup in which Lord Cantlemere serves as Holmes' chief suspect. The changes consist of additions which make the story more enjoyable without altering Doyle's original plot. The same cannot be said for their treatment of "The Three Gables". Langdale Pike, a minor character in Doyle's original rendition, becomes a major actor. Pike assists Holmes in the ruination of the villainess. This constitutes a major change from Doyle's original plot, in which Holmes allows the villainess to escape upon payment of "punitive damages". In "The Sussex Vampire" they manage to work in a few references to Bram Stoker's "Dracula", but don't otherwise tamper too much with the plot.

If you like Holmes, mysteries, or radio plays; you'll like this collection.

Having purchased abroad the last two in the Casebook series, I can assure other American fans of the BBC Holmes series that in these, the last, and in many people's minds, weakest of the Holmes stories, the BBC team excels, filling in logical extensions of the stories to make them as good, or in some cases better than the earlier ones. They are a treat!

Reading The Coming of the Fairies made me a believer that there are other forms of life, not necessarily in human form, that perhaps we should consider. Did two young girls truly capture images of fairies with their camera? Not only do I believe they did, everyone I've shown this book to admits that the picture of the young lady on the cover is none other than me. Funny thing is, I'm a photographer, too. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle trusted these girls, and was a believer himself. I was enthralled with this book and am very happy it's found a place in my library.

In 1917 two young English girls claimed to have taken photographs of fairies near the village of Cottingley in Yorkshire. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in the case, and produced this book indicating his whole hearted belief in the girls and in fairies. It seems really incredible that the creator of the ultra-analytical Sherlock Holmes could have been taken in by photos which are clearly of cut out paper drawings, held together with hat pins and wearing clothing and hairstyles which are very recognizeable early twentieth century fashions. Fortunately, in this reprint edition we have an introduction by John M. Lynch, a university professor who provides a short biography of Doyle and some fascinating information on the Theosophical Movement, in which Doyle, especially after the death of his son in World War I, became interested. Doyle himself gives some interesting information about other fairy sightings and folklore, so that the book is highly diverting to read, even if one is not prepared to believe.

A delightful book. In 1920, two girls in Yorkshire took photos which they said showed fairies in the woods near their home. The pictures are such obvious fakes (made with paper cutouts, as the girls later admitted) that it's amazing to think anyone could be taken in. And yet many were, including the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who wrote this book! This is a reprint, with an introduction explaining how Conan Doyle's life experiences set him up to be fooled. The book discusses, in great detail, the behavior and origins of fairies (in the scheme of Darwinian evolution), along with numerous accounts of eyewitness sightings (remarkably, one is by someone blind since birth!). The book is so well argued that by the time I finished it, I was starting to think that there might be something to COnan Doyle's claims about fairies.....

Back in print after over half a century due to the efforts of the University of Nebraska Press, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's curious The Coming of the Fairies (2006, originally 1922) examines the key events surrounding the Cottingley fairy photograph phenomenon that swept England in the early 1920s. Despite the unfortunate inclusion of one frivolous chapter, 'Observations Of A Clairvoyant,' which was written by "an anonymous seer," the book is an interesting, if not always credible, exploration of its highly unusual subject.

Today, the photographs--which were recently exhibited in New York City--typically elicit one of two polarized responses: bemused academics, scientists, and the rational 'average man' dismiss them out of hand as clear and obvious fakes, while some New Age adherents, who are perhaps also sentimentalists, tend to find at least some of the photographs convincingly authentic.

The text on this edition's back cover--and its perfunctory introduction by Arizona State University Professor John M. Lynch--make it abundantly clear where the University of Nebraska Press stands on the issue: fairies, are, of course, an impossibility, scientific or otherwise.

But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of master rationalist detective Sherlock Homes, was hardly so certain of their lack of reality himself. Though he qualifies his initial opinions at every turn, and stresses the objective evaluation the photographs received by a number of expert sources, including Kodak, even his early paragraphs fairly burst with unbridled enthusiasm and barely suppressed belief.

At the time that the photographs initially came to light, Conan Doyle was mourning the loss of a son who died in the Great War, which in turn led the author to an active investigation of Spiritualism. Proof of the existence of fairies was ultimately of secondary interest to him; what he desperately sought was proof of an afterlife, and hence, the continued existence of his son on another plane ("...and once fairies are admitted other psychic phenomena will find a more ready acceptance."). If Spiritualism offered largely intangible 'evidence' of the transmigration of the soul if it offered any at all, tangible evidence of fairies generally bolstered Conan Doyle's rapidly evolving belief in an unseen world.

To complicate matters, like the confusion surrounding the infamous debunking of the 'Surgeon's Photo' that purported to reveal the Loch Ness Monster (and the subsequent revelation that the 'truth' might have itself have been a hoax), at the end of their lives, the two photographers in question, cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, openly admitted to an eager media that the photographs had been faked. But then Frances, who died first, waffled--by 'revealing' that only some of the photographs were faked, and nevertheless insisted, right up until her death in 1986, that she and her cousin had encountered, interacted with, and photographed fairies "at the beck" and near "the bottom of the garden" in 1917.

While most of the fairies in the photographs do unmistakably resemble two-dimensional paper cut-outs like those the girls would have found in their copy of 'Princess Mary's Gift Book' (1914), the photograph usually known as 'Elsie and the Gnome' is remarkable due to the fairly complex position in which the 'gnome' is standing (no such figure was featured in Princess Mary's Gift Book, and thus not obtainable from that source), as well as due to Elsie's weirdly elongated, almost deformed, right hand and fingers, which one party in the text explains by stating that the young lady merely had physically unusual hands (another oft-repeated theory is that Elsie was holding her left hand partially behind the right, which, thus positioned, appear as one long appendage).

The hazy 'fairy bower' photograph, which features multiple figures, including a very tiny 'elf' resembling Prince Valiant emerging from the bracken (and whose head is reflected in its own wing, proving that the figures could not be made of simple paper) also seems beyond the artistic and technical skills of two young girls almost completely unfamiliar with the rudimentary camera equipment of the era.

Certainly the photographs are open to interpretation: in observing the gnome figure, one party discusses its 'beard,' another its partially hidden 'pipes,' and yet another the hat pin which the party believes was utilized to support the cut-out. Readers may see all of these things or none of them; no mention is made of the gnome's pronounced Pinocchio-like nose, or its brimmed and conical cap, which resembles a traditional witch's hat.

The basis for two excellent films, 'Fairy Tale: A True Story' and the darker 'Photographing Fairies' (both 1997), The Coming of the Fairies ultimately raises more questions than it answers about skill, chance, credulity, psychology, fading cultural romanticism, the sociology of logic, and the nature and motivation of belief.

Those seeking books of greater substance on the same topic may also want to read Robert Kirk's The Secret Commonwealth: Of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies (New York Review Books Classics) (reprinted 2007), William Butler Yeats' classic The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore (1893), Lady Gregory's outstanding Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland (1920), and Carole G. Silver's Strange & Secret Peoples: Fairies & Victorian Consciousness (2000).

A very surprising book! Doyle embraces spiritualism and digs into the subject.I made one mistake not reading this book earlier.

I have looked for this book for many yrs, as yet I havent read it, but very happy to have it. Shall read as soon as I have finished my other Spiritual books... many thanks Amazon.... Meg

No one goes wrong in tapping into the great research of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his review of New Spiritualism. He takes us through the pioneers of that movement that began here in the United States in 1848 with the Fox Sisters. Doyle was purposeful and intent on his work; a scholarly effort that is used today by the Morris Pratt Institute as required reading for its courses on Spiritualism.

Besides being the Father of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the St. Paul of Spiritualism. Having become disenchanted with the Roman Catholic faith at an early age, Doyle searched for years, before becoming a convinced Spiritualist. The evidence that convinced him was communication with his son, Kingsley, who died at the end of the great war. This information came through in seances. Doyle often remarked,"If only they could know". Doyle not only believed, he knew! This book is extremely well written, as one would expect from a writer of Doyle's distinction. The early beginnings with Swedenborg are covered, as well as important phenomena and mediums of the time. To me, as a Spiritualist minister, the greatest chapters are on the religious aspects of Spiritualism, which Doyle explains in great depth. This is a scholarly book, which I require my students to read. But it is more than worth the time, when one considers what one learns from this authority. Doyle traveled extensively in the cause of the faith and established several churches in Australia. I wish all readers the same exciting learning experience that I had when I first read this book!