The Complete Sherlock Holmes

The Complete Sherlock Holmes is a collection of all of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and it is a Barnes & Noble exclusive as far as I can tell). These stories make it clear why Sherlock is the father of all detective work, but I found it was underwhelming for such a major classic.

Doyle begins with some interesting and dynamic characters who go on some fascinating adventures all to solve peculiar cases. However, towards the end of the collection the stories get dull and redundant. I feel that it largely stems from the fact that Doyle no longer wanted to write stories about the beloved detective. Frankly, it is reflected in the nature of his prose and the similarities between so many of the cases. I would sum up Sherlock stories as an above-average detective and his caring military doctor companion trying to figure out how a crime has been committed behind closed doors. A lot of cases run along that vein. A few, especially towards the end, change perspective in both narration and setting (some are more retrospective).

The thing that keeps the stories interesting is trying to solve them before Sherlock explains how the culprit did it, and who the criminal is. The thing that I found somewhat frustrating was the way that the people had to explain why they did it, because Sherlock solves cases with evidence more often than motive or emotion. Nonetheless, the wonder of the brain that is Sherlock Holmes' is something to behold. He is very smart, and it's clear by the way that only he is able to solve the cases. I was happy to see that n a number of cases, however, Watson accidentally or intentionally brought details to Sherlock's attention, which helped him to fill in the gaps in his theories.

Towards the beginning especially, I was able to clearly see where the inspiration for portrayals such as those by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jeremy Brett came from. Yet I find that most literary characters, when one has a preconceived notion of them, tend to reveal themselves to still be unique from any other representations of them that have been created. Even though Sherlock has existed so long in the media in different forms, none are quite like the one in the book. He is a creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination, and no one else could ever recreate that character exactly without getting into the writer's head. At the beginning, I pictured Sherlock and John as the ones I have seen on TV, but by the end I saw them as the more faceless figures that I usually picture when reading books. The faces no longer quite matched the characters the way I felt they should, so their physical features became less distinct as I focussed on their personalities. Although I still struggled to picture the characters as anything other than the ones in Sherlock.

The least interesting stories are the ones that go back and give long back stories that begin in America. I don't know why, but Doyle's descriptions of events and settings in America bore me. The most interesting story is definitely The Hound of the Baskervilles (which I read before; read that blog here...though I didn't have much to say at the time, apparently). It has much more interesting prose and plot, and the fact that Watson is mostly working the case solo adds to interest.

It may not have been the most interesting book, especially not for one so long, but I am happy to say that I have read this great classic.

Plus, if you're into Sherlock, this has a lot of neat connections (obviously), and details that the writers of Sherlock tied into their show. That made the stories more interesting for me.