Perhaps partly because of this, my personal favourite from the collection is ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ – in which the notorious adventuress and opera singer Irene Adler features. In these short pieces we are again treated to Holmes’ acute observational powers aided by forensic science and logical reasoning, all of which he employs to investigate cases for Scotland Yard and a cast of clients ranging from businessmen and bankers to pawnbrokers, royalty and several sniffling ladies in fear of their lives or fortunes – the great detective, of course, being less than enamoured by the opposite sex (or as he once famously described himself: “not a whole-souled admirer of womankind”). The twelve stories making up this compilation were originally serialised in The Strand Magazine between 18 and were hand-picked for inclusion by Conan Doyle because he felt they were the very best of his Holmes writings – ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ (the eighth tale in the book) apparently being his overall favourite.ĭelivered without exception in the first-person narrative (from the point of view of his staunch friend and disciple, Dr John Watson), the stories are entertaining and highly readable, evoking in me a cosy nostalgia for evenings spent sitting in front of the TV set with my family watching Basil Rathbone play Holmes in old black and white film reruns from the 1930s.
I opted, therefore, to tick another title off The Classics Club list and indulge in an evening of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story collection: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Having read A Study in Scarlet (1887) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) in quick succession over two years ago, I felt the time was right to return to 221B Baker Street, the London home of fictional private detective Sherlock Holmes. “… life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of a man could invent.” THE CLASSICS CLUB: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Home › Crime Fiction › THE CLASSICS CLUB: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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