[.ca] The Complete Sherlock Holmes

The Most Famous Detective in Fiction:
These 1,122 pages contain the authorized text of every Sherlock Holmes story ever written. The copyrights to these stories expired around 1972 so any writer can appropriate the characters in new fiction. Yet no one has been able to equal, let alone surpass, A.C. Doyle in world-wide popularity. Has anyone analyzed these stories to understand their wide-spread appeal? Erle Stanley Gardner and Agatha Christie wrote more novels but were not as popular. One reason is the short stories about Sherlock Holmes were more amenable to wide distribution as in school books on literature. (Chesterton's short stories had a religious bent.) Their classic restraint made them preferable to the stories of Hammett and Chandler. Novels written for 19th century adults often became stories for 20th century children (as Mark Twain). (One technical problem is that one volume is less handy than two or three volumes.) The introduction by Christopher Morley tells of his admiration for these stories. The character of Sherlock Holmes was inspired by the famous Dr. Joseph Bell of the Edinburgh Infirmary whose diagnostic skills startled his patients and pupils. The name "Holmes" was homage to Oliver Wendell Holmes who first warned about practices that caused "puerperal fever". "Sherlock" was a common Irish name, Doyle's strike against prejudice. Doyle often fought against unjust convictions and for his other beliefs. Chesterton's comment about "a man who believes in nothing winds up believing in anything" was aimed at Doyle. He went from a Catholic to an agnostic to a believer in a spirit world. Aging can affect a person's mind and beliefs. There are four novels and five collections of short stories. The novels are: "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and "The Valley of Fear". The short stories are the "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (12 stories), the "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (11 stories), "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (13 stories), "His Last Bow" (8 stories), and "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" (12 stories). There are probably more books about Sherlock Holmes than about A. C. Doyle. Aside from legal considerations, it is easier to handle finite fiction than complex real life. Has anyone written books about "Hercule Poirot" or "Perry Mason"? The "James Bond" series goes on in new novels and action films but they are not as popular as the originals. Even fictional characters have a life-span.

Classic Detective Stories:
I read the Adventures and the Memoirs when I was a kid and enjoyed them thoroughly. Here are the complete collection. I don't give it full marks because sometimes the opening pattern gets repetitive and uninteresting. In two short stories Doyle used the exact same opening (The Cardboard Box and The Resident Patient). Also at some point in the latter half of the book the stories become almost predictable from the beginning. The novels are much more interesting and exciting. I think the Hound of the Baskervilles is the best, followed closely by the Sign of Four and then a Study in Scarlet.