Amazing, my dear Holmes!!. Review on Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, The - Arthur Conan Doyle

Let me be frank with you. When I thought of writing about Sherlock Holmes I guessed I could fill pages and pages! But when I actually sat down writing it, I was at a loss of words. At a loss of words not because I didn’t have anything to say about Holmes but because how can I, with my limited prowess of writing do justice to the wizardry Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned. I believe even if I had the gift of the gab that Shakespeare possessed, the entire vocabulary is insufficient to pen down what I think of this amazing creation.

But I’ll try. Let me start with something general first. Apart from the plots of Sherlock Holmes stories, what blows your mind away is the writing style of Doyle. Simple dialogues. Amazing range of vocabulary without being grandiloquent. Humour dipped in every word. Who can ever forget the immortal exchange between Holmes and Dr. Watson…….”Excellent, my dear Holmes!” says Dr. Watson………”Elementary, my dear Watson.” says Holmes.

A very important thing about pure detective stories is that the reader should be shown only what the detectives see, nothing more and nothing less. Therein lies the challenge. You know what Holmes know, now solve the mystery! I have seen in many detective stories including that of Agatha Christie that there are some scenes shown to the reader which the detective in the plot doesn’t know of. Very often than not, the reader is tried to be misguided to be suspicious about some character or the other. But that is not the case with Sherlock Holmes.

Most of the detective stories have a murder, a handful of suspects and finally curtains. But with Sherlock Holmes there is no limit. As in the words of Holmes the most difficult case is the one which is commonplace. It provides with no clues whatsoever. A gruesome murder in a room, with the body lying at the centre, blood all around, furniture scattered throughout, gives innumerable evidences for the detectives to figure out.

Now with the book under microscope, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It has twelve stories in all. Each one a gem in its own right. It includes four stories from the ‘Best of Sherlock Holmes’ list of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself published in March, 1927. The stories are set at the time when Dr. Watson had settled down with a wife and a practice while Sherlock Holmes had the entire 221B, Baker Street to himself. It starts with a tale (Scandal in Bohemia) where Holmes was a partial failure and how he cherished the woman who outsmarted him. Overall it has a very good combination of stories containing the humorous episodes of ‘The Red-Headed League’, ‘The Blue Carbuncle’ and ‘A Case of Identity’, the chilling ness of ‘The Five Orange Pips’, the pathos of ‘The Man With the Twisted Lip’, the suspense of ‘The Speckled Band’, the bizarreness of ‘The Engineer’s Thumb’, the deductions of ‘The Noble Bachelor’, the sentimentality of ‘The Beryl Coronet’, and the fast-paced action of ‘The Copper Beeches’.

Anyone who can read and understand English ought to read Sherlock Holmes. The character has become a legend, and rightly so. But a word of caution before reading this book. Sherlock Holmes stories are highly addictive and might interfere with your normal working. I had to lock the Collections of Sherlock Holmes physically during my high school examinations else I would have got the PhD (Passed high-school with Difficulty).

Happy Reading!!!