The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Paperback - 2017)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The individual stories had been serialized in The Strand Magazine between June 1891 and July 1892, and the book was first published in October 1892. Homes and Dr. Watson are common to all twelve stories. The stories are told by first-person narrative from the point of view of Dr. Watson.

In 1927, Doyle submitted a list of what he believed were his twelve best Sherlock Holmes stories to The Strand Magazine. Among those he listed were “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (as his most favourite), “The Red-Headed League” (second), “A Scandal in Bohemia” (fifth) and “The Five Orange Pips” (seventh). The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was banned in the Soviet Union in 1929 because of its alleged “occultism”, but the book gained popularity in a black market of similarly banned books, and the ban was lifted in 1940.

The stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes identify and correct social injustices such as “a king’s betrayal of an opera singer; a stepfather’s deception of his ward as a fictitious lover; an aristocratic crook’s exploitation of a failing pawnbroker; and a beggar’s extensive estate in Kent.” Holmes possesses a keen sense of justice. The stories were so well received when they appeared in The Strand Magazine that they boosted the subscription of the magazine and prompted Doyle to demand more money for his next set of stories. The story, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, includes the character of Irene Adler, who despite being featured only within this one story by Doyle, is a prominent character in modern Sherlock Holmes.

ARTHUR IGNATIUS CONAN DOYLE (May 1859 – July 1930), a British writer and physician, is most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes. His stories are widely acclaimed as milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle is also known for writing the fictional adventures of Professor Challenger, another character created by him, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer and his writings include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He began writing short stories while studying. His first published piece, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley”, a story set in South Africa, was printed in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal in 1879. The same year, he published his first academic article, “Gelsemium as a Poison” in the British Medical Journal, a study which was regarded by the Daily Telegraph as potentially useful in a 21st century alleged murder investigation.

Doyle’s first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was A Study in Scarlet, which appeared in the Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1886 and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald.

It is said that despite the roaring success of Sherlock Holmes, he wanted to wind up the character “for good and all” as he “took his mind from better things.” But the publishers demanded more Holmes stories and were willing to pay him the large sums he asked. As a result, Doyle became one of the best-paid authors of his time. Holmes featured in a total of 56 short stories—the last published in 1927—and four novels by Doyle, and has since appeared in many novels and stories by other authors.

Arthur Conan Doyle influenced Agatha Christie and many other detective fiction writers with his famous detective/fiction stories.