THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
UK publication: 1902 (George Newnes)
US publication: 1902 (McClure)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments:
THE SIGN OF THE FOUR
UK publication: 1890 (Spencer Blackett)
US publication: 1890 (J. B. Lippincott)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments:
A STUDY IN SCARLET
UK publication: 1887 (Beeton's Christmas Annual)
US publication: 1890 (J. B. Lippincott)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments:
THE VALLEY OF FEAR
UK publication: 1915 (Smith, Elder)
US publication: 1915 (George H. Doran)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments:
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
UK publication: 1892 (George Newnes)
US publication: 1892 (Harper and Bros.)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments: 12 classic Sherlock Holmes stories, the most well-known and the first to appear in The Strand magazine. The book is dedicated "To my old teacher Joseph Bell, MD", whom Doyle said was the model for Holmes. The stories occur after Watson's marriage, roughly in 1890-91. Titles: A Scandal in Bohemia (the story of Irene Adler, the only woman Holmes ever admired, who is blackmailing Holmes' client, the king of Bohemia-- a 'failure' of Holmes); A Case of Identity (a young woman's fiancé has vanished on the way to the church); The Red-Headed League (a fiery-haired pawnbroker's mysterious part-time position is cancelled with no explanation); The Boscombe Valley Mystery (a country tenant's son is suspected of his father's murder, but the circumstantial evidence has other interpretations); The Five Orange Pips (a Sussex man's American uncle is killed after receiving a bizarre envelope containing 5 orange seeds); The Man With the Twisted Lip (Watson encounters Holmes by accident in an opium den, where he is trying to find a missing man); The Blue Carbuncle (an abandoned hat gives Holmes the clues to untangle the story of a diamond found in a goose's craw); The Speckled Band (the famous tale of Dr. Grimesby Roylott and his sinister household---and his stepdaughter, who fears for her life, her sister having died in mysterious circumstances); The Engineer's Thumb (a hydraulic engineer comes to Watson with a missing thumb and a story about having been attacked; he was commissioned to repair a leaking hydraulic press, but Holmes finds deeper waters); The Noble Bachelor (a lord's new American bride vanishes during the next morning's wedding breakfast); The Beryl Coronet (a priceless tiara is stolen from the respectable banker who has accepted it as security for a loan to a nobleman); The Copper Beeches (a young governess is offered a handsome position on condition that she cut off her beautiful hair; she comes to Holmes for advice).
THE CASE-BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
UK publication: 1927 (John Murray)
US publication: 1927 (George H. Doran)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments: Published long after the others, these 12 stories were written in Doyle's final decade and lack a little of the tight plotting seen in the more classic stories; some of them have little to no detection, relying instead on the revealing of a sensational story. Most are narrated by Watson as though looking back into the archives; a couple are told by Holmes himself. A preface by Doyle relates something of Holmes's publishing history and Doyle's changing feelings toward him over the years. Stories: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client (no detection---Holmes becomes a burglar to stop a noblewoman's marriage to a scoundrel); The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier (a young man back from the Boer War is apparently concealed from his friends by his parents---narrated by Holmes, with some friendly jibes at Watson in the beginning); The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone (in which Holmes fools a thief into revealing a stolen diamond's location; the story takes place entirely in Holmes's rooms and for practical reasons is told in the third person, though both Holmes and Watson are present); The Adventure of the Three Gables (a good set-up, with someone trying to buy the entire household effects of a mystified old woman, but a rather weak ending); The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire (a country gentleman suspects his Peruvian wife of bloodsucking---quite a good story, with a very witty beginning); The Adventure of the Three Garridebs (another example of a well-designed scam based on the victim's name or circumstances); The Problem of Thor Bridge (a killing on a country estate, involving a classic love triangle, but the crime is less obvious than the police think); The Adventure of the Creeping Man (a respected university professor has bouts of apparent madness); The Adventure of the Lion's Mane (after Holmes's retirement to Sussex and narrated by himself---a young teacher is apparently attacked and tortured while swimming on the beach); The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger (a sensational story---a woman with a crime in her past tells Holmes her history); The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place (yet another isolated and ancient country house concealing strange behavior by its occupants); The Adventure of the Retired Colourman (Watson is sent to interview an old miser who claims that his wife has run off with his chess partner).
HIS LAST BOW: A REMINISCENCE OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES
UK publication: 1917 (John Murray)
US publication: 1917 (George H. Doran)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments: 8 short stories, scattered throughout Holmes's career and supposedly unearthed by Watson from the archives to fill out a volume. Many of them are Holmes classics. A preface explains that Holmes is still alive and well, though retired and living on "a small farm near Eastbourne." The title story describes how Holmes came out of retirement to aid His Majesty in the war effort. Contents: The Wisteria Lodge (from 1892-- a respectable businessman on an overnight visit to an isolated house finds that his hosts have vanished in the night); The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (a harmless old woman receives a box in the post containing two severed ears; contains several famous conversations between Holmes and Watson and a reference to Poe); The Adventure of the Red Circle (a landlady's worries about a mysterious unseen lodger lead to an international criminal); The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (in 1895-- we meet brother Mycroft once more as he calls on Holmes to recover stolen submarine plans of vital state importance); The Adventure of the Dying Detective (Mrs. Hudson summons Watson when Holmes appears to be dying); The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (a lonely older woman vanishes while on a European trip and is found to have been tricked by a notorious criminal); The Adventure of the Devil's Foot (in 1897-- the long-suppressed tale of the Cornish Horror, by which three healthy people appeared to die of fright around the card-table in the evening); His Last Bow (a German spy is trapped by Holmes-- one sees Doyle's hawkish philosophy regarding war preparation).
THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
UK publication: 1894 (George Newnes)
US publication: 1894 (Harper and Bros.)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments: 11 short stories from the middle of Holmes's career, finishing with his apparent death in Switzerland. The stories are: Silver Blaze (a favored racehorse vanishes and her trainer is found dead a week before a major race; the story contains the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time"); The Yellow Face (a bewildered husband appeals to Holmes to find out what terrible secret his wife is keeping from him; one of Holmes's 'failures'); The Stock-broker's Clerk (a clerk in a famous firm is lured away with a bizarre post in a dubious company, and discovers there is trickery afoot); The "Gloria Scott" (Holmes's first case; a country squire dies of heart failure after receiving an apparently meaningless message); The Musgrave Ritual (the key to a disappearance at a country estate is in the meaning of a mysterious ritual handed down in the family); The Reigate Puzzle (Holmes is recuperating from his exertions in the country when a local estate is victimized; a scrap of paper in a dead footman's hand is the clue); The Crooked Man (narrated mostly by Holmes, in which a secret from the past in India explains the sudden death of an ex-Colonel); The Resident Patient (a doctor's eccentric backer and houseguest commits suicide after a visit from mysterious patients); The Greek Interpreter (we first meet Sherlock's brother Mycroft at the Diogenes Club here; the plot concerns an interpreter who is terrorized through a series of strange professional encounters); The Naval Treaty (a young and rising undersecretary is entrusted with a secret treaty that vanishes from his care); The Final Problem (the climactic struggle with Professor Moriarty).
THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
UK publication: 1905 (George Newnes)
US publication: 1905 (McClure)
Detective: Sherlock Holmes
Plot summary and comments: 13 short stories, with Holmes at the height of his powers and reputation, first published in 1903 and 1904. In the first story, The Empty House, Holmes's apparent death in 1891 (revealed to the public in 1893) is finally explained away as a Holmesian deception with the sudden reappearance of Holmes in Watson's life, disguised as a bookseller and on the trail of Col. Sebastian Moran, the most dangerous man in London. (His brief account of his travels since 1891--trips to Tibet, Mecca, and "an interesting visit with the Khalifa at Khartoum"--leaves the details to our imagination.) Other cases: The Norwood Builder (a young man, arrested for the murder of an eccentric old suburban builder, appeals to Holmes to prove his innocence); The Dancing Men (a country gentleman's wife is strangely terrified by the mysterious appearance of chalked stick-figures around their house); The Solitary Cyclist (a young woman employed as a live-in music teacher to a mysterious household is pursued by the same man when bicycling every weekend); The Priory School (the headmaster of the most elite preparatory school in England recruits Holmes when the son of the country's richest nobleman vanishes from his dormitory; some interesting sidelights on the power of class, as well as the source of the much-debated question of whether one can tell a bicycle's direction from its tracks); Black Peter (a tyrannical ex-whaling captain is murdered in his room amid references to financial securities); Charles Augustus Milverton (Holmes resorts to burglary to recover indiscreet letters from a blackmailer on commission from a lady); The Six Napoleons (a bizarre case in which cheap plaster busts of Napoleon are smashed throughout London); The Three Students (a cheating case at an Oxbridge-type university, where Holmes "has been researching Early English charters"); The Golden Pince-Nez (the young and irreproachable secretary of a reclusive professor is murdered, and found clutching a pair of spectacles); The Missing Three-Quarter (Holmes enters the world of sport when a rugby player is missing before a big match); The Abbey Grange (a trouble-making Kentish nobleman and drunkard is murdered and his wife attacked, evidently by burglars; one of the times that Holmes circumvents the law in order to work his own form of justice); The Second Stain (finally recounted after being alluded to darkly in an earlier collection; the British Premier enlists Holmes to recover a stolen letter containing state secrets, and a known spy is found murdered).