Only one story frustrated me outright with its weak ending (“The Five Orange Pips”). A few of the solutions seemed a bit cliché, which I attribute to the legions of imitators who have followed Holmes, and to how indelibly these characters have been a part of popular culture for nearly 130 years. I would happily have spent more time in the company of Violet Hunter, Holmes’s perceptive and brave client. One story in particular (“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”) contained enough Gothic elements – dark family secrets, inexplicable behavior, a locked wing of rooms and a plucky, resourceful governess – to fill an entire novel. Each story lasted about 45 minutes to an hour – the perfect length for my commute – so I looked forward for several days to hearing the details of a new case presented in the morning and finding out how Holmes unraveled the mystery in the evening.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collects the first 12 of these stories and includes several well-known classics, including “A Scandal in Bohemia,” which introduces Irene Adler, the crafty woman who outwits Holmes, and the often-assigned school reading, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” (The latter is rightfully familiar, as it contains all the ingredients of the best Holmes stories: a brisk plot, brooding atmosphere, a fiendishly clever crime, and Holmes and Watson risking life and limb for a client.) Here are tales of a priceless jewel found in the throat of a Christmas goose (“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”), of long-simmering resentment and revenge (“The Boscombe Valley Mystery”), of an inexplicable disappearance (“The Man with the Twisted Lip”) and of a complicated and hilarious diversion meant to facilitate robbery (“The Adventure of the Red-Headed League”).
The adventures of sherlock holmes book covers series#
You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales." - Holmes to Watson, "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" "I believe in hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories." - Inspector Lestrade, "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" I’ve arrived in my chronological listening to the Sherlock Holmes tales to the 56 short stories that form the real meat of the canon. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. If you haven't encountered Sherlock Holmes yet, this is a great introduction to him & his adventures. To listen to too many in one go would rather spoil it perhaps? I think perhaps it is best to treat this audiobook as a selection box to pick at every now and then, rather than a bar to scoff in one go!
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?Įach story is definitely worth listening to in one go- each is 45-60 mins long in general. That said, he does bring a little of something else to the others, in differentiating them from his Watson, so that works nicely too. Which character – as performed by Derek Jacobi – was your favourite?ĭr Watson is of course the most important character for the narrator to 'nail' in any Holmes story, which Jacobi does excellently.
Each individual story has its own magic & is memorable in its own right. What was one of the most memorable moments of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Had I not read it before however, I would rank it as one of, if possibly THE best. Though I'd read all of these stories before, they are simply classics & Derek Jacobi's delivery is as slick & as fitting a Watson performance as you could hope for. Where does The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
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