Book Review: Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

[olivia_sutton]

I've read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon, however after watching Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows on DVD (I'd also seen the film in the theater last December).  I also own the entire Jeremy Brett Granada series on DVD, both Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes films on DVD, and both seasons of  the BBC TV series Sherlock.  Anyway, I just had to re-read "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House", which are still my favorite two Sherlock Holmes stories. However, after re-reading those two stories I still wanted more Holmes to read. Therefore, I re-read "Memoirs".

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes skips around in time, one story has Holmes telling Watson his very first case as a professional consulting detective, another takes place after Holmes has suffered a mysterious illness, and of course the last story, "The Final Problem" tells of the "death" of Sherlock Holmes (never fear, he returns three years later in "The Empty House"). Anyway, the collection still includes some classic stories, such as "Silver Blaze", which has the following often-quoted conversation between Holmes and Watson:
Holmes: There is the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Watson: The dog did nothing in the night-time.
Holmes: THAT is the curious incident.
Which is still an example for police, detectives, and even computer programmers that sometimes to solve something you don't look at what's there, but rather what isn't there and should be.
Also included in the collection is the "Adventure of the Naval Treaty" in which Holmes helps a foreign office employee who's misplaced an important diplomatic treaty (yes, it was stolen, but the circumstances are unique and Holmes recovers the treaty), and "The Gloria Scott" a rough-and-tumble adventure with a great deal of violence. All-in-all it's a great collection of short stories.

I do recommend The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and all of the Holmes canon to anyone who likes brilliant characterization, intriguing plots, and Victorian settings. Nothing beats sitting down and reading the original every so often. I actually downloaded my copy of "Memoirs" from Project Gutenberg for free (I also own two bound copies of The Complete Sherlock Holmes a single volume leather bound edition and a two volume hardcover edition) and then I actually read it on my e-reader. This is a viable, and free way to read lots of classic out-of-copyright books. Project Gutenberg has free books in a wide variety of formats (I downloaded EPUB for my Sony Reader) and I can't say enough good things about them. OK, commercial over, I now return you to your regularly scheduled review. :-)