The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

A collection of the most famous cases faced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless creation The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes contains an introduction by Iain Pears and notes by Ed Glinert in Penguin Classics.This collection includes many of the famous cases - and great strokes of brilliance - that made the legendary Sherlock Holmes one of fiction's most popular creations. With his devoted amanuensis Dr Watson Holmes emerges from his smoke filled room in Baker Street to grapple with the forces of treachery intrigue and evil in such cases as 'The Speckled Band' in which a terrified woman begs their help in solving the mystery surrounding her sister's death or 'A Scandal in Bohemia' which portrays a European king blackmailed by his mistress. In 'Silver Blaze' the pair investigate the disappearance of a racehorse and the violent murder of its trainer while in 'The Final Problem' Holmes at last comes face to face with his nemesis the diabolical Professor Moriarty - 'the Napoleon of crime'.In his introduction Iain Pears discusses characterization the key themes of the stories and Victorian methods of deduction. This edition also includes a chronology further reading and explanatory notes by Ed Glinert author of The London Compendium.Edinburgh-born Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) took a degree in medicine at Edinburgh University before becoming a doctor in Southsea. He began writing detective stories to supplement his income and 'A Study in Scarlet' (1887) introduced his finest creation the hawk-eyed detective Sherlock Holmes.If you enjoyed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes you might like Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone also available in Penguin Classics. 'Arthur Conan Doyle is unique ... Personally I would walk a mile in tight boots to read him to the milkman'Stephen Fry About the Author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh where he qualified as a doctor but it was his writing which brought him fame with the creation of Sherlock Holmes the first scientific detective. He was also a convert to spiritualism and a social reformer who used his investigative skills to prove the innocence of individuals. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Adventure of a Scandal in BohemiaI.To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions and that one particularly were abhorrent to his cold precise but admirably balanced mind. He was I take it the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer-excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him and that woman was the late Irene Adler of dubious and questionable memory.I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us away from each other. My own complete happiness and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment were sufficient to absorb all my attention while Holmes who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul remained in our lodgings in Baker-street buried among his old books and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition the drowsiness <p>A collection of the most famous cases faced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless creation, <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes</i> contains an introduction by Iain Pears and notes by Ed Glinert in Penguin Classics.<br><br>This collection includes many of the famous cases - and great strokes of brilliance - that made the legendary Sherlock Holmes one of fiction's most popular creations. With his devoted amanuensis Dr Watson, Holmes emerges from his smoke filled room in Baker Street to grapple with the forces of treachery, intrigue and evil in such cases as 'The Speckled Band', in which a terrified woman begs their help in solving the mystery surrounding her sister's death, or 'A Scandal in Bohemia', which portrays a European king blackmailed by his mistress. In 'Silver Blaze' the pair investigate the disappearance of a racehorse and the violent murder of its trainer, while in 'The Final Problem' Holmes at last comes face to face with his nemesis, the diabolical Professor Moriarty - 'the Napoleon of crime'.<br><br>In his introduction, Iain Pears discusses characterization, the key themes of the stories and Victorian methods of deduction. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading and explanatory notes by Ed Glinert, author of <i>The London Compendium.</i><br><br>Edinburgh-born Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) took a degree in medicine at Edinburgh University before becoming a doctor in Southsea. He began writing detective stories to supplement his income and 'A Study in Scarlet' (1887) introduced his finest creation, the hawk-eyed detective, Sherlock Holmes.<br><br>If you enjoyed <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>, you might like Wilkie Collins's <i>The Moonstone</i>, also available in Penguin Classics. <br><br>'Arthur Conan Doyle is unique ... Personally, I would walk a mile in tight boots to read him to the milkman'<br>Stephen Fry</p>