Complete Sherlock Holmes [Hardcover]

Arthur Conan, Sir Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1981 | ISBN-10: 0436133008 | ISBN-13: 978-0436133008

Part of the "Golden Days of Radio" series of classic recordings, this dramatization of 16 Sherlock Holmes stories were first recorded by the BBC in the 1950s. Readers include John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, and Orson Welles makes a special appearance as Holmes's arch enemy Moriarty.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This volume, authorized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, contains all 4 full-length novels and all 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. At over a thousand pages, the weighty tome is a perfect gift for budding amateur sleuths, and it is an ideal companion for a long stay on a desert island (or a leisurely trip through the English countryside). As the reader wades past the tense introductions of A Study in Scarlet and moves towards such classic tales as The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," and "The Final Problem," she is sure to draw her own conclusions about Holmes's veiled past and his quirky relationship with his "Boswell," Watson. Doyle never revealed much about Holmes's early life, but the joy of reading the complete Holmes is assembling the trivia of each story into something like a portrait of the detective and his creator. By the end of the long journey through London and across Europe (with a long stopover at Reichenbach Falls), one is apt to have found a friend for life. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

I read every Sherlock Holmes story...they have certainly found a permanent place in English literature --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1136 pages
• Publisher: Wm Collins & Sons & Co (February 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0436133008
• ISBN-13: 978-0436133008
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (268 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,466,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

157 of 166 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.", August 9, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories (Paperback)

In Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created one of the world's best known and (arguably) most fully realized literary characters. Since Doyle's death, there have been plenty of people writing knockoffs of his stories. But with rare exceptions (Nicholas Meyer comes to mind), most have not lived up to the high standards Doyle set in at least the best of his Holmes tales.

This volume includes the complete canon of Doyle's original stories -- four novels and fifty-six short stories, from "A Study in Scarlet" to "His Last Bow." While there are a handful of cases that bore significantly on international affairs (e.g. "The Bruce-Partington Plans"), most of them are of interest simply because of that touch of the _outre_ that Holmes loved so much and that provided such stimulating material to the ideal reasoner.

There are some clunkers in the canon, of course, but the vast majority of these stories -- especially the earliest ones -- are just brilliant. If you are reading them for the first time, I envy you; the sturdy Dr. John Watson is about to introduce you to a new world, a world of Victorian gaslight and Stradivarius violins, of hansom cabs and cries of "The game's afoot!"

For in reading this volume you will find such classic tales as "The Red-Headed League" and "The Man With The Twisted Lip"; you will encounter the famous dog that did nothing in the night-time ("Silver Blaze") and several versions of Holmes's favorite maxim ("When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"); and you will meet one of the most fascinating and memorable characters ever to spring from the printed page: Holmes himself.

Perhaps most importantly, you will catch a glimpse of the world as an ideal reasoner might see it -- not as a grab-bag of random atomic facts in which our own role is negligible, but as a vast interconnected whole in which each part bears some necessary relation to the rest, and in which the reasoned pursuit of justice in all matters great and small is the business of each and every one of us.

Incidentally, the twentieth-century philosopher who presented that vision most consistently and cogently is, to my own mind, Brand Blanshard, and any Holmes readers who are interested in philosophy may enjoy investigating Blanshard's works as well.

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of the greatest slueth..., March 14, 2009

By 

Stanley Kreubert "Stan" (Jungles of Venus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection ((Every Sherlock Holmes story written by Doyle!) 4 Novels and 46 Short Stories in One Volume!) (Kindle Edition)

I loved reading these classic Sherlock Holmes stories. The writing still holds up! This is why they are making a new movie, staring Robert Downey, Jr. Because they're great mysteries by a great writer.

Linked table of contents and formatting looked and worked great on my Kindle and also on my iPod Touch.

I personally didn't find any typos or formatting errors (just some words are with the proper british spellings) and I enjoyed reading every single story in this collection.

A great read and an awesome value for under a dollar...

272 of 297 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Version Complaint, January 2, 2010

By 

D. Richardson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Collection of all his adventures, 9 Volumes in one Book) (Kindle Edition)

I love the Sherlock Holmes mysteries and have enjoyed many a bedtime story with the great sleuth, so it was with great anticipation that I purchased the Kindle version of this volume of short stories. I was sadly disappointed, though, to find that apparently the publishers did not understand the audience that buys short story collections; they did not bother to include something most basic and needful in an anthology - a table of contents. Without a table of contents the reader has no choice but to start at page one and hit "Next Page" hundreds of times to access stories further into the volume. This is a ridiculous oversight that completely ruins the experience of picking up a good collection of short stories and choosing a story to read at a whim based on the title. If one cannot see all of the titles in an included table of contents, then one is forced to start at the beginning and read them all chronologically. This may work in a novel, but it decidely does not work as a format for a collection of short stories. Please actually keep the reader in mind the next time that you publish a Kindle version of short stories. Include a table of contents.