Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [Hardcover]

Arthur Conan Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1993

This book has been assembled after painstaking research in both Britain and America and is complete with background details about the items, their original publication, and what new facts they reveal about the great detective.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Barnes Noble Books; 1ST edition (June 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156619198X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566191982
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,969,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Doyle, Arthur Conan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the official texts..., July 25, 2004

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

This book, which overlaps somewhat Jack Tracy's 'Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha', is a book of the 'leftovers', those things that didn't make it into the official canon of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail adddressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales. The official canon is 60 stories -- 56 short stories, and 4 novels, published at various times during Conan Doyle's life. However, Conan Doyle wrote far more than he ever published -- even this collection (and Tracy's) do not include all of the previously unpublished Holmes material, as some is being intentionally withheld by the Conan Doyle estate until a future time (which Tracy mentions, but Haining does not).

The collection here consists of twelve pieces Haining declares are essential to the overall collection -- this being a supplementary volume to the 'existing definitive two-volume edition of the stories', by which Haining undoubtedly means the Baring-Gould collection. The twelve pieces can be broadly classified as follows:

- Commentaries by Conan Doyle about Holmes

- Two parodies of Holmes by Conan Doyle himself

- Some complete short stories, albeit with interesting stories about them

- Two plays, one possibly done with William Gillette

- Atypical pieces, a proto-Holmesian tale, and a poem

Haining has interesting commentary on the various pieces. Like Tracy, he traces the ambiguities of some of these tales -- 'The Man Who Was Wanted' is a good case in point. Whereas Tracy sees it as a forgery (however, a very good forgery), Haining doesn't see the case as clear-cut. In other pieces, such as 'How Watson Learned the Trick', the history between the two editors covers the same material with essentially the same conclusions.

Haining includes three pieces in the appendix, very rare indeed -- two pieces by Conan Doyle about Holmes, including a rare interview about Holmes' 'death' at Reichenbach Falls (prior to his 'resurrection'), a piece for 'The Strand' in which there was a competition for selecting the best Holmes story, and a very early, pre-Holmes short story by Conan Doyle that foreshadowed the later 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Haining provides commentary on each piece, as well as some general history and publication data. Haining also refers to pieces not included in this collection (additional plays, for example, based upon stories, including the very famous 'Sherlock Holmes' performed and amended by William Gillette) included in Tracy's collection, but not here.

For the sake of completeness, any Sherlock Holmes fan will want both volumes. However, each gives a clear indication of the breadth of Holmes beyond the official canon. This volume is well done and entertaining.

5.0 out of 5 stars The missing pieces, January 7, 2012

By 

Jory - See all my reviews

This review is from: Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Hardcover)

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 official Sherlock Holmes tales, but he also wrote quite a bit of unofficial material which usually isn't included in the book collections; poems, essays, stage plays, and other short stories that are in some way related to Holmes. These miscellaneous writings are what you'll find in The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Obviously it's for hardcore Holmes fans, those who have finished the original 60 tales and are craving more, and newcomers are advised to finish those stories before bothering with this book; but those who are interested will find what's here quite entertaining. Some of the writing included is good enough to stand with the best of the "official" stories, and I agree with the scholars quoted in the introduction who claim that "The Man with the Watches" and "The Lost Special" should be considered part of the accepted canon. This long introduction by editor Peter Haining explains the context behind each of the included pieces of writing. Originally published in 1981, there seem to be several different editions; mine is a hardcover from 1993 with a short foreword by Jeremy Brett.