The Valley of Fear and Selected Stories (Classic, Modern, Penguin) [Paperback]

Arthur Conan Doyle (Author), Ed Glinert (Editor), Charles Palliser (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Classic, Modern, Penguin | Publication Date: December 31, 2001

Holmes has been summoned by a coded message to the house of a man called Douglas. But he and Watson arrive to find they are too late - Douglas has been murdered, with a mysterious calling card left by his side. Scotland Yard is stumped, but Holmes, detecting the diabolical workings of his arch-enemy Moriarty, has some ideas of his own. In this compelling selection of tales, The Valley of Fear is accompanied by ten of the great detective's most curious cases, including The Six Napoleons, in which the statues of the Emperor are smashed to pieces; Charles Augustus Milverton, which features an evil blackmailer; and His Last Bow, in which Holmes is called out of retirement on a matter of national importance.

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About the Author

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) took a medical degree 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 Doyle's finest creation, the hawk-eyed detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014043772X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140437720
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,403,825 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The quality of Holmes stories declines, March 24, 2002

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Valley of Fear and Selected Stories (Classic, Modern, Penguin) (Paperback)

This edition by Penguin contains the full-length Sherlock Holmes novel THE VALLEY OF FEAR along with selected short stories from THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and HIS LAST BOW. THE VALLEY OF FEAR was written after Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in 1892, but is set before Holmes' disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls. THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES opens with a story that shows that Holmes didn't die in his struggle with Professor Moriarty after all.

These stories show a decline in Conan Doyle's writing. As Iain Pears wrote in the introduction to another Penguin edition of Holmes stories, in the latter half of his life Conan Doyle turned to mysticism and spiritualism and was increasingly unable to portray the cold rationalism of Sherlock Holmes. Many of the stories lack motivation. The story HIS LAST BOW, which is final story in the canon according to Holmesian time, is a poorly-plotted bit of propaganda for England in World War I.

There are footnotes to each story, compiled by Ed Glinert. An expert on literature set in London, Glinert explains the geographical settings of the Holmes stories, and defines anachronistic terms that are no longer use. He also points out the mistakes Arthur Conan Doyle frequently made in his stories, which are often quite amusing (contradicting timelines, Conan Doyles' incomplete understanding of obscure sciencs, etc).

Because of the illuminating introduction and the helpful footnotes, I'd recommend over any others this edition of THE VALLEY OF FEAR AND SELECTED CASES