Ex Libris Bitsy

[openbook booknumber=”0760750750″]

[rating:5/5]

The first time I read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would have been in the summer between fifth and sixth grade. My parents had gotten me a boxed set of classics and this particular one was my favorite. I had always loved mysteries whether in the form of Clue or The Boxcar Children and these seemed so much more polished, not to mention were much harder to guess out how it was going to end to my eleven year old mind. I read them again in the seventh grade when I had to take a bus to school for the first time and the novel acted like the proverbial security blanket as I sat and read it every morning in the increasing cold temperatures in the strange environment.

Some time before I moved out I gave away 90% of my book collection (some 100+ books) so that when I left home it was only with a mere handful of ten or twelve. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was one of the books to go. I have since thunked my head on my desk many times wishing to have many of those books back. My parents repurchased The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for me in far more adult binding then the lovingly tattered paperback I had before and I sat and re-read these beloved stories to my husband. He tended to fall asleep during them, but I quite enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

It saved me from ennui,” he answered, yawning. “Alas! I already feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.”
–The Red-Headed League

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a series of short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle to be published in serial format in The Strand Magazine. They are each complete unto themself, so if you missed one you could still go out and get the next one without much of a bother. The character Sherlock Holmes became much beloved in England over this and people even wrote into the magazine asking if he was a real man (to which the editor gave a suitably vague response). Sherlock Holmes solves mysteries through logic and observation, and oftentimes just had to hear about a case to piece together what happened, he is famous for his large magnifying glass, his tall lanky figure, and of course his pipe. His is still the figure people think of when they think of a detective even today.

The plots are sometimes weak, but often intricate and they leave you guessing until the final plot twist at the end as to who did what and how. Occasionally you can guess early just what is going on but you still want to read on because you find you care about what happens to Holmes and Watson and whatever other innocents become involved in the case and you need to see what happens next! If you love mysteries you need to give this classic an honest try. It’s highly readable, and well worth a go. You won’t be disappointed.