Crime Fiction Blog: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

PARAGRAPH #1 - PLOT SUMMARY:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a collection of short stories originally published during the Victorian Era. They appeared in the newspapers of London to entertain their readers, and new parts would be published every week. As they are individual stories there is no single plot between all of them, however, most are set in London, England and the surrounding area during the Victorian Era. The stories record the exploits of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and his MD sidekick, Dr. Watson. Some of the stories included in this collection are summarized below:

A Scandal in Bohemia, in which Watson returns from his new wife and practice to visit his old friend Sherlock, and finds him at the beginning of another high stakes mystery. This time, the stakes are so high, that they could change the face of Europe, and destroy one of it's Royal Families. Holmes and Watson must help the distressed King of Bohemia retrieve a compromising photograph of the King and his American lover before it goes public on the day the King's betrothal to a Scandinavian princess is to be made public. If the picture is made public, and the King's promiscuity made know, the wedding will be called off, and his honour will be damaged. Once again, Holmes unbelievable criminal intelligence saves the day.

The Red-Headed League: A particularly peculiar story, in which Holmes is called upon to solve the mysterious case of a red-headed pawn-brokers induction, and subsuquent explulsion from one so-called "Red-Headed League". Watson again aids Holmes in the cracking of a bank robbery plot of the most ingenious kind, that even the great detective himself admits that it is singular to his memory.

A Case of Identity, in which Holmes yet again baffles us with his immense powers of observation and deduction. This time, he solves the rather interesting, and somewhat twisted case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a young, single woman whose lover has gone missing. Her stepfather is suspect, and yet as the ending reveals, money has driven him to do drastic things ...

The Five Orange Pips, one of my favourite stories in the collection, involves an the Klu Klux Klan making a foray into the life of an English family of some wealth, whose uncle had spent some years in Florida, and presumably had joined said organizations ranks. The uncle and his brother had both died of "accidental causes" shortly after receiving an envelope with five dried orange pips enclosed, and the letters KKK emlbazoned on the interior of the envelope. Yet again, it's up to the pair of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to save the family's newest head from the same fate as his father and unlce before his time runs out ...

The Man With the Twisted Lip, another famous Sherlock tale, and anothe favourite of mine, involves a wife curious as to her husbands business affairs. When she witnesses his "abduction" in the second floor of a London opium den, and he abruptly goes missing, a beggar by the name of Hugh Boone is suspect. However, things are not as they seem, and there are in reality, two characters trapped in Boone's jail cell ...

The Adventure of the Speckled Band, a riveting account of a deranged and violent doctor, named Grimesby Roylott, and his treatment and abuse of his two stepdaughters. Holmes yet again reveals and defeats the processes of a criminal mind, in a tale that stems from darkest India, and involves gypsies, intrigue, and the cleverest and most deadly beasts and men.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, as the title suggests, involves the dismemberment of an engineer; in particular, the removal of one of his thumbs. Dr. Watson brings this patient of his with a curious injury, and an even more fascinating story, to his old friend, Sherlock Holmes to see what he can make of it. What Holmes discovers is a winding and complex series of events that leads to the capture of a murderous German in the English countryside.

PARAGRAPH #2 - AUTHOR'S WRITING STYLE:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of some of the most well known tales of modern literature, including the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Lost World, uses the English language very typically for his day. Conan Doyle writes in a very Victorian fashion, with long, drawn-out sentences, similar to that of Dickens, yet more comprehensible and readable, and therefore more enjoyable. Although some would say this style of writing is too long and hard to read, I quite like it, and indeed, almost prefer it to the English language of today. Conan Doyle's writing, although "long", is quite colourful and descriptive, and those that read carefully and properly can get more out of this style than they could out of a more modern, abreviated style. Conan Doyle also uses some slang, perhaps unique to England, but that has at least fallen out of use in North America. For example, there are a number of places in many of the stories that have words with foot-notes explaining what they mean. EX. "quinsy" means "tonsillitis", a "shakedown" is an "improvised bed". Also, reference is often made to other Sherlock stories, or even to other outside texts and documents, which can bog down the reading for those unfamiliar with these texts, or unwilling to look them up and research a little.

PARAGRAPH #3 - QUOTATIONS:
- "I shall take your advice in every particular."
This phrase is in response to advise given by Holmes to his client in the Five Orange Pips tale. I like it becuase it is a good example of classical British language, especially that used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That is, in part, what makes his colourful writing style what it is.

- "He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad, as became his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat."
This phrase describes the homeless man Hugh Boone from the Man With the Twisted Lip story. I like it becuase it is another good example of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's colourful writing style.

- "As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after."
This is a sentence, spoken by the great detective himself, Sherlock Holmes, while he is explaining something to Watson during the Five Orange Pips story. This particular phrase catches my attention, not only because, yet again, it is an example of Conan Doyle's simple yet colourful and understandable language, but also because it shows how he references outside texts that readers might find it helpful to be familiar with. Cuvier, of course, was the surname of two French brothers, Georges and Frédéric, who were both naturalists and zoologists, which explains the reference to animal bones .. of course!