To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
Three years have passed since Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty vanished into the abyss of the Reichenbach falls. In that time the criminals of London have been able to sleep safe in their beds. But with the appearance of a dangerous individual with an air gun, the capital has never been in greater need of its protector. And so it is that Dr Watson meets a mysterious deformed man who reveals the truth behind the fateful final conflict between Holmes and Moriarty, and paves the way for the extraordinary return of the world's greatest sleuth in thirteen new tales of mystery and deduction ...
This extraordinary collection puts together eight books:A Study in Scarlet (1887)The Sign of the Four (1890)The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1904)The Valley of Fear (1914)His Last Bow (1917)BOOK ONEA Study in Scarlet is an 1887.The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.BOOK TWO:The Sign of the Four The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.BOOK THREE:The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view.BOOK FOUR: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short stories. The twelve stories were originally published in The Strand Magazine from December 1892 to December 1893 as The Adventures number 13 to 24. For instance, "The Final Problem" was published under the subheading "XXIV.--The Adventure of the Final Problem."[3]BOOK FIVE:The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.BOOK SIX:The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories.The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891-1894, a period called "The Great Hiatus" by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.BOOK SEVEN:The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland.BOOK EIGHTHis Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes is a 1917 collection of previously published. Holmes is long retired from his profession of detective but is still alive and well, albeit suffering from a touch of rheumatism.
A novel and a collection of short stories in one book. In the Valley of Fear, the intrepid detective and his trusty partner must delve deep into the mystery of a seeming suicide at a manor. At the heart of the case is a secret organization and some truly nefarious men. In the second set of eight stories, women go mysteriously missing on a holiday, The British government comes under fire, and German spies make an appearance, among the many baffling cases tackled by the iconic duo.
Through the foggy streets of Victorian London to the deepest countryside, the world's most famous private detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his trusty companion Dr Watson attempt to solve the unsolvable. Using his astounding methods of deduction, Holmes outwits the most cunning of thieves and most villainous of murderers in some of his best-known cases including 'The Speckled Band' and 'Silver Blaze'. Sixteen original classic Sherlock Holmes adventures
Everything you need to know about classic literature in one handy guide by lecturer Maureen Hughes. Covering everything from the authors to the plays themselves and their common themes, accessibility is a key selling point with factboxes highlighting key or curious facts about the subject. Its size makes it the perfect stocking filler for the Christmas market or at anytime of the year for those wanting more information about what theyre reading or studying in a handy, pocket-sized guide.
