I trust you have brought your passport, Watson?" he said, in lieu of greeting. "We depart for Algeria this evening. The cab will be here momentarily." That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. Holmes was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police.

I proceeded to read all of the unadapted stories and did not remember a one of them and found some of them quite terrible. I can say, unreservedly, nothing was lost in not adapting them.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in a classy classic manner and even if his settings were not familiar to me as a Filipino, I appreciated his stories because of the universal messages in them: love of a husband to a wife, a son to a father, a father to his child, etc; the evil in greed especially when it comes to riches and money; that men can be truly friends without homosexuality getting in-between; that we have to respect the people we work with; always be wary of the people around you; and that, if used in moderation, cocaine and morphine can actually make you sharper. I cringed while typing the last one. The author, John Le Carre wrote in November 14, 2006, as he reviewed the 150th printing of this edition, “Dr. Watson doesn’t write to you, he talks to you, with Edwardian courtesy, across a glowing fire. His voice has no barriers or affections. It is clear, energetic and decent, the voice of a tweedy, no-nonsense colonial Britisher at ease with himself.” His last bow : The adventure of Wisteria Lodge : The singular experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles ; The tiger of San Pedro ; The adventure of the cardboard box ; The adventure of the red circle ; The adventure of the Bruce-Partington plans ; The adventure of the dying detective ; The disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ; The adventure of the devil's foot ; His last bow -- But I was also growing into a modern girl, one who had big ideas about becoming someone, and doing something big in this world. My overall rating is 4.5 stars for the entire bind up. I do list each story and my rating individually, as well as my average rating for each collection.*

Finally, something that surprised me was how brief the appearance of Professor Moriarty was, as I was expecting it to be much stronger since he's deemed to be Holmes's nemesis.

Success!

Now, I won't even try to review so much material, as the stories are many and vary widely. All I can say is that I enjoyed the whole collection in general, specially the novels, but then I'm not that keen a reader of tales and short stories. I was recently asked by my GR friend Colin, “what novel had the most impact on you in your teens/early twenties?” Most of the stories are highly atmospheric and if you've ever been to England it's very easy to immerse yourself in the narrative, which I thought was marvelous. English breakfast“ например. За интереса на дамата към този тип четива можем да предположим по ритмичното и относително бавно отгръщане на страниците – твърде вероятно става въпрос за препрочитане на абзаци или просто за бавно наслаждаване на текста. Като се замисля може да бъде и някой слабоумен клетник със странни гастрономически навици… Но по-добре е да се придържаме към първоначалното ми предположение. I am new to audiobooks. There is a certain point in the evenings where my eyes tire and I have no interest in watching TV, so these audiobooks keep me company in the watches of the night. I also take them to bed where they help me drop off to sleep. I know the stories so well that I don't have to worry that I will miss anything important.

Watson's not wasting any time here. So we learn, in two sentences, that Holmes is: not fond of other people, ridiculously smart, kind of a drug addict, working unofficially to fight crime and, as if I couldn’t say it enough -- ridiculously smart! I have solved the case, Watson." He sat up, brushing a fried egg from the lapel of his dressing gown. "Allow me to elucidate." Holmes was a towering genius in so many ways. Dr. Watson gives the stability, where Holmes in his creativity is sometimes off kilter, but we love him, and we are always mesmerized by how he can solve cases.I was also fascinated by people. And mostly people who did bad things to other people. I never understood why humanity was so cruel to each other. I wanted to learn. I wanted to fix them, I guess.

You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.” He was more interested in writing historical pieces, and about the after-life. (We won’t go there!) A remarkable undertaking... applauding them, and particularly Clive Merrison's Holmes, made my hands sore' The Times There are passages of beauty, moments of suspense, and many, many quotables. It is addicting. We as readers, are drawn in and become the detective, too.

Side guide

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot (Last Bow) - 4 starsMaybe I am just strange but I always enjoy stories that either "speak" to me or at least "surprise" me. Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. His baptism record in the registry of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and simply 'Doyle' as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather. Although Doyle had written other adventure series, Professor Challenger and Brigadier Gerard, he considered his true calling to be an author of Medieval Romances, with knights and so forth. I read some of them and they are quite wordy and pretty bad. The short story was Doyle’s true métier. And I say, without hesitation, if not for Holmes, Doyle would now be forgotten. Having been a fan of these stories and the main characters for years, I'd like to make two observations: