Wednesday 13 July 2011

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes


Well, you can't beat a bit of Sherlock Holmes, can you? These stories about this quintessentially English eccentric must probably have a place on most bookshelves - at least in Britain. I chose this book because it includes The Final Problem - the story in which Sherlock Holmes finally meets his match at the hands of the evil Professor Moriarty. I had never actually read this story, but of course I knew of it, and the final scene in The Coronation seemed to be something of a homage to it.

I don't usually enjoy collections of short stories - I find it frustrating for a story to end just as I'm starting to get into it. I've had a really busy week though, so it was actually great to be able to dip into the book for a few minutes and read a whole story. As expected, I found that the format didn't really work for me - once I'd got to the end of one of the stories I didn't have as much incentive to pick the book up again as I would have done if I'd been in the middle of an exciting novel.

I hadn’t read a Sherlock Holmes story since I was a teenager, and as I progressed through the stories I began to realise how naive my youthful preconceptions of the detective and Doctor Watson were.  In my head they were a stereotypical duo of the infallible detective and his likeable but bumbling assistant, but this turned out not to be the case at all. Holmes is in fact a very complicated man with more vices than virtues and, as Watson (the narrator) is often at pains to point out he isn't always entirely successful in his investigations. In several of the stories the mystery is solved in spite of, rather than because of, Holmes' interference. Watson also surprised me. He certainly gave very little help to Holmes in his investigations but, unlike Ziukin in The Coronation, neither did he get in Holmes' way or try to take it upon himself to get involved in the action. He also came across as an extremely sensible and supportive friend, although maybe a little too accepting of Holmes' eccentric behaviours and dour moods.

I liked the variety of the mysteries in the book - they are not all crimes. Some are very simple domestic or relationship problems although they all had fairly improbable solutions. My main problem with the book, however, was that the reader was rarely given the chance to solve the mystery before Holmes did.  I suppose it's difficult in a short story to provide the reader with all the clues and red herrings that would be possible in a full-length novel, but time-and-time again, at the denouement, I would be exasperated by the amount of information Holmes had at his fingertips that the reader had not been given access to. Maybe I'm unusual, but my favourite thing about detective stories is getting to play detective myself. On the rare occasion that I work out who the culprit is I'm always so proud of myself, and so I felt rather cheated in most of these stories.

The story I enjoyed the most was The Final Problem, which surely contains one of the most famous scenes in English literature - even people who haven't read it have heard of it. I'm really glad that I've finally read it for myself. What I hadn't realised was that Watson didn't witness the final events at first hand - his narrative is based on a reconstruction of the likely events based on the evidence left at the scene. This makes for really powerful narrative - both Watson and the reader are forced to imagine what might have happened to Holmes and Moriarty, which somehow makes the scene far more vivid than if it had been recounted in detail.  The end of the book really is desolating - I felt so sorry for poor Doctor Watson. In his typically reserved English style he makes very little of his own emotions but beneath the understatement it is easy to see that his life will never be the same again.  I'm glad Conan Doyle at least had the decency to marry him off.

One tiny thing - I really, really don't like the cover of this edition. I just don't get it. It looks like it should be on the front of a collection of ghost stories.  Very unattractive.

On the whole I did enjoy this book and I'm glad I've finally read it. Holmes and Watson are both fascinating people to spend a bit of time with, and even when the detective element of the stories didn't quite do it for me, the character study of Sherlock Holmes was always fun to read.

5 comments:

  1. I feel the same way about short story collections. As good as they might be I always have a hard time getting through them.

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  2. I almost never pick up collections of short stories. I even avoid collections by authors whose novels I have enjoyed. But the great thing about this book chain is that it's leading me down paths I usually wouldn't venture into. I'm not sure they're all going to be the best paths, but it feels good to be making the effort!

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  3. Mystery short stories have that problem; we almost never guess who's the responsible because the plot unveils in very few pages.

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  4. I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan but sadly I think this is one the collections of his short stories I haven't read! I will have to make sure I read it soon. I really enjoyed the most recent televised version of Sherlock Holmes too.

    I don't read a lot of short story collections, but its ones like these that I have an exception too because it feels a lot closer to a novel because the main characters are the same.

    PS. I just discovered your blog from a link on The Blue Bookcase and I love it! I will definitely be back :-)

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  5. Thanks Becky! I really appreciate all your thoughtful comments. You've got me going again having rather ground to a halt with my book chain - I'll be interested to know what you thought about the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

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