Reading Sherlock Holmes

The first Sherlock Holmes book I read was A Study in Scarlet. I was ten at the time; my mom gave me a copy of Um Estudo em Vermelho, the Brazilian Portuguese translation of A Study in Scarlet. It was 1993. The word “Amazon” only referred to our largest forest or river, not the bookshop that has since become a behemoth. I didn’t even have a computer at home. My first contact with the language of Albion would not occur until the following year; I barely knew how to pronounce the names. Anyway, I was hooked. I loved Holmes’ intelligence and perception, and that sparked the imagination of my younger self, wondering if it would really be possible to deduce facts from small evidence such as mud on a boot (or trainers, I was just a kid). Later, I went to the library and borrowed the remaining books – at least the ones I could find.

However, if you are new to Sherlock Holmes, would I recommend taking the same approach? Before discussing that, let’s take a look at how the books came to be and how the stories are structured.

Origins

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes stories from 1887 to 1927 in the form of four long stories – four books, one story per book – and 56 short stories compiled into five books. Those are considered the canon of Sherlock Holmes. The stories are told from the point of view of Dr. Watson, with whom Holmes met in A Study in Scarlet, and was greatly impressed by Holmes’ ability to notice details and connect the dots, making deductions. In addition, what is more important is the interaction between the characters and how the story develops, rather than the puzzles, as pointed out by Claudia Falcone1 from Spinster’s Library YouTube channel. The reason is the choice of narrator; the reader follows the stories from Dr. Watson’s point of view. Despite being intelligent, he lacks the same deductive and observational skills as Holmes; thus, the reader is left missing key pieces of the puzzle to solve the cases in tandem. Probably, Conan Doyle’s goal was to create in the reader the same sense of awe that Dr. Watson feels when Holmes solves a case.

The four long-story books

The first book about our detective is A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887. It was followed by The Sign of the Four in 1890. After writing the second book, Conan Doyle wrote several short stories for The Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1893, which I will discuss below. Nonetheless, it is still worth mentioning the last story, The Adventure of the Final Problem, in which Conan Doyle introduced Professor Moriarty and had him killed, along with Sherlock Holmes. The fans brought considerable uproar, and Conan Doyle was forced to bring Holmes back. Reluctantly, he published The Hound of the Baskervilles eight years later. The novel was set at a time before The Adventure of the Final Problem and was serialised over nine months, from August 1901 to April 1902. Holmes was revived later, in another short story. Finally, Conan Doyle published The Valley of Fear serialised over nine issues, from September 1914 to May 1915. That completes the four books.

Short story compilations

The short stories were mostly published in The Strand – although some were published in other magazines – and compiled in five books, listed below. The years in round brackets represent the original years when the stories were published in the magazines, with the year of the first publication of the compilation following the semicolon.

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892; 1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1892–1893; 1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1903–1904; 1905)
  4. His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (1908–1917; 1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1921–1927; 1927)

I would like to bring attention to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, mainly because of one story: A Scandal in Bohemia. That story introduces Irene Adler, a former opera singer and actress and she outsmarts Holmes. She appears only in this story, but she appears in many adaptations, often as Holmes’ love interest.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes includes the story The Final Problem, in which Conan Doyle introduces the mastermind of crime, Professor Moriarty. It is in this story that Sherlock Holmes fights Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls where both fall to death.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes contains the story The Adventure of the Empty House. Part of the plot explains how Sherlock Holmes had not died in The Final Problem and where he has spent the years in between the stories. Conan Doyle wrote that story by public pressure to revive Sherlock Holmes.

The obvious recommendation is to follow the publishing order. Start with A Study in Scarlet, then read The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, the first three compilations, The Valley of Fear and the last two compilations.

There’s another approach. In spite of the first book being A Study in Scarlet, that book may not be good for beginners because of how it is structured. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, we see Sherlock Holmes solving the crime, and in the second part, we have the background information with facts taking place in Utah, rather than a location in the UK. Moreover, the story of the Mormons in this book drags on for too long. For the same reason, The Valley of Fear should be avoided as the first contact with Sherlock Holmes books. The Valley of Fear follows the same approach as A Study in Scarlet: solving the case in the first half of the book, followed by the backstory in the second part of the book. And it can be better appreciated if you are already familiar with Sherlock Holmes.

Several users on the subreddit r/SherlockHolmes praised The Sign of the Four, but Claudia (Spinster’s Library YouTube channel) does not recommend it for being the most racist story. Instead, she recommends starting with The Hound of the Baskervilles due to its pace, mysterious setting, etc. And it works as a canary in a coal mine; if you don’t like this book, you won’t like the rest of Holmes’ canon books, according to her. After The Hound of the Baskervilles, then Claudia recommends reading A Study in Scarlet or the short stories.

For those who prefer short stories, Claudia recommends starting with the book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The first story is A Scandal in Bohemia, and the highlight of the story is the appearance of Irene Adler. She grabs our attention because she outsmarts Holmes. I do not have a recommendation based on the short stories; I would roll with Claudia’s. The caveat is that I believe Irene Adler can be better appreciated after the reader has got used to Holmes being the more intelligent person in the room. Makes the situation with her more peculiar.

My own recommendation starts with a similar path, but I prefer to mix the long stories with the short stories. Start with The Hound of the Baskervilles to get an idea of the dynamics. If you enjoy that book, you’ll likely appreciate reading the remaining books. If you decide to continue, then follow the publishing order. Read A Study in Scarlett to learn how Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes met and what his first impressions of the detective were. Follow up with The Sign of the Four, the second book.

After that, either read The Hound of the Baskervilles again or find the next book. In that case, instead of The Valley of Fear, I recommend reading the first three compilations, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The short stories are quick to read, fun, and you become more attached to the recurring characters; it’s like seeing different chapters of their lives.

After those three compilations, I suggest returning to the last long story, The Valley of Fear, and finally, the remaining compilations, His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while a chronological approach to the Sherlock Holmes canon is valid, alternative reading orders can enhance the experience. Beginners may enjoy starting with The Hound of the Baskervilles and mixing long stories with short story collections. In the end, the essence of Sherlock Holmes lies in the deductions, characters, and timeless mystery, regardless of reading order.

Note on the use of AI

I wrote this article myself without LLMs. As I am not a native speaker, I used Grammarly to help me find mistakes, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary to validate the meaning of certain words and Thesaurus to find synonyms. The image at the top was created with AI.

  1. She uses only her first name on almost all her social networks, henceforth I will use only her first name. ↩︎