The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Arthur Conan Doyle

  THE ATHENÆUM

  The work that has made this author popular is the series of tales, admirable in their way, associated with Sherlock Holmes, a character, as is now generally known, imitated from Poe. Sherlock Holmes has so seized the popular ear that he almost alone of the abundance of men and women provided by living authors supplies a familiar reference used everywhere, an ineffaceable part of the English language. Such impression of a figure on the public is an achievement of the rarest (it is only equalled, as far as we recall at the moment, by the case of Jekyll and Hyde), but in this case it is an achievement which has little to do with letters.

  —January 9, 1904

  ANDREW LANG

  The idea of Sherlock is the idea of Zadig in Voltaire’s conte, and of d’Artagnan exploring the duel in “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne,” and of Poe’s Dupin, and of Monsieur Lecoq; but Sir Arthur handles the theme with ingenuity always fresh and fertile; we may constantly count on him to mystify and amuse us. . . . If we are puzzled and amused we get as much as we want, and, unless our culture is very precious, we are puzzled and amused. The roman policier is not the roof and crown of the art of fiction, and we do not rate Sherlock Holmes among the masterpieces of the human intelligence; but many persons of note, like Bismarck and Moltke, are known to have been fond of Gaboriau’s tales. In these, to be sure, there really is a good deal of character of a sort; and there are some entertaining scoundrels and pleasant irony in the detective novels of Xavier de Montépin and Fortuné du Boisgobey, sonorous names that might have been borne by crusaders! But the adventures of Sherlock are too brief to permit much study of character. The thing becomes a formula, and we can imagine little variation, unless Sherlock falls in love, or Watson detects him in blackmailing a bishop. This moral error might plausibly be set down to that overindulgence in cocaine which never interferes with Sherlock’s physical training or intellectual acuteness. Sir Arthur writes in one of his prefaces:—

  I can well imagine that some of my critics may express surprise that in an edition of my works from which I have rigorously excluded all that my literary conscience rejects, I should retain stories which are cast in this primitive and conventional form. My own feeling upon the subject is that all forms of literature, however humble, are legitimate if the writer is satisfied that he has done them to the highest of his power. To take an analogy from a kindred art, the composer may range from the oratorio to the comic song and be ashamed of neither so long as his work in each is as honest as he can make it. It is insincere work, scamped work, work which is consciously imitative, which a man should suppress before time saves him the trouble. As to work which is unconsciously imitative, it is not to be expected that a man’s style and mode of treatment should spring fully formed from his own brain. The most that he can hope is that as he advances the outside influences should decrease and his own point of view become clearer and more distinctive.

  Edgar Allan Poe, who, in his carelessly prodigal fashion, threw out the seeds from which so many of our present forms of literature have sprung, was the father of the detective tale, and covered its limits so completely that I fail to see how his followers can find any fresh ground which they can confidently call their own. For the secret of the thinness and also of the intensity of the detective story is that the writer is left with only one quality, that of intellectual acuteness, with which to endow his hero. Everything else is outside the picture and weakens the effect. The problem and its solution must form the theme, and the character-drawing be limited and subordinate. On this narrow path the writer must walk, and he sees the footmarks of Poe always in front of him. He is happy if he ever finds the means of breaking away and striking out on some little side-track of his own.

  Not much more is left to be said by the most captious reviewer. A novelist writes to please; and if his work pleases, as it undeniably does, a great number and variety of his fellow-citizens, why should his literary conscience reject it? If Poe had written more stories about Dupin—his Sherlock Holmes—and not so many about corpses and people buried alive, he would be a more agreeable author.

  —from Quarterly Review (July 1904)

  Questions

  1. Raymond Chandler, the author of hard-boiled detective novels, wrote, “Sherlock Holmes is after all mostly an attitude and a few dozen lines of unforgettable dialogue.” Is Chandler being fair? If not, how?

  2. How do you explain the continuous popularity of the Holmes stories? They are not very realistic, after all.

  3. Would it be possible to write detective stories featuring characters like Holmes and Watson, but set in New York or Chicago or San Francisco in the twenty-first century?

  4. In A Study in Scarlet America is described as lawless and violent, politically, domestically, and sexually—even the landscape is violent and inhospitable. This lawlessness is imported by Americans into England, as exemplified by the scene of the crime, where the evidence is radically unrelated and violently disordered. The circumstances in The Sign of Four are similar, but instead of America the setting is India, at the time a British colony. Luckily, Holmes is around to save the day. Are there variations of this framework in the stories? What was going on in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century to make it relevant?

  FOR FURTHER READING

  Other Works by Arthur Conan Doyle

  Fiction

  The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard. London: George Newnes, 1896. Among the most popular books Doyle ever wrote, this is an account of an officer in Napoleon’s army who could be a precursor to Inspector Clouseau, the bumbling Peter Sellers character.

  The Land of Mist. London: Hutchinson, 1926. Those interested in Doyle’s thoughts about spiritualism will want to read this novel.

  The Lost World. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1912. Still in print and the subject of more than one film, this novel featuring dinosaurs of all stripes is likely to remain Doyle’s most popular work after the Holmes stories.

  Micah Clarke. London: Longmans, Green, 1889. This non-Holmesian work was Doyle’s first historical novel, and one for which Oscar Wilde expressed enthusiasm.

  The Stark Munro Letters. London: Longmans, Green, 1895. This autobiographical novel is worth reading if only for the bizarre but fascinating account it gives of Doyle’s friend and betrayer, George Budd, fictionalized as Cullingworth.

  Nonfiction

  The History of Spiritualism. London: Cassell, 1926. Reflecting Doyle’s most passionate concern, this book is more revealing than his autobiography.

  Memories and Adventures. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1924; second edition, London: John Murray, 1930. This autobiography gives a surface account of the many colorful adventures Doyle lived but does not invite the reader into the workshop of his soul.

  Through the Magic Door. London: Smith, Elder, 1907. This justification of the Western classics describes the books in Doyle’s personal library and what they have meant to him; it contains some very fine writing.

  Biography

  Lellenberg, Jon L., ed. The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Thirteen Biographers in Search of a Life. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987. A good biography with an introduction by Doyle’s daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle.

  Nordon, Pierre. Conan Doyle: A Biography. Translated from the French by Frances Partridge. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. A biography written at a time when access to private, unpublished material was not legally restricted.

  Pearson, Hesketh. Conan Doyle: His Life and Art. New York: Taplinger, 1977. Brief, but highly entertaining.

  Stashower, Daniel. Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Henry Holt, 1999. A big, handsome volume that takes advantage of all the previously collected material.

  Criticism

  Baring-Gould, William S., ed The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-six Short Stories Complete. With an introduction, notes, and bibliography by Baring-Gould. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1968. If exact and minute detail is what you’re after,
you will find it to your heart’s content in this massive two-volume edition. Baring-Gould and a host of subeditors combed every piece of published material about the stories and did some research of their own in compiling details about when and where every story was published, identifications of all the real people and places in the canon, speculations about the models for some of the fictional ones, historical information, opinions from doctors about Watson’s medical pronouncements, comparisons of things like weather, phases of the moon, and train schedules in the stories to the historical ones—no, there was no 9:13 train that night, but there was one at 9:15—and attempts to establish the internal dates of all the stories.

  Dakin, D. Martin. A Sherlock Holmes Commentary. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles, 1972. Packed full of rewarding material.

  Green, Richard Lancelyn, ed. The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1983. Contains all of Doyle’s writings about Sherlock Holmes, as well as comments of others such as J. M. Barrie.

  ———. The Sherlock Holmes Letters. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986. Republishes a collection of public letters from readers about the stories.

  Hardwick, Michael. The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986. Solves many mysteries and satisfies many curiosities.

  Shreffler, P. A. The Baker Street Reader: Cornerstone Writings about Sherlock Holmes. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. A collection of essays.

  Other Works Cited in the General Introduction

  Doyle, Arthur Conan. Arthur Conan Doyle: Letters to the Press. Edited by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986.

  Hoving, Thomas. Tutankhamun: The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

  Other Works Cited in the Introduction to Volume I

  Carr, John Dickson. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Harper, 1949.

  Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Edited and with an introduction by W. W. Robson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

  a “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” was part of the second series of twelve stories published in 1892 by the Strand. However, Conan Doyle prevented it from being included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the book that in 1893 collected the stories from that series. The story was finally collected in His Last Bow, originally published in 1917.

  b Long, heavy Afghan musket.

  c Medical assistant whose duties include bandaging, or “dressing,” wounds.

  d Popular name for St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London.

  e Slang for navy tobacco.

  f From An Essay on Man (1733-1734; epistle 2, line 2), by English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

  g One-handed fencing stick fitted with a hand guard.

  h “Lieder Ohne Worte” (Songs without Words) of German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

  i The London subway.

  j From the Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:9: “There is no new thing under the sun” (King James Version).

  k Watch chain with thick links, named for Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband.

  l Made from dark tobacco grown near Trichinopoly in the Madras district of India.

  m Cavalry of ancient Parthia were famed for shooting arrows as they retreated.

  n Gold coin worth half a pound.

  o Fourpence worth of gin with hot water and lemon.

  p What little thing indeed! Frédéric Chopin wrote nothing for solo violin.

  q Of international law; literally, of law among peoples (Latin).

  r The head of Charles I, king of England, was struck off in 1649.

  s The Union line sailed steamers to South Africa.

  t A fool can always find a bigger fool to admire him (French); from L’Art Poétique (1674; canto 1), by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711).

  u Slang for “bootblack,” the servant who shined the boots of hotel guests.

  v Outside acceptable bounds; eccentric, bizarre (French).

  w Heber C. Kemball, in one of his sermons, alludes to his hundred wives under this endearing epithet.

  x Slang for “coachmen” or “cabdrivers.”

  y “The people hiss at me, but I applaud myself alone at home when I gaze on the coins in my strongbox” (Latin); from Satires, book 1, satire 1, lines 65-66, by the Roman poet Horace (65-8 B.C.).

  z Strong, red wine from Burgundy.

  aa Euclid, a Greek mathematician who lived around 300 B.C., developed a system of deduction based on definitions and propositions. For the purpose here, there’s nothing special about Euclid’s fifth proposition; any would make the point.

  ab A strong cheroot, open at both ends.

  ac Type of tobacco in which the ribs of the leaves are cut with the fiber.

  ad Slate-roof workers.

  ae See text beginning on page 147 for a description of the islands and their inhabitants.

  af Indian title of respect for Europeans, much like “sir” or “master.”

  ag Hindu term for “servant.”

  ah “Bad taste leads to crime” (French); an aphorism of the French writer Stendhal (1783-1842).

  ai Chronic invalid.

  aj Fastened with a latch.

  ak No such place. The name is a conflation of Senegal and Gambia, and indicates a region in western Africa, comprising areas around the Senegal and Gambia Rivers.

  al Sardonic (disdainfully humorous) grin (Latin).

  am “There are no fools more bothersome than those with wit” (French); no. 451 of Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales (Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims, 1665) of François, duc de La Rochefoucauld.

  an “Of course, we know that men despise what they don’t comprehend” (German); from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, part 1, lines 1205-1206 (1808).

  ao Crossbreed between collie and greyhound used by poachers.

  ap Lantern.

  aq Charles Blondin (1824-1897), French acrobat known for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

  ar Type of bullet used in British army rifles.

  as Long, light rowboat used to transport passengers on waterways.

  at Owners or managers of commercial wharfs.

  au Slang for “three shillings and a sixpence.”

  av Personal advertisement column in a newspaper.

  aw Short, double-breasted overcoat worn by sailors.

  ax Attributed to William Gladstone, prime minister of England four times between 1868 and 1894.

  ay Whiskey and soda.

  az Ravine.

  ba Hemp chewed as a narcotic.

  bb European or Eurasian in India.

  bc Anglo-Indian slang for “jail.”

  bd “It’s a shame that Nature made you only one man; there was material enough for a worthy man and a rogue” (German); from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Xenien (1796).

  be Since 1918 part of what is now the Czech Republic, it was for centuries a sovereign nation.

  bf Locked stand in which decanters of liquor and wine are displayed.

  bg Apparatus for carbonating water.

  bh Small coin worth two shillings and sixpence, about 1/8 of a pound.

  bi James Boswell (1740-1795), biographer of Samuel Johnson.

  bj Refers to a standard photograph size: 3 7/8“ by 5 1/2”.

  bk Jewel; here used figuratively.

  bl Invented by Charles Chubb, the first lock to employ tumblers in its internal design; still in use today.

  bm “Guinea” is slang for an English pound note.

  bn Used to test for leaks in pipes.

  bo Sir John Hare (1844-1921), noted English actor and stage manager.

  bp She appears in “A Case of Identity” (p. 225), written before this story but published later.

  bq “Everything unknown passes for something magnificent” (Latin); from The Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola, by the Roman historian Tacitus (c.56-120 A.D.).

  br Position or job.


  bs A coster is a street vendor of fruits or vegetables.

  bt Cheap wood, made of fir or pine.

  bu Writing paper; so called because its watermark is in the shape of a jester’s cap and bells.

  bv Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), Spanish violinist and composer.

  bw Traditional sign of a pawnbroker.

  bx The murder and the treasure are references to The Sign of Four.

  by The stranger is referring to a card game, either bridge or whist.

  bz Lantern with a panel for blocking the light.

  ca Party of four; literally, a square party (French).

  cb Slang for “handcuffs.”

  cc “The man is nothing; the work everything” (French).