What Do You Think of Sherlock Holmes?

[Adolescent09]

Actually those questions do sound like homework questions (the dopey kind of nonsense some teachers would like you to answer)

THANK-YOU! This, right here, sums up the essence of American high-school/college undergrad education (can't vouch for how it is overseas).

But I digress...

Back on topic: Yeah, read Holmes, dude.

[kasie]

......If you're going to read her, though, And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians is a good one and a general favorite (and check out the original title for an eye-opener).

Not such an eye-opener at the time it was written, Calidore - it was a popular children's rhyme in which each of the characters met a sticky end. Most readers at the time would have known the rhyme and would have known that the characters in Christie's story meet similar ends.

I read the Christie in my teens and for years it remained the only title I enjoyed enough to think I might want to re-read it: however I read it again recently when it was a book club title here on LitNet and found that although the plot held up well, the characters were cardboard and the dialogue unconvincing, which I think is why I gave up reading Christie a long time ago.

Conan Doyle was one of the authors I read when I first graduated from the Children's Library to the Adult Library - I still re-read them with pleasure. The regular recreations of Holmes on film and tv show how the characters remain convincing even though they are over a hundred years old. Even the modern take in the recent BBC TV's Sherlock is in the spirit of the original.

If you want a modern detective writer, I think Henning Mankell's Wallander stories are among the best going.

[Emil Miller]

One of the things that makes Holmes the doyen of fictional detectives is his eccentricity ie. takes cocaine, plays the violin and is an amateur boxer. These traits are mentioned almost casually by the author so that the reader is immediately intrigued to read more about Holmes. Even during Conan Doyle's lifetime the detective had achieved iconic status, so that when, in an attempt to induce readers to buy his other writings, the author killed his creation in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the public clamour for Holmes to be brought back forced him to dream up a miraculous escape from the Reichenbach falls and a forced disappearance before returning to 22b Baker Street. Holmes was a schoolboy hero of mine and whether it was The Red-Headed League or The Sign of Four, like so many schoolchildren, both before and since, I read all of the novels and short stories with great enjoyment.

[astrum]

Emil Miller,

Your point is taken. It does seem as if Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" has received more attention than most other works in the mystery genre.

[wordeater]

What do you think about it? How does it compare to other works in the mystery genre?

He's the master of the classic detective story, along with Agatha Christie.

Did reading it improve your sleuthing, people, and/or critical thinking skills in any way? If yes, how so?

Not in the least.

How has Sherlock Holmes influenced our culture; in other words, what has its impact/legacy been?

He influenced the whole mystery/thriller genre. He's also an illustration of the 19th century idea that everything can be understood by logical deduction.

Finally, what advice would you give to someone who is considering reading it?

Choose a few short stories, e. g. start with the first two, "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red Headed League", and read them slowly. Doyle uses a beautiful language.