Sherlock Holmes series

Statue of Sherlock Holmes in Edinburgh, Scotland, near the birthplace of his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Sherlock Holmes series is a mystery series consisting of four novels and fifty-six short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which all feature the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes as their main character. Most of the stories were originally serialized in the British magazine The Strand.

The stories in the Canon are said to be written by Holmes' faithful companion Dr. John H. Watson, with the following exceptions: two are written in the third person ("His Last Bow - The War Service of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone") and two are said to have been written by Holmes himself ("The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" and "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"). In addition, in two of the stories supposedly recorded by Watson ("The Gloria Scott" and "The Musgrave Ritual"), the cases predate their acquaintance so that the events are described by Holmes to Watson as recollections.

The events in the stories cover a period from about 1880 to 1914.

Novels

• A Study in Scarlet (1887)
• The Sign of the Four (1890)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
• The Valley of Fear (1915)

1904 depiction of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget.

Short story collections

Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories that were originally published in The Strand were later collected together in the following five volumes:

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
• His Last Bow (1917)
• The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

Lists of the best short stories

In 1927, The Strand magazine asked their readers to list their twelve favorite Sherlock Holmes short stories. Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was asked to do the same. According to the author, the twelve best Sherlock Holmes stories are as follows:

Statue of Sherlock Holmes in Meringen, Switzerland.

1. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" (1892)
2. "The Red-Headed League" (1891)
3. "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (1903)
4. "The Final Problem" (1893)
5. "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1891)
6. "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903)
7. "The Five Orange Pips" (1891)
8. "The Adventure of the Second Stain" (1904)
9. "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (1910)
10. "The Adventure of the Priory School" (1903)
11. "The Musgrave Ritual" (1893)
12. "The Reigate Squire" (1893)

Not included in the list above are the later stories which were uncollected at the time Doyle made the list (The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes had not been published yet). Two of those stories, "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" and "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", received honorable mentions from the author in the accompanying article he wrote for the magazine.

In 1959, The Baker Street Journal, the leading Sherlockian publication, ran a competition in which readers were asked to vote for the best Sherlock Holmes short story. The top ten Sherlock Holmes stories, according to the journal's readers, are as follows:

Sherlock Holmes is depicted in the tiles on a wall at Baker Street tube station, London.

1. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band' (1892)
2. "The Red-Headed League" (1891)
3. "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (1892)
4. "Silver Blaze" (1892)
5. "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1891)
6. "The Musgrave Ritual" (1893)
7. "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" (1908)
8. "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" (1904)
9. "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (1903)
10. "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903)

See also

• Sherlock Holmes parodies by O. Henry:
  • "The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes"
  • "The Sleuths"
  • "The Detective Detector"
• The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.

External links

• Baker Street, the Sherlock Holmes wiki.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories on Wikisource.
• Quotations from the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories on Wikiquote.
• Sherlockian.net - The portal about the great detective
• Sherlockian-Sherlock.com - big knowledge base