However for the most part I was left wanting something a little more. After reading The Sign of Four earlier this year I have come to expect this colonialism nature from his writing. I like that some of these stories were macabre but overall I think this lacked the stylistic approach I am used to from this author. This review originally appeared on my blog: Arthur Conan Doyle published these short stories later in his career. Half are tales of terror, and the other half are mysteries.
It seems that Doyle is much more comfortable with the mysteries, particularly the two relating to railroads: This is the collection of stories that had convinced me about the incredible storytelling ability of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. People tend to remember him only as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. But these stories are miniature classics in building of suspense, mystery and horror. I've long been a fan of Sherlock Holmes, but have only read bits and pieces of Doyle's other works. I know a lot are supposed to be or so critcs will say a bit pulp y, but this isn't something that bothers me.
I enjoy a bit of melodrama, even if it's over the top at times - and Doyle definitely has a tendency to be over the top with his action-adventure stories, and his romances. This particular book contains twelve short stories - six under the section titled tales of terror and six under myst I've long been a fan of Sherlock Holmes, but have only read bits and pieces of Doyle's other works. This particular book contains twelve short stories - six under the section titled tales of terror and six under mystery.
Note that this is one of many Doyle books in public domain on Gutenberg and elsewhere. I'll add more about the stories as I finish them. The mystery continues without answer, and newspapers begin printing speculation by "private individuals: One which appeared in The Times, over the signature of an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date, attempted to deal with the matter in a critical and semi-scientific manner In fact I thought that this story was one that was dramatized by ITV with Jeremy Brett as Holmes - only it doesn't seem to be on the episode list , so I must be imagining that I've seen it.
Doyle uses the same plot devise - the letter writer to a newspaper trying to solve the mystery - in another story in the collection: The Man with the Watches: There was a letter in the Daily Gazette, over the signature of a well-known criminal investigator, which gave rise to considerable discussion at the time. He had formed a hypothesis which had at least ingenuity to recommend it In the absence of data we must abandon the analytic or scientific method of investigation, and must approach it in the synthetic fashion.
In a word, instead of taking known events and deducing from them what has occurred, we must build up a fanciful explanation if it will only be consistent with known events. We can then test this explanation by any fresh facts which may arise So, not at all a secret wink to the reader that we should recognize the letter writer.
I was actually going to try and add little bits about each story, but for many of them what I find interesting would completely give away the ending, and these are rather short stories. So instead I'll just quote a bit from one of the stories which, though a bit over the top here and there in that way you get used to with Doyle, does have some fun with technology.
I'm referring to the first story in the collection; The Horror of the Heights , and I'd definitely have to categorize this as science fiction.
I have no idea how accurate Doyle's writing is on the then-fairly-new technology of airplanes the tech details seem very dry and boring , but his idea of unexplored areas of the sky are interesting: Aeroplaning has been with us now for more than twenty years, and one might well ask: Why should this peril be only revealing itself in our day? The answer is obvious. In the old days of weak engines, when a hundred horse-power Gnome or Green was considered ample for every need, the flights were very restricted.
Now that three hundred horse-power is the rule rather than the exception, visits to the upper layers have become easier and more common. Some of us can remember how, in our youth, Garros made a world-wide reputation by attaining nineteen thousand feet, and it was considered a remarkable achievement to fly over the Alps.
Our standard now has been immeasurably raised, and there are twenty high flights for one in former years. Many of them have been undertaken with impunity. The thirty-thousand-foot level has been reached time after time with no discomfort beyond cold and asthma. What does this prove? A visitor might descend upon this planet a thousand times and never see a tiger. Yet tigers exist, and if he chanced to come down into a jungle he might be devoured. There are jungles of the upper air, and there are worse things than tigers which inhabit them Whether Doyle manages to make this experience creepy or amusing is probably up to whether you enjoy this sort story, and the style in which he writes.
May 23, Hillary rated it really liked it. Being a huge fan of the BBC series, I decided it was tie to read the stories it was based on.
Since this is a compilation of several novels and short stories, I've decided to add to this review as I finish stories. A Study in Scarlet - 4 stars: I was really surprised by how easy this was to read. I was expecting it to be dull and difficult to read; instead I stayed up late finishing it - I couldn't put it down! I especially enjoyed how Doyle told the story from the point of view of the victim and Being a huge fan of the BBC series, I decided it was tie to read the stories it was based on.
I especially enjoyed how Doyle told the story from the point of view of the victim and murderer. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This collection is notable for not featuring his most famous character of Sherlock Holmes in any way, shape or form, and yet containing stories that are stylistically linked to the Holmesian fare. There are a few gruesome horror tales, a collection of medical stories which are more interesting than you might think , some mysteries, and even a couple of novels.
This anthology opens with no less than twelve horror and mystery stories. It's predictable, but engaging. A monster lurks in the Peak District, and the narrator encounters it in this exciting tale of adventure and derring do. Pure escapism, and a delight to read. It's the one story that feels most like Holmes. There's a delightful reference to Holmes himself and a real quality to the writing that makes it a winner and one of the book's strongest tales. Great twists throughout keeps the reader on their toes.
It's a Wellsian disaster story in which Challenger and chums must seek to evade worldwide catastrophe, heavy on scientific detail and light on action. Still, the suspense level remains high throughout, making it a fun read. The fear of the inevitable is quite palpable. It's a grand monster-on-the-loose story, perfectly written and constructed.
The last three stories are a mixed bag. I seem to find myself on a bit of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle kick lately. I've been throughly enjoying his work but wanted to take a short break from Sherlock Holmes. What is an avid reader to do? Why, pick up "Tales of Terror and Mystery", of course! This volume is broken up into two parts. The first half is tales of terror you don't say! I adored the tales of terror and was either indifferent or disliked the tales of mystery. Who'd have thought Doyle would be better at terror than mystery in something!? This is told through a journal of an aeronautical explorer that was found after his disappearance.
Man should be careful when flying to high because in the upper, upper atmosphere are near-transparent monsters. This time, it is two explorers in an unexplored, deep, dark, catacomb. It involves a cuckolded husband, emergency surgery, and mistaken identity. Something is eating local sheep. There are rumors of a monster in a deep cave. An explorer sets out to find out what is what. It's a mole bear! But the tension in the story is great and the claustrophobia is palpable!
Huge cat with a taste for human. I honestly didn't really care for the rest. But, I promise the stories aren't as racist as the names make them sound: This was after all! In only twelve stories, there are also a few recurrent themes: This being said, a reasonably enjoyable reading. This collection, divided into "Tales of Terror" and "Tales of Mystery", strengthens the argument that Doyle would have been remembered even if he did not create the famous detective.
Reviewers have suggested that the tales of terror in this Conan Doyle collection show that these themes are no longer frightening to us - monsters in the high altitudes? Something that has absorbed the bad vibes of its history? Being locked in dark and close places? Monstrous creatures that have somehow survived? Wild cats — lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars? And is not this what our planetary sci-fi often dwells on? Ghost stories use that theory that objects — often places — absorb horrible things that have happened it their history.
That other master, Edgar Allan Poe, used our feelings of panic when closed in tight, dark places. A whole series of films were wildly popular that used an update of those prehistoric creatures alive today. And turn a lion or tiger or jaguar loose in a city and see what panic quickly occurs. Many of the mysteries in this collection are not reminiscent of the Holmes tales — those have clues in them that the great detective points out to befuddled Watson — and the readers. Most of these tales use some secret that is revealed at the end — not clues in the stories.
Oct 07, Danny M rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: I am glad I was made aware of this collection of short stories from Doyle, as they serve to be a precursor to the widely popular Sherlock Holmes character Doyle would create a few years later.
A few in the terror section of t I am glad I was made aware of this collection of short stories from Doyle, as they serve to be a precursor to the widely popular Sherlock Holmes character Doyle would create a few years later. Wells feel to it, as it borders more on sci-fi. For the most part, I probably enjoyed the mystery section of the stories more so than the terror stories. Some of my favorites: I think this is definitely one to check out if you are a mystery fan or love the Holmes stories. Jan 26, Justin rated it it was amazing. I had a highly abridged collection of Sherlock Holmes tales as a young lad, and I can now safely say that they don't hold a candle to the complete works.
I was left with that special sadness one feels when losing a long time friend upon completion of these stories. Each "singular" tale is fantastic in its own special way. I I had a highly abridged collection of Sherlock Holmes tales as a young lad, and I can now safely say that they don't hold a candle to the complete works. I very much enjoyed my time on Baker Street and around the various parts of London with Dr. John Watson and Mr. Oh, the feeling when arriving at the proper conclusion before Holmes! Each mystery is highly unique and fast paced.
Riveting from start to finish. Holmes truly is a masterful character, and his methods left me just as in the dark as his loyal companion Dr. I only wish there was more. I guess I'll have to fill my appetite with the stories crafted by other authors. Ini buku kubeli secara tidak sengaja-- tanpa ancang-ancang maupun rencana untuk beli ini sebelumnya.
Tapi untunglah, aku membelinya. Buku ini berisi 13 kisah-kisah pendek dengan tema misteri, yang kemudian dibagi jadi dua bagian: Entah kalau anda punya kecerdasan setingkat Holmes, tapi saya rasa, itu cerita untuk lain kali lagi. Terjemahannya sendiri lumayan bagus; pilihan kata yang penerjemahnya pilih -walau terkadang terkesan terlalu sederhana- cukup tertata rapi dan tidak akan membiarkan pembacanya merasa tersesat saat membacanya.
Direkomendasikan untuk penggemar kisah misteri, dan terutama, untuk penggemar Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-- yang belum pernah membeli buku lain dengan isi cerpen yang serupa, tentunya. View all 3 comments. If you are a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle or just a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you will probably come across this book and read it at some point. Doyle didn't write too many mystery stories that did NOT involve Sherlock Holmes, and these are some of them.
The book is divided into two large sections - Tales of Terror and Tales of Mystery. As is well-known, Doyle was a fanatic spiritualist, and many of the tales of terror deal with some strange stuff - weird creatures living in the upper atmosphere, for If you are a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle or just a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you will probably come across this book and read it at some point. As is well-known, Doyle was a fanatic spiritualist, and many of the tales of terror deal with some strange stuff - weird creatures living in the upper atmosphere, for example.
Some of the others are a bit more mundane, but still very dark. The tales of mystery are mostly crimes which are reminiscent of Holmes. It shares many similarities to the canonical stories. Aside from the metafictional twist in which Watson supplants Doyle as the author publishing his own stories in a magazine, it also plays not only about the famous skill of Holmes' observations producing apparently miraculous results, but also upon the notion of the "traditional breakfast scenes" which open many Holmes short stories. Though Doyle had killed off his character by , he still wrote other short stories for publication in the Strand Magazine , including "The Story of the Lost Special", a seemingly inexplicable mystery in which a special train and its few passengers disappear between two stations.
After the mystery is described in full, it is stated that a letter appeared in the press, giving a proposed solution from "an amateur reasoner of some celebrity". It is possible, and has been proposed by Haining, Tracy, and Green, amongst others that this "amateur reasoner" was Sherlock Holmes. The strongest clue to this is the quotation, "once one has eliminated the impossible However, this suggested solution is proved wrong by a confession from the organising criminal once he is later arrested for an unrelated crime.
Haining suggested that Doyle was "getting out some Holmes" during the series hiatus, but given the failure of the unnamed detective it appears he was parodying his most famous creation. It follows the same pattern; the mystery this time surrounds the appearance of a dead man in a railway carriage, with six pocket watches in his jacket.
An explanation is offered by an amateur detective but the narrator notes it is flawed, as it doesn't take into account all the facts. A man involved in the accidental murder of the victim writes a letter to the detective, saying that it was a "mighty clever solution" but entirely incorrect and continues to share the true events of that day. It shares the same backing for categorising as a Sherlock Holmes story as "The Story of the Lost Special", and appears in French anthologies. The number of watches was changed because the new title came from a reference in the Holmes story " The Noble Bachelor " to Holmes' involvement with the watches incident.
As Richard Lancelyn Green notes, "there is no evidence to show that it is by [Conan Doyle] and strong internal evidence to suggest that it's not". In , several authors were approached to contribute to the library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Conan Doyle wrote a short Sherlock Holmes story, just words long, onto the tiny pages of a specially constructed miniature book: Though written 28 years after "The Field Bazaar", this is almost a companion piece to that story.
Like "The Field Bazaar", this story is a breakfast scene, during which Watson attempts to mimic Holmes' style in guessing his thoughts. Watson's intuitions are proved wrong, however. Unlike almost all parts of the Sherlock Holmes story it is written in the third person, presumably due to its length. Unpublished until , this play was written shortly after A Study in Scarlet was published.
Holmes is not present, but Watson is, in a very different form. He acts discreditably and even marries another woman. It has many original parts which are not found in the short stories but borrows many events from the canonical adventures, namely " A Scandal in Bohemia " and " The Adventure of the Final Problem ".
It includes the very first mention of the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson". While Conan Doyle wrote the original version, it is unclear how much of his material survived in the play as performed, which was written by Gillette. Conan Doyle and Gillette later revised the play together; it has since been revised by others twice. Around , Doyle wrote and produced a play based on his short story " The Adventure of the Speckled Band ".
The play, originally entitled The Stonor Case , differs from the story in several small details, such as the names of some of the characters. Some claim that the play originally appeared in an early draft of "Sherlock Holmes" above and was later removed, with some elements finding their way into " The Adventure of the Empty House " before the entire play was resurrected, some years later, into "The Crown Diamond" and "The Mazarin Stone. Arthur Conan Doyle rarely gave interviews or publicly discussed his character. However, the following is a list of Conan Doyle essays on his character which are currently in publication, either in Green or Haining's book or in standard editions of the Complete Stories:.
This essay was featured in the Strand Magazine as a Christmas treat to its readers. An essay from Collier's Weekly , in which Doyle explains exactly where Holmes came from. It contains, at the end, J. This appeared in The Strand Magazine to introduce a competition to name the best Sherlock Holmes adventures. This is the sequel to the article mentioned above. In it, Conan Doyle listed what he thought were the best Holmes adventures. Richard Lancelyn Green's The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes also includes five prefaces to the various editions of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels, Conan Doyle's speech at the Stoll Convention Dinner , some chapters from Conan Doyle's autobiography Memoirs and Adventures , and several interviews.
These are works which have in the past been thought to have been written by Conan Doyle.
Some have been conclusively proved to have no Conan Doyle input, the composition of others still remains unclear. The stories are generally extrapolations of cases briefly mentioned in the canonical work, but tend to contradict themselves and each other. They are generally considered Sherlock Holmes pastiches. This mystery, a completed Sherlock Holmes story, was found in by a Conan Doyle biographer, Hesketh Pearson, searching through a box of Conan Doyle's papers. It was originally announced that the story would not be published by the Doyle estate, but it was announced it certainly was by Doyle, as the manuscript supposedly appeared in his own handwriting.
However, according to Jon L. Lellenberg in Nova 57 Minor , the manuscript was not in Conan Doyle's handwriting, but typewritten. The Strand Magazine published extracts from it in August , and it was finally published after demand from Sherlock Holmes societies in , when it was embraced as a new if slightly inferior part of the canon by The Baker Street Irregulars amongst others. Doyle had bought the story, in the thought that he might use the idea at a later date, but he never did.
He points out that Doyle's wife, sons and biographer were fooled by the style, and it is possible there was a redraft made.