The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Book Review

Initial Thoughts on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Are the Sherlock Holmes stories still relevant today? I would say yes. While reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I gleaned some meaningful lessons across the 12 short stories in the book.

7 Lessons from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1. Train yourself to see what others don’t.
2. The little things are often the most important.
3. Do not rely on general impressions, also concentrate on the details.
4. Practice shifting your point of view, you may be surprised that it’s pointing you in an entirely new direction.
5. Before making a decision, look at all the facts that present themselves.
6. After you have gathered the information needed to solve a problem or make a decision, rearrange the facts and information. Look at it from many different perspectives. If you find that you have insufficient facts and information, it’s time to gather more — or perhaps make some assumptions.
7. It’s better to acquire wisdom late, than never to acquire it at all.

Mentoring Yourself Strategy

To get the most from this SummaReview of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, after you have read the book review/summary, reflectively answer the following questions:

1. What can you learn from the ideas in the SummaReview?
2. What is one action that you can take as a result of reading this SummaReview?
3. What are five takeaways from the SummaReview?
4. What has made an impression on you while reading?
5. Is there a framework that you can use in your life and work?
6. How do the concepts in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes relate to what you already know?
7. How can you combine key ideas from the profile to what you already know to create a new idea?
8. Is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a book you’d like to read for yourself? Why? Why not?

I’ve been reading the literary classics, and from time-to-time, I have read some contemporary fiction. My objective is to gather ideas that may have been lost or forgotten, which are embedded in the classics. And one of the aims of The Invisible Mentor is to provide a bridge between ancient and modern wisdom.

Although I did not enjoy reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, there are specific stories I enjoyed among the 12 short stories. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the book because I read most of it when I was tired, or it could be that I have read too many Sherlock Holmes stories already (Review: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes).

And I have also read A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear (The Complete Illustrated Novels of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Valley of Fear) and I have The Return of Sherlock Holmes to read.

So what bothered me about The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?

During my crankiness as a result of being tired, I started to look closely at Dr. Watson, and the role he plays in the stories. We know that one of his functions is to document the cases, and he also selected the best ones to create a memoir of Sherlock Holmes’s life. Many times during the stories, Holmes talks through cases with Watson, but it’s my perception that it’s usually Holmes who is doing all the talking. In my opinion, Watson does not really add to the conversation, but, is anything wrong with that? We often crystallize our ideas when we say them out aloud.

Watson and Holmes are not equals in the stories. If we are honest, Watson is more of a protégé, because he is also learning from his mentor, Holmes. A new client visits Holmes to seek his advice with a problem, he relates his story, and the detective is able to draw inferences from not only what the client is saying, but also from his appearance. Watson and Holmes see and hear the exact same things, yet the former always misses many of the clues. The readers are not in-the-know either, because Doyle’s technique is often to give us the clues in the story when Holmes discloses what he knows, based on what he has heard and seen. And it’s through this disclosing of facts and information, that we learn techniques for problem solving and making decisions.

I would have liked the book much more if Watson played a more active role in the stories. He is a doctor, so based on the traits that are necessary for him to perform well in that role, he should be qualified to assist Holmes in solving cases. In the 12 stories, the most active role he plays is in The Adventures of the Copper Beeches where he shoots and kills a dog that is out of control because it has been starved for two days and is hungry, so it attacks its owner.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: 12 Stories

1. A Scandal in Bohemia
2. The Red-headed League
3. A Case of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man with the Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure of the Speckled Band
9. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
10. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Each of the 12 stories is between 20 and 26 pages in length. I absolutely loved A Scandal in Bohemia because a woman outwitted Holmes, and she is quite smart about it, and the detective talks about it in some of the other stories. I also loved The Adventures of the Copper Beeches because I appreciated the fortitude of the client, Violet Hunter. A Case of Identity reminded me that there are times that we cannot right a wrong, either because our hands are tied or because we will do further harm to the victim. The Red-headed League demonstrates how important it is for us to look at people’s motivations.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb is a short tale of greed and the consequences. The Five Orange Pips was very upsetting to me. In the story, a new client comes to see Holmes, relates his tale about the death of his uncle and then his father. The case has to do with the KKK.

Today, when we see KKK, we immediately recognize that it stands for the Ku Klux Klan, which was born shortly after the end of the American Civil War. Remember that the Sherlock Holmes stories are set in the UK in the late 19^th century. Despite the danger, Holmes lets the young man depart by himself, and he is subsequently killed on his way home. Holmes redeems himself because he sees to it that the perpetrators are punished in the end. It really bothers me that the young man had to die.

Final Thoughts on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

There are lessons in each of the short stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and they show us human frailties. But it “bugs” me that Dr Watson doesn’t play more meaningful roles in the stories. On the other hand, I like Dr Watson because he reminds me of how little I know in the scheme of things.

I recommend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes because is has many lessons for us to learn. Have you read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? If yes, did you or didn’t your enjoy it, and why?

 The Complete Sherlock Holmes (2 Volumes) Sherlock Holmes – The Ultimate Collection Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection, Volume 2 (of 2) Sherlock Holmes