Book Review: The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes - Wordsworth Library Collection

I remember reading Sherlock Holmes stories when I was a kid, the stories were deeply enjoyable, the formidable detective left an lasting impression on my mind. I guess in some ways Sherlock Holmes was the reason why I first took interest in problem solving and logical deductions at some of my school subjects, such as Maths and physics, as a kid I imagined myself as Sherlock Holmes solving complex problems as I was solving mathematical problems at school, and I guess in a way this somewhat attributed to my small success in my later career as a student. It has been years since I first read it, until two years ago that I stumbled upon this collection of Sherlock Holmes. Published by Wordsworth Library, this heavy tome contains all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes in chronological order according to their date of publication. The collection contains all four novels: A study in the scarlet, the sign of four, the valley of fear, and the hound of Baskervilles, plus 56 short stories on the famous detective in 221 Baker Street. This huge book accumulates to 1408 pages and contains the original illustrations from the Strand Magazine.

All in all, I tried to read this book back to back, I spent an enormous amount of time reading through this book, while trying to formulate theories about the strange cases on my own based on the facts laid out at the beginning of each story. The character of Sherlock Holmes is interesting, and his quirky friendship with Watson provides humorous effects in some of the darker moments in their adventures. In my opinion, not all the stories of Sherlock Holmes are the same quality, some stories are better than the others. For example, stories such as the five orange pips, sussex vampire, Thor bridge, dancing man, red haired league and the six Napopleans are amongst the more memorable cases, with surprising twists and turns to form lasting impression on the readers' memories. The stories are gripping and kept me reading through this 1408 page book.

As I mentioned earlier, this book contains the original illustrations from the Strand Magazine by Sidney Paget. The illustrations are very well done and usually inserted at the right place in the text to demonstrate the important moments in the stories. The book is hard covered with gold writings for the titles. I picked it up for 24 dollars, the price is really affordable for a book so well composed and edited. If you have never read anything about the famous detective, or if you are a fan and want to get all of the Sherlock Holmes stories in one volume, then this is the book to get.

Rating: 5/5