The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes

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When Conan Doyle started writing about the private detective, Holmes was a self-proclaimed anomaly, something that didn’t really exist in our world or at any point in history.

Watson's not wasting any time here. So we learn, in two sentences, that Holmes is: not fond of other people, ridiculously smart, kind of a drug addict, working unofficially to fight crime and, as if I couldn’t say it enough -- ridiculously smart! The role these days tends to devote itself to his crippling psychological shortcomings, resulting in a string of drug-fueled, obsessive-compulsive Holmeses played by people like Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch, spun from the same cloth as Hugh Laurie's Gregory House. Visualize the reaction of a modern fan come late to the source material, who finds Holmes's drug use subdued and eventually terminated, his interpersonal relationships healthy and continuing, a police department that holds him in admiration, and nary a deerstalker in sight. (Wonder also at Holmes occasionally slipping into pseudoscience, such as trying to uncover personality traits through handwriting analysis.) Brake, Laurel, eds. Marysa Demoo. Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Gent and London: Academia Press, 2009.For me the stories and novels are well-written. They appealed to my younger self. I was fascinated with Holmes ability to read people. And I wanted that skill-set. I decided early on that was going to be an important “ability” for me to have as a life skill. Focus on the small details. Look directly at people. Listen to them. Hear what they are not saying. There are passages of beauty, moments of suspense, and many, many quotables. It is addicting. We as readers, are drawn in and become the detective, too. You appear to be astonished,” he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.” Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. Holmes was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in following out those clues and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police.

The stories are written like bookends. As the stories start with a display of Holmes’ deductive reasoning, they end with it as well. Holmes explains how he solved the case, bit by bit, using this very method, and in almost every story, I found myself satisfied with the result. I've been reading this doorstop off and on for a little over a year now, with the advantage of having read "Hound of the Baskervilles" some years ago and a handful of other stories here and there. I have learnt how to articulate sentences in a good English which would have been impossible if I read the Bengali translation. And this English can hardly be found in today's American version of English, not sure if it is in British English now. So-called globalization has affected thus harshly the varieties of languages. Already movements for localisation has started. English breakfast“ например. За интереса на дамата към този тип четива можем да предположим по ритмичното и относително бавно отгръщане на страниците – твърде вероятно става въпрос за препрочитане на абзаци или просто за бавно наслаждаване на текста. Като се замисля може да бъде и някой слабоумен клетник със странни гастрономически навици… Но по-добре е да се придържаме към първоначалното ми предположение.

Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. His baptism record in the registry of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and simply 'Doyle' as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.