2009 Reading #4

[snurri]

1. Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy
2. The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
3. From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes.

4. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. My Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes only had the stories published in The Strand, which left these two out. Holmes stories are mostly interesting, I find, for the characters; the mysteries are rarely that absorbing, it's how Holmes and Watson interact with them, and the people involved, that keeps me reading. So I appreciate reading about how Holmes and Watson met, and the first explicit mention of Holmes' drug habit, but I could do without the long exposition on the Mormons that takes up a third of A Study in Scarlet. But I can't pretend I'm not a completist, and I'll be seeking out the rest of the Holmes stories before long.

Comments

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

I love The Sign of Four, right down to the final image of Holmes cracking a joke right before he shoots up. Doyle writes some great openings. They're seedy and inviting.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on The Sign of Four -- it's definitely my favorite of the SH stories I've read. Gotta say, though -- A Study in Scarlet kind of put me to sleep.

[justinhowe.livejournal.com]

The Man with the Twisted Lip is fun, if slightly ludicrous. It starts with a visit to an opium den.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I'll have to read it. It's in my book of collected stories but I haven't gotten to it yet.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I've got vol. 1 (of 2) of Bantam's Sherlock Holmes: Complete Novels and Stories if you want to borrow it.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I have that too, for some reason. I think I meant to get Volume Two.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I picked it up in a used bookstore years ago but it's companion was not accompanying it. Perhaps someone else snatched it up or the original owner held onto it when he/she sold it or maybe the original owner never owned the second volume (or, perhaps, there never was a second volume at all and no one owns it!).

[sarahevekelly.livejournal.com]

In case you haven't read it yet, The Valley of Fear does the same thing as A Study in Scarlet - veers you off into 100 pages of 19th-century Americana. This is especially irritating if you're listening to it on audio, because the (invariably English) reader has to speak in a very bad American accent for upwards of two hours.

The first half is worth it, though. Do love me some SH.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

That's the only one of the novels I haven't read yet; thanks for the warning.

[rudi.livejournal.com]

I worked through all the stories and novels as a kid (in a single summer I think; it's a wonder I didn't start wearing a deerstalker), and have only re-read a couple stories since. Given your reaction, though, I think they'd stand up to my going back and re-reading them.

Have you read any secondary stuff, like the Seven-Percent-Solution or Gaiman's A Study in Emerald? I liked both, although the movie has probably rearranged my memory of the former a bit.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I haven't read The Seven-Percent Solution. If A Study in Emerald is Gaiman's Holmes/Lovecraft fanfic, then yeah, I read it. I didn't care for it all that much; Gaiman's pastiches rarely do much for me.

I'm not sure whether these stories will stand up to re-reading for me, given that I had never read them before. But I am enjoying finding out what the fuss is about, now.