Book notes: Conan Doyle

I hate it when people talk about cool stuff but don't tell me how to find out about it for myself, so I have made myself a deal: whenever I mention a book or a series or something that requires some knowledge to get into, I will try to provide that knowledge.

If you are interested in reading the Sherlock Holmes stories or the other works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, here is one way to start.

Most of Conan Doyle's works are in the public domain and may be freely downloaded from Project Gutenberg. The Sherlock Holmes stuff is available in most libraries, and at least some of the other material is often available in regional or city libraries with a decent collection. There is a two-volume paperback collection that is quite respectable (and not too big to carry around).

The canonical Holmes stories, in order:

1. A Study in Scarlet
2. The Sign of the Four
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (short stories)
4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (short stories)
5. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (short stories)
6. The Hound of the Baskervilles (novel - written before Return, but you'll want to start Return immediately after Memoirs )
7. The Valley of Fear (novel)
8. His Last Bow(short stories)
9. The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes (short stories)

I would read the first three in order, but it isn't strictly necessary. The chronology does not matter in the slightest (except that "The Final Problem" at the end of Memoirs obviously goes right before "The Empty Room" at the beginning of Return), but it's interesting to watch the relationship between Holmes and Watson evolve slowly over time. You can skip the long boring interludes in A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear and you will not have missed anything.

Beyond Sherlock Holmes, read whatever you can find whenever you can find it. You can get the Professor Challengers stories The Lost World and The Poison Belt at Project Gutenberg (warning: they are weird). The Brigadier Gerard stories, which I particularly loved as a teenager, are in The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard and The Adventures of Gerard.

"Lot No. 249" is a stand-alone short-story in this collection at Project Gutenberg. I highly recommend it, as well as most of Conan Doyles other suspense stories, despite the fact that it freaks me out and apparently it gave Rudyard Kipling nightmares. You have been warned.