Classics Considered

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The cautionary cliche, while well known, still remains almost limitless in its potential for the mystery and thrillers genres.  Perhaps this is why watching My Name is Julia Ross (1945) immediately calls to mind its literary precursors from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and Daphne du Maurier. The opening, in fact, takes a page out of Doyle's "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," only this time set in the 1940s.  Londoner Julia Ross is a beautiful young woman, recently unemployed and completely alone in the world.  Her only friend and would-be boyfriend, Dennis Bruce, has just announced his marriage to someone else.  Depressed, and at a loss for how to pay the bills, Julia responds to an ad seeking a secretary for a wealthy Mrs. Hughes.  Mrs. Hughes makes Julia a generous offer, on the condition that Julia come to live with her at her mansion in Cornwall.  When Julia wakes up the next day, she rea...

It's October again: that time of year when you reach for a chunky sweater, a spicy latte, and, of course, a spooky book to read. In this episode, I share nine of my favorite Victorian short stories by authors such as Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and H. G. Wells.  You probably don't want to read these at night...

Today I take a nostalgia trip back to the time I first met Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary detective has impacted my life in many ways, from violin playing to overcoming social anxiety. I also share my thoughts on a number of adaptations, including the Jeremy Brett TV series and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock . Links: Opening quote read by David Clarke (LibriVox) Opening music - "Ambush in Rattlesnake Gulch" by Brian Boyko (Public domain, FreePD.com)

It's Valentine's Day, and what better time to feature a quote from the lovable Sherlock Holmes?  A self-described scientist who belittles sentiment, Holmes nonetheless often plays the role of knight-in-shining-armor, as in "The Speckled Band."  I love this clip from the TV episode starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and David Burke as Watson.  The dialogue is almost word-for-word from the book!  Also, if you're interested in more costume dramas from books, I talked about some of my favorites in this week's Classics Considered episode .  Always on the lookout for recommendations, too.  :) As far as novels go, I've found an interesting read in Embers , by Hungarian author Sandor Marai.  "Interesting" may be an understatement; I can hardly put it down.  Look for that review in the upcoming week... 

Looking for your next great read?  This episode features six little-known classics and why I feel they should be famous.

"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable." I've always found this famous Sherlock Holmes quote to be very true.  The most memorable fiction tends to be based somehow on real life - most often tragedies, but also miracles and heroisms.  In the last few years, I actually find it increasingly difficult to read fiction, just because I've finally experienced events and met people that make fiction pale in comparison.  I hope never...

By general consensus, January 6th, 1854 , is considered to be the birthday of Sherlock Holmes.  You can read about the humorous history of this (somewhat arbitrary) celebration in this 2009 article .   I'm a firm believer in 1854 as the birth year, since Holmes is described as about sixty years old in "His Last Bow," which takes place in 1914.  As for January 6th, I'm not sure about it, but I don't mind it.  (For one thing, it's the same day as Epiphany, which helps me remember!) In observation of his birthday, how about a discussion question - What is your first memory of Sherlock Holmes? When I was about nine or ten, I discovered The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes on my family's bookshelf.  It wasn't the complete stories, but about 2/3 of them, with the illustrations by Sidney Paget.  The first one was "A Scandal in Bohemia," and while I couldn't have told you the definition of some words - like "blackmail" - I was abs...

12/29/16 edit: Full schedule here . Two years ago , I started on a rereading of the Sherlock Holmes series, with the intent of reading the stories in the approximate order that they occur in Holmes's lifetime.  I didn't get very far, but I never abandoned the concept.  It's been about ten years since I first read the complete Sherlock Holmes, and he is my favorite fictional character.  It's time to get serious about this overdue challenge! So - I'm revamping it in under the wordy title of " The Chronological Sherlock Holmes Challenge ," 2017-2018 edition.  This is a 16-month mission to read all 56 short stories and the four novels.  Of course, the series could be easily read in half a year, but I want to take my time, blog about each tale, and leave room for other reading, too.  If anyone wants to join, I'd love to share the discussion! The idea is: Read the stories in the order found on this Sherlock Holmes Timeline ...with one exception.  I really c...

I'm afraid Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Tragedy of the Korosko checks most of the bad boxes on the mainstream reader's list; to name a few: exoticism, imperialism, stereotypical females, and racist language.  I had high hopes, based on some reviews I'd read, but even accounting for the mindset of the times wasn't enough to give it more than 3 out of 5 stars on my scale. Doyle covered a pretty vast range of subjects apart from Sherlock Holmes.  Some of his other topics include medieval knights ( The White Company ), Napoleonic soldiers ( Brigadier Gerard ), Huguenot emigrants ( The Refugees ), and contemporary horror ( Round the Red Lamp , The Captain of the Polestar , etc).  I'd recommend any of those, even if some are dated, simply because they transcend their "datedness" and are good stories even today. I guess that's why Korosko was disappointing - I expected more from Doyle, yet I was under the aching suspicion all the way through that he was...

- but first, let me wish you all a (belated) Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! I'm sorry I haven't posted very much.  It's been a strange year from start to finish and, very sadly, less bookish than I had planned.  Pretty much the only challenge I completed (apart from Onegin) was o's Russian Literature 2014 challenge, and even there, I only read Dostoyevsky and Pushkin.   That said, for a slow year, I'm glad to have read The Brothers Karamazov  and Lord Jim , which had seemed so inaccessible before.  I hope to do better next year, but am not making any grand commitments... There's one challenge I'm carrying over, and that's re-reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes.  I haven't read it in its entirety in about ten years.  It's a joy to come back to my favorite character in all literature, and I'm reading chronologically this time, following this list which looks pretty good.  (There was a day I would have figured out the timeline on my ow...

The Master of the World Jules Verne 4 out of 5 stars A sequel to Robur the Conqueror , this 1904 Verne novel is centered on one of his classic themes: a vulnerable public terrorized by unknown and indisputably more powerful technology.  Here, U.S. lawman John Strock is sent to investigate "the Great Eyrie," in what becomes a sort of Americanized version of 20,000 Leagues .  Though it is hardly one of Verne's best, The Master of the World takes you into Verne's world with very little cumbersome prose, and I found it to be a rather fun read (and the Niagara Falls scene was truly exciting!). The Stark Munro Letters Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 4 out of 5 stars This interesting, often humorous series of letters can be best read as a fictional Doyle memoir, based on some real events in his early medical career.  For the medical side, read Round the Red Lamp - for the personal side, read this book.  Doyle fans will like it, as will anybody researching late Victorian life....

"Work is the best antidote to sorrow." - Sherlock Holmes, 'The Empty House' This succinct quote has been in my head for some time.  In real life I heard someone say a variation of this, about this time last year, and then I experienced it myself.  One of the truest, most useful quotes from any book I've read.        

Pirate stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ?  Great idea!  So thought I, when I decided to read The Dealings of Captain Sharkey and Other Tales of Pirates . The first part of this book is called Tales of Pirates.  I guess I wasn't counting on serious tales of pirates. Captain Sharkey only features in four stories, but while his gory deeds are mostly referred to and not shown, I got sick of his character and was glad to be done with him.  On the other hand, I liked "A Pirate of the Land", a non-Sharkey story. The second part is called Tales of Blue Water.  I had read four of the stories already in a different collection, but they're all good ones.  "The Striped Chest" and "The Captain of the Polestar " are especially excellent, even on second reading.  My new favorite was "The Fiend of the Cooperage"--great atmosphere, great story.  Overall, I give this one a 5 out of 5 stars .  Within the Tides may just be Conrad at his most depressing.  ...

General Heatherstone is not an unfriendly person, really.  He's just very, very nervous.  So nervous, in fact, that he has converted his new home, Cloomber Hall, into a fortress and keeps his family as veritable prisoners behind its walls.  His neighbor John Fothergill West has taken an interest in the Heatherstones, and John soon finds motives besides curiosity for uncovering the general's secret enemies, who seem to have superhuman powers at their command. I had high hopes for this novella by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , but I must give it an unfortunate 2 out of 5 stars .  I don't ascribe to the opinion that Doyle's non-Sherlock writings are inferior; in fact, I've enjoyed much of his other writing, which may account for my disappointment with this one. There are some wonderful descriptions, a good dose of mysterious happenings, and a magnificent shipwreck scene.  I also felt that Doyle's portrayal of the Afridis was a sympathetic one. However, the book's slo...

A couple of years ago, I found an interesting book at a thrift store:  The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes .  It is a collection of stories, essays, etc, related to Sherlock Holmes, and almost all of them are entirely written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I skimmed through the book; some of the stories I had read before, but others were quite new to me.  My favourite was "The Mystery of Uncle Jeremy's Household", which I certainly hadn't ever heard of before. This story, though not strictly a Holmes story, has a few things in common with the Holmes series.  Firstly, it is a mystery; secondly, it has two characters who are much like Holmes and Watson.  Hugh Lawrence is the "Watson" character, and John Thurston is the "Holmes" character.  Interestingly enough, it's Lawrence who does the detective work.  Thurston has a similar personality to Sherlock Holmes's, but he is more interested in his chemical experiments than in solving a...

"Who is Sherlock Holmes?"     Few people ask this question, because almost anyone could give an answer to it.  Sherlock Holmes is one of those unusual literary characters who lives outside of his stories; ask that question, and most people will be able to tell you that he's a detective, distinguishable from other detectives due to the accessories of a magnifying glass, deerstalker hat, and pipe.  He is as well-known by name as Santa Claus, Frankenstein, or Dracula.  He is, as others have put it, "the world's most famous detective"; he's the detective to whom nearly all other fictional detectives are compared.  Before we ever "meet" Sherlock Holmes in the books, we have an idea of who he is.  But does this idea truly answer the question?    Interestingly, we're not the only ones who think we know Holmes before we've met him.  In the very first chapter of A Study in Scarlet , Dr John H. Watson is a wounded sold...

Poems in Two Volumes by William Wordsworth   Overall rating:   3.5 out of 5 stars Just what the title says: a (incomplete) collection of poems, by Wordsworth.  Some are narrative, some are world events-inspired, and many deal with nature (particularly flowers).  The Prelude was not included, but the book contained a decent selection, overall.   Sometimes I just find myself in the mood to read poetry.  If you have these moods, too, then this is a nice, relaxing read.  It's not nonstop epically wonderful, but there are some gems here and there.  Certainly gives you a good sample of Wordsworth's work.         Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome Overall rating :  4.5 out of 5 stars.  There is one use of a racist word.  I read a public domain and presumably unedited version, though, so this might be omitted in other editions. Victorian England.  Looking to get...

Round the Red Lamp , Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle My overall rating:   5 out of 5 stars Round the Red Lamp is not a novel, but a collection of short stories.  Each is somehow connected with doctors and their work, of the late Victorian era; but beyond that, they hold few similarities.  Nostalgia, romance, horror, comedy, science-fiction, realism--the genres vary drastically from story to story, with plots ranging from the heartwarming to the nerve-wracking.  And oftentimes, the reader can only guess at what is Fact and what is Fancy. The subject of Victorian doctors may sound, at a glance, boring; but I found this book to be a real page-turner and excellent reading (with a couple of exceptions).  I especially loved the "day in the life" stories that seemed firmly based on reality (i.e. "His First Operation", "A Medical Document"), and the hilarious "A False Start", about a young doctor desperate fo...