BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » All Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories.

July 10, 2013 10:31 am

There is a website "librivox" where books in public domain are read. You can download them for free. Check the copyright status before downloading.
Nice to listen to Doyle as bedtime story read aloud in your own native language if you like.

Jacco111 · July 10, 2013 11:38 am

Is that the site with different voices for each chapter? I downloaded ''Paradise Lost'' there.

July 10, 2013 12:00 pm

Jacco111 wrote:
Is that the site with different voices for each chapter? I downloaded ''Paradise Lost'' there.

Sometimes a person reads several chapters; depends on the story. The narrators are not professional actors if you ask me. I heard A Study in Scarlet in German and some chapters were read by people with an odd dialect (Swiss?). Sorry if I annoy a swiss fan, but the person was unable to hide his origin and it sounds just strange if you are used to people speaking "Hochdeutsch".

I can't say if the narrators in English are better. But it is still a good website, for free and you can contribute by reading a chapter if you want.

Jacco111 · July 10, 2013 2:35 pm

Yes, they do good work giving literature an accessable platform.

221BBakerStreet_ · July 10, 2013 8:35 pm

Ello, I'm new here, I've read all the book, and loved each and everyone. The favorite for me is Valley of Fear, and my favorite short story is The Five Orange Pips. The Valley of Fear has a great twist ending

holmes23 · July 11, 2013 4:15 pm

The Five Orange Pips is not my favourit short story because of its ending I mean it's okay that Holmes could not save the client's life, though very sad. We feel sorry for that unfortunate young fellow.But itt shows that Holmes is not infallible. IMO, It would have been a great story if the poetic justice in the end was avoided. Any way this story's opening scene is a favourite one of mine in the canon.

I totally agree with you as about The Valley .When I first read the canon , I didn't have the patience to complete the second part. I felt bored without Holmes or Watson. I considered it as my least favourite story. When my interest in canon restored after watching Sherlock, it was the first book I picked up as it being the unfinished one and, oh my..I never saw it coming, Yep, it has got a great twist ending.

kittykat · July 22, 2013 10:18 pm

Is there a correct reading order for the canon? Something that includes the novels and the collections in chronological order?

Davina · July 23, 2013 6:54 am

Do you mean the order in which ACD wrote them?

the_dancing_woman · July 23, 2013 7:18 am

Well, if you have purchased a collection of all of the Holmes stories (meaning the whole canon), they should be in chronological or publishing order anyway, so, I would recommend that you start with "A Study In Scarlet" (in which Holmes and Dr. Watson meet for the first time), the next story would be "The Sign Of The Four" (I think), in which Dr. Watson meets Mary Morstan, both classified as novels.
The first collection of short stories within the canon is the "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", then proceeding on to "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (which I think is slightly better than "Adventures", I just think Conan Doyle has a better grip on the character of Holmes in those stories, I enjoy them very much!), then comes "The Return Of Sherlock Holmes" (which starts with a sequel to the last story of "Memoirs", "The Final Problem", explaining Sherlock's return from the dead in "The Empty House").
But Conan Doyle actually wrote "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" in between.
Conan Doyle also wrote another novel, "The Valley Of Fear".

Then there is, of course "His Last Bow" another collection of short stories, which was published in 1917 (which also deals with Holmes later years and his return from retirement to serve the British Government on the eve of World War I in the actual story "His Last Bow", which is meant to be the last Holmes story), and finally "The Case Book Of Sherlock Holmes" (set before "His Last Bow"), published in 1927.

(I might have gotten some of it wrong, since I am not at home right now, and don't have the books before me)

But, honestly, if you don't follow this order, no harm should be done. It's one of the many wonderful things about these stories

Last edited by the_dancing_woman (July 23, 2013 7:24 am)

Jacco111 · July 23, 2013 1:21 pm

It is only at the beginning that the publicing order and the chronological order are parallel (though 'The Gloria Scott' and 'The Musgrave Ritual' are earlier cases told by Holmes to Watson.
In the end, the order of publicing is totally different than the chronological order, 'The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place' being the latest pulished Holmes story.

kittykat · July 23, 2013 1:41 pm

Somebody asked this on Yahoo! Answers, so I'll copy and paste the reply;

The Study in Scarlet
The Sign of Four
Adventures of SH
Memoirs of SH
Hound of the Baskervilles
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Valley of Fear
His Last Bow
Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.

the_dancing_woman · July 23, 2013 2:30 pm

Yep, pretty much how I suggested it. This is the order in which the stories ususally come, if you buy the complete canon. Jacco111 is completely right, too, of course, as far as the divergence between publication order and chronological order is concerned, which we owe by and large to Conan Doyle's famous inconsistency and habit of changing and adjusting facts and dates to fit in yet another story (see Mary Morstan, the mysteriously and forever vanishing and reappearing wife).

kittykat · July 23, 2013 2:45 pm

Thanks

Just out of interest, how long does it usually take to read the novels and short stories?

July 23, 2013 2:52 pm

kittykat wrote:
Thanks

Just out of interest, how long does it usually take to read the novels and short stories?

Depends on how much time you have and how fast you can read.
On librivox you can listen to the short stories. They are about between 45 and 60 minutes long when read aloud.

kittykat · July 23, 2013 3:10 pm

Okay, thanks

sj4iy · July 23, 2013 3:17 pm

I can read a short story in about 30 minutes. Novels take longer, obviously.

kittykat · July 23, 2013 3:31 pm

I can't wait!

Michele · July 23, 2013 11:39 pm

sj4iy wrote:
I can read a short story in about 30 minutes. Novels take longer, obviously.

I find the short stories the perfect length for my lunch break at work!

kittykat · July 24, 2013 12:20 am

I found the complete collection online as PDFs, for free. I did find it in a local bookstore but as I remember it was quite expensive; I'm not stupid

Michele · July 24, 2013 12:40 am

kittykat wrote:
I found the complete collection online as PDFs, for free. I did find it in a local bookstore but as I remember it was quite expensive; I'm not stupid

I saw it online too, should get it as a backup. But being a total geek-arse bookworm I'm slowly buying all the books. I thought about buying the giant complete works but then I was worried it would be really easy to damage the spine on such a big book so I'm buying them individually. Have most of them just need a couple more.