The Adventure of Crooked Man, is the one that I think that is the least satisfying. Sherlock just caught an suspected Animal Trainer, and then the real cause of death of the Colonel in the story is just a heart stroke, or, apoplexy.

I can't exactly explain it but when I first read the canon when I was a kid, i was bored by the Hound of the Baskervilles. IDK, but for the young me, it wasn't so gripping as I thought it would be.

The Final Problem, The Empty House, The Creeping Man, and A Case of Identity.

I opt for The Creeping Man. I have always found the story bizarre and wasn´t satisfied with the plot development.

A Case of Identity, The Creeping Man, The Adventure of the Three Students...

The Mazarin Stone was originally supposed to have Colonel Moran as the hero in it, I think. It stands out just as The Lion's Mane an The Blanched Soldier do for being told by Holmes in first person.

Also, if The Five Orange Pips and the Three Gables have outdated attitudes, then A Study in Scarlet is a completely misinformed caricature of Mormon life as is The Sign of The Four of the stereotypical "savage".

I'm not sure I understand the objections to 'The Five Orange Pips'.  I wouldn't count it as a favourite, but unless I've read a Bowdlerised version, it doesn't seem to be all that outdated.  The client's uncle is quite realistic for his time and background - to say his beliefs are outdated is to deny history  (or the present, as Hank Williams Jr and others have expressed similar attitudes toward Obama's presidency).  The uncle is not given a particularly sympathetic portrayal - even considering that we see him through the eyes of his nephew - and appears to have repented his involvement in the KKK, referring to that involvement as his 'sins'.

Holmes has nothing but outrage at the KKK's activities - perhaps I missed something, but I don't see anything in his description of the group that is offensive or racist.  True, he is unable to save the nephew and does not get the murderers, but they don't get off, either.  A higher power/karma/fate intervenes.

My objection to the story would be be historical inaccuracy - obviously, the KKK was unfortunately not disbanded in 1869 and some of the 'better society' of the South were and still are its leaders.  (And it's not limited to the South, of course - my city in the West was run by the KKK in the 1920s.)

'The Sign of Four' is far more racist, and I agree with Lupin's comment above in regard to the Mormons in 'A Study in Scarlet'.  I really disliked 'A Case of Identity', however - there is no justice at all in that one, and there is an implication that women are simply too stupid or emotional to accept the truth.

Last edited by erunyauve (March 9, 2013 1:17 pm)

I don't like longer stories in general: for example "Study in Scarlet" has a good beginning and a good epilogue, but the Mormon story in the middle is long and boring. The same thing, or even worse, "The Sign of Four", I am rereading it just now, but I am not sure I will be even able to finish, I got boooored. It seems to me that ACD had definitely structural problems with longer narratives.

One thing that struck me as I was reading ACD collective works of Sherlock Holmes, was that many of the cases just consisted of a client telling their story.  While the stores were sometimes interesting, they had little to do with Holmes and his ability to solve a mystery.  A lot of the times the mystery solved itself.  And I agree that some of the 'stories within a story' such as with A Study in Scarlet or Sign of Four were confusing. You are thinking "what happened to Sherlock??".  One exception: The Valley of Fear. I really enjoyed the story within the story in that one.

Having head about Sherlock Holmes all my life, I thought I knew what I was getting when I decided, finally, to read the orignial works. But the reality was quite different.  Still, some stores were very good.

What I do admire ACD for is that sometimes, despite Holmes' best try,  a innocent person got killed.  And sometimes Sherlock didn't catch the killers - but they got their justice anyway. I felt these types of outcomes were more 'real'. There was one story, the title  I forget, where Holmes and Watson acutally hid behind curtains and let a murder take place - but the individual being murdered deserved it anyway!  I would like our modern Sherlock to take on that story.

I must re-read the works again!  The racist and sexist parts of some stores, were, unfortunately, typcal of the time and place ADC lived, and the man he was (white, upper middle class).  But luckily, these instances are not too common in his combined works.

The two Sherlock Holmes wrote himself are pretty rubbish IMO (is it the Mazrin Stone and the Blanched Soldier?). 

And the Valley of Fear...that's the only Sherlock Holmes story I have to confess I never got through. 

I have to say I think the earlier stories-the Adventures, Memoirs and Return-are by far the best overall.