Sherlock Holmes was Real!

A week ago, I finished The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, so I've now read every original Sherlock Holmes story there is. So, of course, now I start reading them again.:) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes was probably better than His Last Bow, although I didn't like the third-person stories as much as the first-person ones. They were nice, but not quite as charming, I guess partly because they didn't show people's emotions and feelings and thoughts and expressions and all of that stuff as well as when it's being told as if by someone who was there. I loved the ones written from Holmes's point of view, though! I wouldn't rank them above Watson's, but maybe equal to them, in their own way. Put simply, I wouldn't want them all or mostly to be written as if by Holmes, but I do wish Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written more like that! They were (especially the first one - The Blanched Soldier) fairly educational in Holmes's style of investigation, and I almost wish they had been more so. I've always wanted a thorough lesson in it, but maybe I'm the only one, because I've always dreamed I was a detective.;) That story in particular was also very charming, because Holmes says things like, '... I am compelled to admit that, having taken my pen in my hand, I do begin to realize that the matter must be presented in such a way as may interest the reader.' and at the end, 'And it is here that I miss my Watson. By cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but systematized common sense, into a prodigy.' I love those quotes! They just explain Holmes's thoughts.:) I mean, he obviously never thought about 'interesting the reader' before, which is kind of funny, and very charming (to me), and I love the way he's usually so cold about his work, and tells Watson he makes the stories too romantic (or something like that), but now he gets disappointed Watson isn't there to make him sound amazing! Isn't that a lovely, charmingly absent-minded-professor, genius-and-great-artist personality?
I've also found out that, in a way, Sherlock Holmes was real.:) In the biographical page at the front of  The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, it said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a bit of a detective himself, and actually proved the innocence of a man called Oscar Slater, who had been accused of a crime (the book didn't say what). I think that the most charming and lovely books are almost always based on real life people or (at least) experiences, so before reading that I thought, 'I wonder if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was really a lot like Sherlock Holmes?' When I found out he was a doctor, I thought maybe he was like Watson, and knew someone like Holmes. Then when I read that biographical page, I found out he really was a sort of Holmes!:) The page also said that Dr. Watson was actually one of his friends! So they are real, in their own way! And, those stories really were written by Holmes.;)

My Meeting with the Greatest Detective

Until late November last year, I had never read Sherlock Holmes, and although my dad constantly recommended it, I thought it sounded boring. Then my brother had to read some for school, and I saw the little book lying on the floor one day, and, feeling I had nothing better to do, started to read it. It was made up of The Speckled Band, The Blue Carbuncle, The Dancing Men, The Six Napoleons, Silver Blaze, and the Reigate Puzzle, and I think I first read The Six Napoleons, as the book was opened to it. I was interested, so I read the others from the start, and they impressed me. Most clearly, I remember being rather alarmed at Holmes slashing at nothing in the dark in The Speckled Band.:) When I had finished them, I asked my mom for more, and she gave an enormous book with double-column, tiny print, consisting of the collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the novel: Hound of the Baskervilles. I surprised myself by starting this book in the first week of November (after I'd read the Doctor Who 1970s script book I got for my birthday), and finishing it around a week before Christmas. I spent every spare hour reading the stories, and when I woke up in the early hours of the morning and couldn't sleep, I would shield my torch with my hand to keep the light from waking up my light-sleeping dad across the passage, and read until the batteries went flat. I just loved the personality of Holmes, and how he was cold and scientific one minute, being intrigued rather than sympathetic at a client who started to cry, but then suddenly be a kind and caring friend when Watson was in danger. I also remember seeing the title of The Final Problem and beginning to very nervously read, and seeing the aggravatingly hinting words 'It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished.' When I turned the page and saw the full-page picture of Holmes and another man fighting on the edge of a cliff and slipping, entitled 'The Death of Sherlock Holmes', I had this growing feeling that this was going to be the worst story I'd ever read. I got to the end, and I was so shocked I spent the rest of the morning pacing around the house complaining about it, and making the decision never again to read Sherlock Holmes. My dad remembered it being a trick by Holmes, but then he said he may have just imagined that years ago to make himself happy with Holmes's death. I could not find perfect confirmation, so I read the next story, which was Hound of the Baskervilles, set years before (I insisted on reading them in order). I finished that, and went onto The Empty House, and if I remember right, screamed with joy when Holmes reappeared.:) I thought it made his personality almost sweet when Watson fainted and he was so worried about him. For Christmas I got a book of the four novels, Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Valley of Fear. I read Study in Scarlet in four days, and would've finished it sooner if it had not been for bedtime.;) But I think it is my favorite of the stories, because it shows Holmes's personality so well. It's got so many lovely quotes and little quaint things, like his speech about the brain being like and attic, and 'The Science of Deduction' (which I wanted as a name for this blog), and the one that goes something like 'Once you have removed the impossible, what ever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' I also liked his first words upon meeting Watson: 'I've found it! I've found it!' and when he starts listing all his faults so kindly when he hears Watson is interested in sharing the Baker Street rooms with him. I even tested him statement that  'When a man writes on a wall, his instinct leads him to write about the level of his own eyes.' and it's true! I am now reading His Last Bow, and although its not quite as good as the other books, Holmes is as charming as ever.