Readings Classics: The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Description

Venture back in time to Victorian London to join literature’s greatest detective team — the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and his devoted assistant, Dr. Watson

‘My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don’t know’.

Conan Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes in “The Final Problem” (1893), the last story in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. However, he succumbed to the public pressure and resurrected him after a gap of nearly ten years in “The Adventure of the Empty House” (1903), the first story in this volume. It must have been a relief to his fans to know that he had never died as it was to Dr. Watson when Holmes revealed himself. Their favorite detective had finally made a comeback who would solve a host of odd crimes before opting for a life of retirement. Having revived Holmes, Conan Doyle went on to write two novels and 33 short stories featuring the detective. This volume contains 13 of them.

Author Biography

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859. He trained to be a doctor at Edinburgh University and eventually set up a medical practice in Southsea. During the quiet periods between patients, he turned his hand to writing, producing historical novels such as Micah Clarke and adventure yarns including The Lost World, as well as four novels and fifty-six stories involving his most celebrated creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Doyle was knighted in 1902. In later life he devoted much of his time to his belief in Spiritualism, using his writing and celebrity as a means of providing funds to support activities in this field. He died in 1930.