sharing my love of books with you

Tag: Sherlock Holmes (Page 10 of 10)

Avatism

I found this new word when I began reading “The Greek Interpreter” in The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Avatism – tendency to revert to something ancient or ancestral; recurrence of traits of an ancestor in subsequent generations

Usage: “It was after tea on a summer evening, and the conversation … came round at last to the question of atavism and hereditary aptitudes.”

Holmes on Justice

”It’s every man’s business to see justice done.”

“The Crooked Man”, The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1893

Holmes on Hobbies

“It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London.”

“The Red-HEaded League”, The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1891

Munificent

A new word from “The Engineer’s Thumb” in The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Munificent – larger or more generous than is usual or necessary

Usage: “The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.”

A Month of Holmes

It has been about a month since I started reading The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. My volume contains 4 complete novels and 44 short stories. I think I have listened to all (or most) of the Holmes tales once. I have watched many Holmes movies and TV shows and listened to countless dramatized radio shows.

But I had never sat down to read them for myself, until now.

Sherlock Holmes needs no introduction from me. I am sure you have heard his name at least once. However, if you ever get the chance to read any of the Holmes tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I highly recommend that you do. I don’t think you’ll regret it. I am so glad that I started this journey. My volume (which I bought at Barnes & Noble) is arranged in chronological order of when the stories were written. So far, I have read:

  • A Study in Scarlet
  • The Sign of Four
  • “A Scandal in Bohemia”
  • “The Red-Headed League”
  • “A Case of Identity”
  • “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”
  • “The Five Orange Pips”
  • “The Man with the Twisted Lip”
  • “The Blue Carbuncle”
  • “The Speckled Band”
  • “The Engineer’s Thumb”
  • “The Beryl Coronet”
  • “The Copper Beeches”

Wow, that’s actually a lot. I didn’t realize how much I had read ’til I started to list them here. The first two are novels, the last eleven are short stories which appear in the book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. So far, my favorites are “The Red-Headed League” and “The Engineer’s Thumb”. I will post separately about these two stories another day.

Fun Fact: Did you know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes? He tried to kill him off several times. He was a distraction from Doyle’s other, “more important” writing.

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