The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Paperback – September 27, 2011

Review of Kindle editionPublication date: November 18, 2014Publisher: Atria BooksLanguage: EnglishASIN: B00L01GHAA236 pagesThis second collection of Sherlock Holmes stories was published in 1893 but the publication date is sometimes listed as 1894. The 12 stories in this collection appear in the same order as they were published in The Strand Magazine except that the first British edition did not include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", though it was in the first U.S. edition. Later U.S. editions also omitted the story. Apparently Conan Doyle requested the omission. I haven't found a conclusive reason for this but it may have been because the plot contains adultery which Conan Doyle may have felt to be unsuitable for children. Which, of course, begs the question of why he wrote and published it that way in the first place. This Atria edition of "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" contains the following :ContentsLetter from the EditorLetter from the AuthorAdventure I. Silver BlazeAdventure II. The Yellow FaceAdventure III. The Stock-Broker’s ClerkAdventure IV. The “Gloria Scott”Adventure V. The Musgrave RitualAdventure VI. The Reigate PuzzleAdventure VII. The Crooked ManAdventure VIII. The Resident PatientAdventure IX. The Greek InterpreterAdventure X. The Naval TreatyAdventure XI. The Final ProblemMap of Chaos ExcerptAbout Atria BooksIntroductory material by Judith CurrIntroductory material by Felix PalmaDoyle intended this to be the last collection of Holmes stories as he was already planning Holmes' demise and exit from literature. He was persuaded to write what would have been the penultimate Holmes adventure, The "Hound of the Baskervilles", before killing off Holmes in 'The Final Problem." As we now know, like the reported death of Mark Twain, the story of Holmes' death was greatly exaggerated and Holmes returned in triumph never to leave us again as the world wide popularity of Sherlock Holmes appears likely to live on into the distant future.Note that Amazon has combined reviews of different editions of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Also the Amazon listing of this Atria Books edition contains reviews which obviously pertain to other editions such as BBC and an edition annotated by Les Klinger.

Sherlock Holmes's book collection was first collection I ever brought. I was 8 and I was already a huge fan of Sir Conan Doyle's character. I kept collecting all versions of Sherlock's adventures till this very day.This book gathers 11 short stories, including The Musgrave Ritual, one of my favorite adventures. An intriguing story about old ritual which leads us to one death and discovery of the ancient crown of kings of England. I like the way Doyle puts part of the history in every of his story.But most of all, I like the atmosphere the author is able to build around his plot and his characters, the reason why Sherlock Holmes's adventures will always be my favorite read.

I picked this up to have a nice Kindle edition of this portion of the Holmes works. It's nicely produced and formatted for the Kindle, and worth getting, particularly as long as the publisher continues to offer this special edition here on Amazon at zero cost.Be aware, though, that this is far from the complete Holmes stories. My recommendation for someone wanting a complete collection is to pick up this Kindle e-book:  Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection . It's selling for a modest 99 cents at the present time here on Amazon, and it has essentially everything (see my review for the details: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1XW9M0NM1AQSK/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00DCD53C2).For reference, the following is a complete listing of the Holmes works, from the website sherlockian dot net.Sherlock Holmes appeared in a total of 60 stories, written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published between 1887 and 1927. The four novels and five volumes of short stories now often appear as The Complete Sherlock Holmes.1) A Study in Scarlet (novel, 1887)2) The Sign of the Four (novel, 1890)3) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...a) A Scandal in Bohemia, 1891...b) The Red-headed League, 1891...c) A Case of Identity, 1891...d) The Boscombe Valley Mystery, 1891...e) The Five Orange Pips, 1891...f) The Man with the Twisted Lip, 1891...g) The Blue Carbuncle, 1892...h) The Speckled Band, 1892...i) The Engineer's Thumb, 1892...j) The Noble Bachelor, 1892...k) The Beryl Coronet, 1892...l) The Copper Beeches, 18924) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes...a) Silver Blaze, 1892...b) The Yellow Face, 1893...c) The Stock-broker's Clerk, 1893...d) The 'Gloria Scott', 1893...e) The Musgrave Ritual, 1893...f) The Reigate Squires, 1893...g) The Crooked Man, 1893...h) The Resident Patient, 1893...i) The Greek Interpreter, 1893...j) The Naval Treaty, 1893...k) The Final Problem, 18935) The Hound of the Baskervilles (novel, 1901-02)6) The Return of Sherlock Holmes...a) The Empty House, 1903...b) The Norwood Builder, 1903...c) The Dancing Men, 1903...d) The Solitary Cyclist, 1903...e) The Priory School, 1904...f) Black Peter, 1904...g) Charles Augustus Milverton, 1904...h) The Six Napoleons, 1904...i) The Three Students, 1904...j) The Golden Pince-Nez, 1904...k) The Missing Three-Quarter, 1904...l) The Abbey Grange, 1904...m) The Second Stain, 19047) The Valley of Fear (novel, 1914-15)8) His Last Bow...a) Wisteria Lodge, 1908...b) The Cardboard Box, 1893...c) The Red Circle, 1911...d) The Bruce-Partington Plans, 1908...e) The Dying Detective, 1913...f)) Lady Frances Carfax, 1911...g) The Devil's Foot, 1910...h) His Last Bow, 19179) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes...a) The Illustrious Client, 1924...b) The Blanched Soldier, 1926...c) The Mazarin Stone, 1921...d) The Three Gables, 1926...e) The Sussex Vampire, 1924...f) The Three Garridebs, 1924...g) Thor Bridge, 1922...h) The Creeping Man, 1923...i) The Lion's Mane, 1926...j) The Veiled Lodger, 1927...k) Shoscombe Old Place, 1927...l) The Retired Colourman, 1926In addition, the complete "Canon" generally includes two prefaces by Arthur Conan Doyle (to His Last Bow, and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes)

The story is good but this version appears to be a terrible translation from English to another language and back to english.I bought another version and the Conan Doyle prose flows sweetly in that other version but the word selection in this version is bizarrely awful.By way of example here's a passage from the Kindle version of the first story about the stolen race horse“Is it not feasible,” I suggested, “that the incised wound upon Straker can also were resulting from his own knife in the convulsive struggles which observe any mind injury?” “It is greater than feasible; it's miles possibly,” said Holmes. “In that case one of the primary points in choose of the accused disappears.”This is NOT the text as Conan Doyle wrote it so I recommend avoiding this version like the plague.

Nice to have these in 'real time' after buying the full sets on iPad. Fantastic for 'We who love our Sherlock' to be able to pop in a CD for several hours of great entertainment. I bought the two full sets and 'ALL' of them are perfect. Clive Merrison makes a wonderful wity full on Radio Sherlock along with his side kick Dr Watson played by Michael Williams both a real treat. You have about 26 episodes in each set giving hours of Sherlockian pleasure. These were made in the 80's so we get 'proper' Sherlock and not the modern 'based on' versions. These are very much like the stories from Doyals books true to how the writer wrote them. Absolutely splendid radio shows. Have bought all three sets.

This review is specific to the unabridged audio book read by Derek Jacobi.Published monthly in the Strand Magazine in 1892/3 and collected together as a book in 1894, the memoirs of Sherlock Holmes include some of the best of his short stories. Silver Blaze, Crooked Man, Musgrave Ritual and, of course, The Final problem, have gone down in literary history as thrilling tales of adventure and deductive reasoning. The tales cover a broad range, from Holmes' recounting of adventures in 1880 and 1881 (prior to his meeting Watson) to his faithful Boswell, through to the Final problem set in 1891. So in this collection we get Holmes' first cast, and what Doyle thought would be his last.Doyle gives us a series of mysteries that give their thrills either through astonishing displays of deductive reasoning (Silver Blaze, Musgrave Ritual), from action and adventure (The Final Problem, The Gloria Scott), mixtures of the two (Reigate Squires) and occasionally from a good old fashioned slice of Gothic Horror (Musgrave Ritual again). Problems are not always satisfactorily resolved (The Resident Patient, The Yellow Face), but the telling of the tale is always thrilling.This set follows the tradition of not including the contemporary story `The Cardboard Box', so there are only eleven stories here. Nonetheless it is a five star collection of tales, and consists of:"Silver Blaze""The Adventure of the Yellow Face""The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk""The Adventure of the Gloria Scott""The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual""The Adventure of the Reigate Squire""The Adventure of the Crooked Man""The Adventure of the Resident Patient""The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter""The Adventure of the Naval Treaty""The Final Problem"Derek Jacobi's full text reading, on 8 discs, is a real pleasure. It is the next best thing to reading the actual book. Jacobi provides a great narrating voice, slipping into the role of Watson relating events perfectly. You almost feel as though you are sat next to Watson in his club as he reminisces on his adventures with his friend Holmes. And as he recounts the events leading up to Holmes' death at Reichenbach Jacobi really conveys the sorrow that Watson feels for the loss of his friend. It's masterful. I enjoyed listening to this immensely, and look forward to getting more in the series. 5 stars.

I drive a lot for a living, all day, every day.More often than not it takes a fair degree of 'channel hopping' to find anything to listen to that holds my attention. I do have a large collection of music CDs to choose from, but decided that 'talking books' were my preferred choice of companion.I've always liked 'Holmes'....have all the stories in hardback form on our bookshelves, so decided to purchase this and it's sister set !I cannot, fully, stress just how good these collections are....Clive Merrison deserves endless praise for his portrayal of the great 'sleuth'.His delivery of the nuances of Holmes are perfect, managing to portray the impatience, arrogance and humour of Conan Doyle's hero exactly as intended!Michael Williams too, provides a superb contribution as 'John H Watson' .... A calm and measured narrator steering us through each tale! Add to that a near plethora of stars filling the minor roles in the stories, and you have an excellent collection of stories at a reasonable price!

I love Conan Doyle stories and I'm a warm admirer of the Granada series starring Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Doctor Watson. Eight stories from "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" have been dramatized for television by Granada: Silver Blaze, The Cardboard Box, The Musgrave Ritual, The Crooked Man, The Resident Patient, The Greek Interpreter, The Naval Treaty, and The Final Problem. The introduction and the explanatory notes of the Oxford World's Classic edition are very helpful, and I learned an enormous lot of things by reading them.The introduction by Christopher Roden explains the circumstances in which Conan Doyle wrote the stories,and shows that they become more complex in the Memoirs than they were in the earlier books.He analyzes the themes of each story in an interesting way, the evolution of the main character, and the changes in the relationship between Holmes and Watson.The introduction is also about the relation between Conan Doyle's life and his stories.Of course there is such a lot of explanatory notes that it's impossible to comment all of them. Let's take, for an example, the explanatory notes of Silver Blaze.They tell us what are "furlongs", "a Penang lawyer", and other words which would have certainly puzzled more than one reader, they give many explanations about horse races, comment upon the text (Holmes says: "The calculation is a simple one": is it really simple?), show the connexion between the dog's behaviour in Conan Doyle's novel and Telemaque's dogs one in Homer's Odyssey. Still more interesting is the quotation from Conan Doyle's autobiography (Memories and Adventures) which ends the notes about Silver Blaze:"Sometimes I have got upon dangerous ground where I have taken risks through my own want of knowledge of the correct atmosphere.I have, for example, never been a racing man, and yet I ventured to write Silver Blaze, in which the mystery depends on the laws of training and racing[...]I read an excellent and very damaging critic of the story, written clearly by a man who did know, in which he explained the exact penalties which would have come upon everyone concerned if they had acted as I described. Half would have been in jail and the other half warned of the turf for ever". Is not that useful to get a better understanding of the story and to appreciate Conan Doyle's modesty and humour?