Arthur Conan Doyle was certainly an excellent storyteller. The atmosphere of Victorian England is wonderfully evoked through his tales. Despite the fact that the solutions to some of the cases may sometimes be a little unsatisfying, the initial mysteries keep the reader fully engaged, and it is hard to abandon the reading of any story once you start. Holmes is an intriguing character in that he possesses uncommon insights into human nature while almost completely eschewing every form of social contact. He rarely goes out except on professional business, and is usually immersed in old books or scientific experiments in his bachelor flat. Perhaps for this reason, Watson, while in awe of his friend's powerful intellect, seems quite protective of him at times. (Today, psychologists would probably assign Holmes a place on the autism spectrum).

Something I found interesting is that in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories Holmes' ideas are not always correct. Although his reasoning is always solidly based on the known facts, occasionally his theories prove to be wrong, or he is unable to assist the police to apprehend criminals (examples are the cases of The Yellow Face and The Engineer's Thumb). I actually welcomed this as making the character more realistic and human. The story of The Three Students, on the other hand, is a good instance of where Holmes possesses enough of the facts to arrive at wholly correct conclusions using his deductive method. Other cases, such as The Stock-Broker's Clerk, require that Holmes actually be present while events unfold and the truth is gradually revealed. Thus, while on the surface the stories may seem to progress in a similar manner to each other, in fact the details and the processes involved in bringing the cases to their conclusions can be very different.

I would definitely recommend that people who are only familiar with the TV or film versions of Sherlock Holmes read at least some of the original stories for themselves, since these allow the reader to discern more clearly how the author intended this rich and complex character to be understood.



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