The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes: Including A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Val

Description

On the release of Guy Ritchie's film, a stunning reissue of the much-loved complete stories with a new foreword from Ruth Rendell Sherlock Holmes is not only the most famous character in crime fiction, but arguably the most famous character in all fiction. In sixty adventures that pit his extraordinary wits and courage against foreign spies, blackmailers, cultists, petty thieves, murderers, swindlers, policemen (both stupid and clever), and his arch-nemesis Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, together with his faithful sidekick Doctor John H. Watson, proves himself to be not only the quintessential detective but also the most engaging and entertaining company any reader could ask for. This beautiful new edition contains a new foreword by Ruth Rendell

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he became the clerk to a surgeon whose diagnostic methods provided the model for the science of deduction perfected by Sherlock Holmes. He set up as a doctor and it was while waiting for patients that he began to write. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887). The Holmes stories soon attracted such a following that Conan Doyle felt the character overshadowed his other work. In The Final Problem (1893) Conan Doyle killed him off, but was obliged by public demand to restore the detective to life.

Holmes is a mesmerising creation and Conan Doyle a master storyteller * The Times * The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work gives him a unique place in English letters... Personally, I'd walk a million in tight boots just to read his letters to the milkman. -- Stephen Fry Why do people still read Sherlock Holmes in an age of DNA testing and electron microscopes? It's elementary. Holmes has a timeless intelligence that puts him head, shoulders and deer-stalker above all other detectives -- Alexander McCall Smith I read every Sherlock Holmes story...they have certainly found a permanent place in English literature -- Winston Churchill The world's most famous detective -- Ruth Rendell The brilliance of the stories lies in the relationship between Holmes and Watson, which is both funny and touching -- Jonathan Coe Now, as in his lifetime, cab drivers, statesmen, academics, and raggedy-arsed children sit spellbound at his feet... No wonder, then, if the pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature -- John Le Carre