This is a three-set collection of the complete Sherlock Holmes mystery stories and novels, written over the period of time from the late 1880s to the late 1920s by Sir Authur Conan Doyle. The volumes are titled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Later Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Between the three volumes, the 56 short stories and four novels are spread across nearly 1800 pages. The first volume is the longest, at 753 pages, the second volume is just over 450 pages, and the third volume is just over 550 pages. As is the case with all of the Easton Press books, they are leather-bound with gold-trimmed pages, and have a built-in cloth bookmark. There are 160 illustrations (and the illustrated pages do not count toward the overall page count of the books), many of which were in the original publications in which the stories were printed.
Most of the 56 stories and 4 novels are written from the perspective of Dr. Watson, who introduces and then narrates the cases. Watson, of course, plays the more straight-laced sidekick to Holmes' quirky and offbeat lead. This is the first time I have read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories in years, and the first time that I have read the entire collection. A few of the observations that I have are:
1. The old English style of writing and dialect definitely takes some getting used to. For example, Doyle will use the word ejaculate like we would use the word exclaim. Even if you are a relatively fast reader, you may have to slow down as you are reading these.
2. The various stories are relatively disconnected. From time to time events from other stories will be referenced, but for the most part, this is a collection of stand-alone procedural mysteries.
3. Unlike what you might expect if you have watched the BBC TV series or the recent movies starring Robert Downey Jr., Moriarty is not as big a foil for Holmes as you might think. He only appears in one of the stories and is referenced in a few others.
4. The TV series that starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman heavily adapted the stories from the books. If you watched all of the seasons of the show you will definitely recognize some of the elements from the stories easily, and others seem nothing like what the show depicted.
Overall, the stories are good but very quirky. They are probably not necessarily the easiest stories for someone in the modern-day United States to read and easily pay rapt attention to every word. But they are classic mysteries that are worth reading.
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