Recently on the podcast we covered The Hound of the Baskervilles. This was my co-host’s first Holmes story and he was unimpressed. I mentioned on the podcast that if I had known he had never read any Holmes story before that I would have recommended that he choose a different one. I have read every Sherlock Holmes story ever published by Arthur Conan Doyle, in the order of publication. Armed with this experience, I have some thoughts on where one should start with Sherlock Holmes and what one should expect from Sherlock Holmes.
What to expect
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable characters in all of English literature. The character is also in the public domain. This means that there are a lot of modern adaptations and re-imaginings of the characters and the cases they solve. For many of these adaptations, faithfulness to the original stories is not a high priority. This may lead to people thinking they know what Sherlock Holmes is all about and then being overwhelmed when they try to tackle the source material.
Not much character development
The biggest difference between the source material and most modern adaptations is the focus on a cast of recognizable characters. Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Irene Adler, Inspector Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and James Moriarty are always more developed in the adaptations. Arthur Conan Doyle does cultivate a set of familiar faces. He does play with the relationships between his recurring characters, but a fan of modern adaptations may be shocked to see how little page-time is actually devoted to the characters. In the original stories, the case always comes first. The character development is secondary. It’s a framing device. It is rare for any Sherlock story to reference specific events in any other Sherlock story. A reader should be prepared for deductive reasoning to be the primary focus of the story.
Culture Shock
The first Sherlock Holmes story was written in 1887. Electricity was a cutting edge technology that was only starting to roll out to the general public. Automobiles had been invented only 2 years prior. The text assumes that its reader knows the difference between a hansom cab and a coach. It assumes that the reader knows the etiquette of leaving calling cards, placing newspaper ads, and how telegrams work. Communication and travel are often critical elements in solving the mystery. A reader who doesn’t have a good grasp of these elements may struggle.
Along those lines, we also need to talk about language and culture. The language of the Sherlock Holmes stories is over 130 years old. It isn’t an insurmountable challenge, but it does require a bit of an adjustment. It can be especially hard for non-native English speakers. I think most people can develop an ear for it fairly quickly, but it may be difficult to get the ball rolling.
And, of course, the Victorians. While Arthur Conan Doyle is certainly more palatable than many writers of the period, you will encounter some uncomfortable racism and misogyny. It may be a little more than some readers are interested in dealing with.
All of this is to say that if you want to sit down and commit to reading a substantial amount of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, you may want to find an edition with annotation and commentary that explains some of the outdated concepts and language. Most modern collections do a decent job with this.
Where to start
If anything in the above section has you hesitating to pick up an actual Sherlock Holmes book, then I recommend you start with some of the short stories. The Sherlock Holmes “canon” includes 4 novels and 56 short stories. You can find all of these in free ebook format over at Gutenberg. I recommend starting with any of the short stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection.
If you do want to commit to a full novel. I recommend going in order of publication, starting with A Study in Scarlet. You can find the list of Holmes novels and stories here. A word of warning, with these Gutenberg editions, though. They are the original texts. They do not have any helpful annotations or commentary that may explain some of the older concepts. Those editions feature such things in part because it lets the publishers get a new copyright on that version. If you like the stories, but you are struggling with some of the culture and language, it may be worth seeking out a newer edition at a book store or library.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Sherlock Holmes is one of the few characters from this period of English literature that fully holds up. It is worth making the effort to understand, but I think it helps if people go into books with the right expectations so that they can tackle them at the right time. A reader may not want to grapple with antiquated Victorian slang after a hard day at work. I totally understand that. Hopefully this will help people to avoid my co-host’s mistake.