Search Results for: Baker Street

‘On his rigid face there stood an expression of horror such as I have never seen upon human features’

When Dr Watson meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time the ‘consulting detective’ immediately demonstrates his inimitable powers of observation, deducing that the doctor has returned to convalesce from a wound received during military service in Afghanistan. The two young men agree to share lodgings at 221B Baker Street, and it is not long before Holmes’s faculties are put to a more practical use. Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard asks for help in solving what he describes as ‘a puzzler’: a man has been discovered dead, surrounded by blood—but with no wounds upon him.

First appearing in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, A Study in Scarlet marked the start of one of the most iconic partnerships in literature. All the ingredients of the friendship between Holmes and Watson which permeate the later stories can be found in this opening adventure; it is no surprise that once launched upon the reading public, Holmes and Watson continued their collaboration for another thirty years.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.

‘She was a blonde young lady, small, dainty, well gloved, and dressed in the most perfect taste’

Miss Mary Morstan is a very different character from the usual collection of frightened victims and cornered criminals who frequent 221B Baker Street, and the susceptible Watson is soon smitten by her charms. Her problem appears unthreatening at first: every year on the same date she receives a valuable pearl through the post—and now her mysterious benefactor is seeking a meeting with her. However, it soon becomes clear that a violent mission of revenge is under way, with Holmes and Watson risking their lives to discover the truth.

We learn of dramatic events which took place during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Given the date of publication of The Sign of Four (1890), this is inevitably presented from the perspective of the British Raj, although the English protagonists are thieves rather than heroes. Soon the blow-pipes and poisoned darts of the Andaman Islands make an unwelcome appearance in London—with Holmes and Watson as the target.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.

‘Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent’

Sherlock Holmes’s observation to Dr Watson at the start of ‘A Case of Identity’ is certainly borne out by the twelve short stories in this collection, characterized by the originality and inventiveness that have made Conan Doyle a household name.

The familiar sanctuary of 221B Baker Street is regularly invaded by a procession of puzzled clients with bizarre problems to solve. Holmes’s cases include a young engineer who arrives with one of his thumbs cut off at the root; a governess who has been offered a tempting salary provided she dresses in the exact manner specified by her employers; and a frightened young woman whose sister has inexplicably died from fear and nervous shock.

These and other seemingly intractable puzzles are solved by Sherlock Holmes’s inimitable blend of intellectual analysis and inspired deduction. Through the faithful Watson, the reader is placed at the centre of events, and can admire the master of detection at work.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.

‘The unfortunate young man was found lying near the table. His head had been horribly mutilated by an expanding revolver bullet, but no weapon of any sort was to be found in the room’

When Lady Maynooth finds her son, the Honourable Ronald Adair, dead in his bedroom, his door has been locked from the inside, and it is clear that no one could have entered or left via the window. Cases involving the upper echelons of Victorian society are nothing new for Holmes and his colleague Dr Watson: the thirteen stories in this collection include the abduction of the son of the Duke of Holdernesse and the dilemma of an aristocratic débutante who wishes to retrieve a compromising letter before it reaches her noble fiancé. As usual, the surreal is never far from Holmes’s orbit, as in the bizarre case of the thief who steals plaster casts of the Emperor Napoleon—only to smash them to pieces.

Whilst the official police have no option but to prosecute crime, Holmes and Watson are able to exercise discretion when they see fit. In this collection there are several examples of such compassion, where the two friends show the humanity and kindness which help endear them to the reader.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.

‘About half-way up the forearm was a curious brown design, a triangle inside a circle, standing out in vivid relief upon the lard-coloured skin’

When John Douglas of Birlstone Manor is discovered with his head blown almost to pieces by a shotgun blast, Inspector MacDonald finds out that Sherlock Holmes has already been warned about the impending tragedy by an informant close to the infamous Professor Moriarty. Using his trademark methods of close observation and logical deduction, Holmes realizes that the account of the dreadful events given by Douglas’s wife raises more questions than it answers.

It soon transpires that the solution to the mystery lies far away in the American frontier of the 1860s, where the law is enforced by vigilante violence and powerful vendettas are pursued. Conan Doyle’s evocation of that time and place is skilfully intertwined with the events of the main story, set in the late 1880s, and there is a striking contrast between the harsh landscape and life of the American pioneers and the leafy—but no less deadly—surroundings of Sussex. Perhaps inevitably, Professor Moriarty has the last word.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.

‘There is absolutely no explanation of what the horror can be which has frightened a woman to death and two strong men out of their senses’

Thirteen years have passed since Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson encountered ‘The Cornish Horror’—referred to by Holmes as the ‘strangest case I have handled’. With such an introduction, it is no wonder that the story of the inexplicable death of a woman and madness of her two brothers is as bizarre as any of the great detective’s adventures.

Holmes is always as ready to help the general public as he is the highest officials of state, and in the eight stories in this collection his clients include a reclusive elderly woman—who has received two severed human ears in the post—and the British government, anxious to recover the missing plans for a new and deadly submarine. In the final story, set in 1914 and published in 1917, Holmes and Watson find themselves involved in the struggle for the nation’s survival; this story was intended to boost morale during the First World War, with a fictional hero joining the ranks of those in real life.

The Baker Street Classics Sherlock Holmes collection is a retro-inspired full set of Arthur Conan Doyle’s wonderful tales of the inimitable ‘consulting detective’ at work. Featuring original cover illustrations from editions of the 1920s, this collection will adorn any book-lover’s shelf and transport the reader back in time to Holmes’s bustling Victorian London, the misty moors of Dartmoor, the dizzying heights of Reichenbach and the cosy living room of 221B Baker Street.