First of all, I need to establish the fact the I am the biggest scaredy cat in the western United States. I do not like scary movies. I do not like scary books. When I was a teenager, I wouldn't read Agatha Christie books because they were too spooky for me. I leaned towards Anne of Green Gables and Jane Eyre. Nice safe books. Now things don't scare me quite as much. Although I will probably never choose to read truly scary books, I can handle Agatha Christie.
A few times when I was young (when is young? I don't know an exact age, I just know it was before college) my family would watch Sherlock Holmes movies. These movies petrified me. After watching a few I can remember deciding that I would never watch them again. The next time my family got a Sherlock Holmes movie, I put myself to bed and plugged my ears so I wouldn't even hear the music.
So, it was with a little trepidation that I picked up The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes (Vol 1) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I decided to read the book because Joseph stared reading it. I knew that Sherlock uses drugs and I wanted to address this issue with Joseph, but I needed to see how Doyle worked it into the stories first. I have been pleasantly surprised with this book! Although I would not say that these stories are especially literary, I am impressed with Doyle's writing.
As I noted above, the version I am reading is Vol 1. This is scary considering that I could use this book as a substitute for my weights. I don't think I realized quite how many Sherlock Holmes adventures Doyle wrote. While several of the stories are long (10 chapters or so), the majority are short stories. After reading more than 30 of these stories, I have decided that if Doyle was writing today he would be writing for TV. Although there is not much character development, Doyle manages to keep almost every story unique and interesting.
One interesting note is that Doyle's first Sherlock story: A Study in Scarlet, features "Mormons" as its starring characters. Although they are definitely not portrayed in a good light, I still found it amusing. Sherlock Holmes Meets the Mormons sounds like a spoof!
As for the spooky factor, even while reading The Speckled Band (one of the scariest Sherlock movies I actually watched), I have not been scared. Maybe it is the visual factor combined with spooky music I can't handle, but I honestly have just enjoyed these stories and can even read them before bed! Now I will just need to decided if I am brave enough to watch the movie after reading the book!
We are so sorry we traumatized our children with spooky Sherlock Holmes movies.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the Speckled Band a snake? I do remember watching one or two SH movies. I'm sorry I don't remember you being scared! They were pretty spooky.
ReplyDeleteI've actually never thought about reading the stories--I didn't know there were so many!
In high school (or maybe Jr. High) I read the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, all 1500 pages or so. Doyle was quite a good writer; he had a way of writing stories that were spooky without being gruesome. I keep wanting to reread all the stories again.
ReplyDeleteHolmes' opium use is only a major issue in a few of the stories if I remember correctly; it might have just been 1 or 2.
I hope you enjoy the stories!