Sherlock Holmes

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Anybody else really like the original Sherlock Holmes stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

Holmes is one of my big obsessions. My book, DVD, and Blu-ray shelves are filled with Holmes books and movies. The original 60 stories by Doyle are the best, and I always recommend that newcomers start with those. More often than not, I'm disappointed by the pastiches written by other authors, though you occasionally get something that's actually worthwhile (i.e. Nick Meyer's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution).

I haven't really read anything by other authors using Sherlock Holmes, but I love the television series with Jeremy Irons. He was such a brilliant actor!

You mean Jeremy Brett? I don't think Jeremy Irons has ever played Holmes, which is a pity.

I've been re-watching the Brett series lately on Blu-ray. This is my third time through, after watching every episode once on TV and again on DVD. I laid down $150 for the complete series on Blu-ray, and I don't regret it.

The film series with Basil Rathbone is also excellent, though purists tend to bicker about that one since it deviates quite a bit from the literature. I don't care; I value my Blu-ray set of those films as much as the Brett series.

If you've read the original 60 stories by Doyle and you want more, I'd recommend starting with the three novels by Nicholas Meyer (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer). None of the others I've read have matched Meyer's work, though The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes (co-written by Doyle's son) and Michael Chabon's The Final Solution have enough to recommend about them.

Honestly, the best pastiches are in film rather than in literature: the Rathbone films, Disney's The Great Mouse Detective, the Robert Downey Jr. films, the BBC's Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, and Elementary with Jonny Lee Miller.

Though nothing, of course, matches the magic of those original Doyle stories.

Oh jeez, sorry for the brain fart. I always get Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Brett confused. Thank you for the suggestions! I have an old, battered copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes works that I've probably read through at least 3 times. I still love those stories, but I like some variety. I've been getting into historical mystery fiction, especially David Liss' works, but it's just not the same.

Love the original stories to bits. Someone recently told me she had never read the originals because she found them "too boring," but I love them, especially the short story collection. I've seen most of the film/TV adaptions but wasn't too fond of the Robert Downey/Jude Law movies, as it seemed to slip into slash fanfiction territory too much. The BBC one is brilliant though.

Love Sherlock Holmes. Have read all the stories. Also like the British show Sherlock.

I love Doyle's stories! He is among my favorite U.S. and U.K. writers (Shakespeare, Poe, Doyle and Tolkien).

I especially enjoyed A Study in Scarlet which wasn't very good as far as the Holmes canon is concerned, but its descriptions of Utah and its attacks against the polygamy of the time and place were entertaining. One description in the novel claims that certain characters ran to some mountains to the west of Salt Lake City in some minutes where it would have taken hours to do so. During his tour of the United States in the 1920s, Doyle spoke at an overflow crowd at the LDS Temple Square and apparently apologized privately to church leaders ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_i ... _Mormonism ).

My favorites Holmes stories involved Moriarty.