The Sherlock Holmes Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained (DK Big Ideas) Kindle Edition

"The Sherlock Holmes Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained" is a fantastic, well researched, high quality book from DK.As a lifelong fan of all things relating to the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I thought I had seen it all. In fact, I was getting a little tired of purchasing books that kept regurgitating the same information again and again with little new or interesting information to add. So, when I purchased this book, I was a little skeptical and prepared for disappointment. Wow, was I wrong!After the introduction, this book immediately focuses on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as both an individual and an author with a very short, but highly detailed biography. Then, this book dedicates a few small chapters to each of the key characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and examines how these fictional characters connected were born of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's real life experiences.Then, this book launches directly into a study of each story in the Sherlock Holmes canon. All 56 short stories and the 4 novels are examined in the same manner with one story per chapter.These chapters tend to average about 8 pages per story. Every chapter begins with a sidebar listing technical data about the publication of the story such as publication date, publication format, and the major characters involved. After this technical data, the author presents us with a very abbreviated and concise synopsis of each story in both text and graphic timeline form. It's only after each synopsis that this publication really begins to shine as the author presents a detailed analysis of the story, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's real life influences, the culture of the day, inspirations for the stories, etc...To best illustrate the masterful way this book handles a Sherlock Holmes story, let's take "A Study In Scarlet" as an example:Page 38: Technical data about "A Study in Scarlet" and the publication of the story.Page 38-39: A graphic timeline of the chapters and major plot points (top half of pages)Page 38-39: A detailed synopsis of "A Study in Scarlet" (bottom half of the pages)Page 40: The author discusses the forces that brought Holmes and Watson together for the first time. Discusses the mental abilities of Holmes that were displayed in the story.Page 41: Focuses on Doyle and how his personal life and experiences led to the creation of the famous detective. (top half of the page).Page 41: A graph shows how Holmes was able to determine Dr. Watson's history when he first meets him (bottom half of the page).Page 42: Discusses why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to use the Mormon faith as a key element in the story, along with an examination of Brigham Young.Page 43: Discusses how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle cleverly uses Dr. Watson's character to place the reader in his shoes during times of revelation and amazement. This section also focuses and Doyle's personal struggles attempting to have his first Sherlock Holmes story published.Although each chapter focuses on a different story, the format is very similar and very entertaining. Of course, if you have never read the original stories, this book is one big SPOILER...so be careful!After all the stories in the original canon are explored, this book concludes with several chapters discussing subjects such as the Victorian world, Sherlock's effect on society, the art of deduction, criminology and forensics, crime writing, fandom, and the many stage and screen productions featuring the great detective.This book is a MUST HAVE for any fan of Sherlock Holmes. :)

It's pretty thorough but it is also opinionated about the era in which these stories were written (being critical of Doyle while also acknowledging how progressive he was), and contains errors. They label Holmes an asexual, and they refer to Eustace Brackenstall as "Bracknell" in the section "The Legend Returns".If they could do more thorough editing and remain unbiased in their facts, this would be a decent encyclopedia. The thing is, encyclopedias are supposed to report facts as they are without opinions or theories, something lost on DK in this instance.The graphic design is impeccable and the charts and photos do a great job of providing backdrops and explanations for anything either cultural puzzling or puzzling to everyone but Holmes himself.Everything aside, I am happy I bought this. It's a decent companion alongside the Annotated and New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. I recommend getting this in a physical format, as the ebook version seems incapable of rendering the graphic design as beautifully as it is laid out on print. It wasn't made to be an ebook.

So many insightful information on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's super sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. To those who are lazy enough reading long sentences or paragraphs, this book is a heaven sent with short and concise information plus wonderful photos and images.Love the fact that one of the main contributors of the book's content is Mr. David Stuart Davies, the writer who wrote that amazing biography of the legendary yet underrated British actor, Mr. Jeremy Brett, called "Bending the Willow." Mr. Jeremy Brett was my number one idol during my childhood and teenage years, the most beloved British actor EVER to play Sherlock Holmes in the Granada Series on ITV UK (1984-1994). He died peacefully on September 12, 1995, aged 61, due to heart failure caused by the medication of his manic depression/bipolar disease. Gone too soon. So happy to find several beautiful pictures of Mr. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in this book. He was and still IS the Sherlock Holmes. For me, he IS forever my definitive Sherlock Holmes.

Packed with facts, photos, and history of each and every case and short story, and topped off with numerous chapters of historical notes about Britain, the Victorian era, and Conan Doyle himself. No stone left unturned. A compelling achievement!

This book begins with a short bio of Conon Doyle and then goes over all things, Sherlock.It discusses the short stories and novels. Then it goes over Holmes, influence on the detective genre. In the end, it went over all the adaptions of the stories through the years as well as other characters that were parodies of Holmes.It was a great way to show the history of a literary character that is as popular today as he was in Conan Doyle's time.Great book any Sherlock Holmes fan would love and a great jumping-off place for new fans to see the magnitude of the character.

This book, by a team of several authors, includes an outline of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories, along with information on Doyle's life and the background for his work. As a lifelong fan of Holmes, I value this excellent reference work.However, the Kindle version has a number of problems. There were quite a few (almost two dozen) "pages" missing - I would tap to turn the page and it would be blank (sometimes for several "pages"), only picking up after I had clearly missed some of the text. The book includes a number of illustrations and diagrams - some of which could be enlarged for easier reading, and some of which could not.For Holmes fans, it would be worth purchasing a paper copy of this fine work. Something - indeed, quite a bit - is lost in the translation to ebook format.

This compendium of information about Sherlock Holmes stories would be most useful for someone with limited knowledge of the stories and the background to their composition. For each story there is a summary of the plot, something on any composition issues (eg dramatic devices) and a box or two on relevant context. Some of the stories (and of course the novels) have lengthier treatment than others.The perspective is very much 21st century (eg in discussions on attitudes to race). At the end there are sections on film and stage representations and more contextual material. This is very much the product of an editorial team rather than a single guiding hand, and there is an air of it being assembled by committee. Still worth buying, though it is not a substitute for a fully annotated set of the canon.

An Ideal companion for any fan of the great detective. It is beautifully illustrated and has lots of background information on the stories (all 56 of them) as well on Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Highly recommended.I hope you find my review helpful.

This is a wonderful book for reading about the background to the Sherlock Holmes' canon.It is for seasoned readers of the stories, rather than those dipping their toes into works, as it includes plot spoilers.Each story has a list of characters, a brief outline, some have tv shots, and some have a useful graphic, which captures the essence of how the case was solved, (which I found the most memorable feature of the book).

This book is a must. Gives very detailed accounts to the background of every Sherlock Holmes' cases and the book itself looks great on any bookshelf.

Good book, delves a bit into all the stories and gives a background to Conan Doyle.