![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I borrowed both volumes of the Complete Holmes from F's uncle at Christmas. Volume 1 is 924 pages long in paperback. It contains the novels A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four and the story collections Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Plus an introduction. So technically this is five separate books, but it's all in one volume.
I have to say, I really enjoyed reading this. I am getting better at seeing the solution before Watson does, although there are some cases where Holmes notices something and doesn't disclose what it was he saw, and that makes it harder to figure out. And it's possible that I can predict some of the endings because the stories have been around for so long they've become part of our culture? Also, I loved seeing how Doyle tried to kill Holmes off and then seeing how he brought him back.
I also have to say that I really enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes movie. I had wanted to read all the stories before seeing the film, but that was just too much material to read even for me. But overall I thought the film was pretty dead-on. Yes, there was too much action, but it's a movie--it wouldn't hold anybody's attention if they made a movie of what Holmes and Watson actually do most of the time, which is sit around and wait for telegrams. And there were moments in this book that were quite thrilling--the river chase scene at the end of The Sign of Four is terrific. Robert Downey Jr. absolutely nailed Holmes's character--the messy room, the violin, the disguises, the quirkiness, the way he caught fire and stayed up all night experimenting when he got on the scent. Holmes is a weird guy in the stories, and Downey made him the right kind of weird. And I thought Jude Law made a terrific Watson, a very appropriate Watson. The only thing I didn't love was that Holmes had a love interest--he's really pretty asexual in the stories, but I guess they needed a lady to make him a Hollywood hero--and I would have preferred if Watson had met his Mary the way he did in the book, and if Holmes had acted accordingly with her. I liked reading the stories after seeing the movie, too, and finding little things that the moviemakers caught and put into the film.
Overall, the Holmes stories are an extraordinarily worthwhile read, and I'm looking forward to picking up volume 2, and to seeing the movie again.
I have to say, I really enjoyed reading this. I am getting better at seeing the solution before Watson does, although there are some cases where Holmes notices something and doesn't disclose what it was he saw, and that makes it harder to figure out. And it's possible that I can predict some of the endings because the stories have been around for so long they've become part of our culture? Also, I loved seeing how Doyle tried to kill Holmes off and then seeing how he brought him back.
I also have to say that I really enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes movie. I had wanted to read all the stories before seeing the film, but that was just too much material to read even for me. But overall I thought the film was pretty dead-on. Yes, there was too much action, but it's a movie--it wouldn't hold anybody's attention if they made a movie of what Holmes and Watson actually do most of the time, which is sit around and wait for telegrams. And there were moments in this book that were quite thrilling--the river chase scene at the end of The Sign of Four is terrific. Robert Downey Jr. absolutely nailed Holmes's character--the messy room, the violin, the disguises, the quirkiness, the way he caught fire and stayed up all night experimenting when he got on the scent. Holmes is a weird guy in the stories, and Downey made him the right kind of weird. And I thought Jude Law made a terrific Watson, a very appropriate Watson. The only thing I didn't love was that Holmes had a love interest--he's really pretty asexual in the stories, but I guess they needed a lady to make him a Hollywood hero--and I would have preferred if Watson had met his Mary the way he did in the book, and if Holmes had acted accordingly with her. I liked reading the stories after seeing the movie, too, and finding little things that the moviemakers caught and put into the film.
Overall, the Holmes stories are an extraordinarily worthwhile read, and I'm looking forward to picking up volume 2, and to seeing the movie again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 08:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 09:31 pm (UTC)From:I have to agree with you entirely on the movie - I was generally pleased but felt that Adler was stuck in for Hollywood. I feel his respect for her has no sexual/romantic component, and if anything, he feels drawn to her as another person who doesn't quite "fit" into the world they live in.
Two recommendations: There are some Irene Adler novels in which she is a detective herself with a demure female sidekick. They're not bad! By Carole Nelson Douglas. Worth reading at least the first one - Irene has no sexual interest in Holmes, which I found refreshing. She also has a female detective/talking cat series of mysteries, which I am especially fond of (Rita Mae Brown has a series of those as well and hers are better).
Secondly, if you haven't seen Jeremy Brett as Holmes, YOU MUST. It's not *just* the acting, which is what most people credit. It is the cinematography and the directing - they allow the stories to NOT be action stories, and the camera work is PERFECT. I could recite the lines along with the characters. It was thrilling.
edit: oh, and Brett/Holmes is streaming on Netflix, if you have it.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-30 05:30 am (UTC)From:it wouldn't hold anybody's attention if they made a movie of what Holmes and Watson actually do most of the time, which is sit around and wait for telegrams.
ROFLCOPTER! I agree with you wholeheartedly on the movie.
BWAH HAH HAH HAH!!!! So true!