The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes appeared in 1892, collecting twelve short stories Doyle had published in the Strand Magazine. This is the book that turned Holmes from a successful character into a cultural phenomenon. The Strand printed each story with Sidney Paget’s illustrations, including the deerstalker and pipe images that have followed Holmes ever since, and bookstores sold out monthly issues within hours.

The stories themselves include some of the best in the entire canon. A Scandal in Bohemia introduces Irene Adler, the only woman to outwit Holmes. The Red-Headed League involves a brilliantly absurd con. The Adventure of the Speckled Band is a locked-room mystery with a snake. The Five Orange Pips brings in the Ku Klux Klan as an antagonist long before that connection was common in popular fiction. The Blue Carbuncle is a Christmas story with a goose. Doyle wrote these to be read individually in monthly installments, and they still work that way. If you want the version of Holmes that lives in popular memory, the Holmes of the deerstalker and the magnifying glass and the witty deductions over breakfast, this is where to find him in his purest form.