A Year for Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is one of my two favorite fictional characters (the other one is not material to this blog post). I read all the short stories when I was young, and then tackled the novels a few years later. I have a beautiful one-volume hardback of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, with an introduction by Christopher Morley. This must have been a gift, probably from my parents. I still have that copy.

Holmes' adventures have been extrapolated upon, modernized, and expanded perhaps more than any other character in the last 100 years. Some of these have intrigued me for whatever reason, and some of these have not.

I have decided that I am going to re-read as many of the 56 stories and 4 novels that I can manage this year, and write about them here on the blog. I am also going to write a short series of posts over the year about some of my favorites (and maybe not so) adaptations and expansions of Holmes.

I could say that this "Year of Holmes" is to honor the 100th anniversary of the publication of the story "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" in the Strand. Or perhaps the 99th anniversary of the beginning of the serialization of The Valley of Fear, the last Holmes novel to be published.

But no. It's just that I just thought of it a few days ago, and it is still early enough in the year to make such a proclamation and plans.

This series will in no way be comprehensive, and will simply reflect the random choices that I have made over the years in seeking out Holmes and Holmes-related stories. Maybe I will even talk about the ones that I have avoided.