Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...

Frankly, I'm shocked it's taken me so long to read this classic by Arthur Conan Doyle.

To anyone who has an iPad -- I strongly encouraging going on to iBooks and downloading this book.

It's for free!

Ahh...free...my favorite price.

In fact, a lot of classics are free on iBooks. I think the reason is that they are so old now that the work no longer has copyright attached to it and they can be distributed in the public domain now.

For example, I download Anna Karenina, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice (one of my all time favorites), The Invisible Man as well as many other classics all for the lovely price of $0.00.

And I'm more than all right with that.

This book is really fantastic. And it's great to read because each chapter is a new adventure. So before I fall asleep each night I'll read a chapter and then fall asleep.

This is ideal for me because usually when I find a book that I like I can't bear to put it down and find myself reading into the wee hours of the morning because I can't find a good place to stop. Or when I do decide to stop I usually can't let my mind rest until I find out what happens next.

I guess these are good problems to have...

But still, I'm a girl that likes her sleep, so this is a great style of writing for me.

It's also interesting because Doyle uses a lot of French phrases in his writing, and Sherlock Holmes also uses them quite regularly.

For example...

1.) "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affair de coeur."

aka: an affair of the heart.

2.)(Watson): "It was not until close upon six o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too late to assist at the denouement of the little mystery."

aka: The climax of a chain of events.

3.) "Therein lies my metier, and it is just possible that it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before us."

aka:trade, profession, occupation

4.)"...If he evolved from his own inner consciousness anything so outre as a dying reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth...then we shall see whither that hypothesis will lead us."

aka: Unusual and startling

5.) "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly.

aka: We shall see.

Doyle has a gift for writing fantastic dialogue between characters too. It's quick, and sharp, and witty. All traits that Mr. Sherlock Holmes has. 

I think what I love most about the style of Doyle's writing is that it's incredibly detailed without being overly ornate or superfluous. Again, much like Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

And I appreciate that within a writer.

This one passage stuck out to me so much that I read it over and over again, just to soak in all the visuals that Doyle conjured up. It was like taking a sip of fine wine -- I wanted to let all my senses appreciate what he was writing.

"Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, while his eyes shone out from beneath the with a steely glitter. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with purely animal lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, impatient snarl in reply."

And Irene Adler?

Talk about one of my new all-time favorite characters.

You know that classic interview or ice-breaker question: "Who would you want to trade place with for one day, living or dead, fictional or real life?"

Irene Adler would be my new answer to that question. Hands down.