Reademption Literature

The next three stories for ADVENTURES provided memorable action sequences that truly showcased Doyle's knack for descriptive prose and predilection towards the most mundanely bizarre. I know I haven't been exactly consistent in my reading lately, let alone posting my thoughts about it, but make no mistake: I'm still willing to see this peer reading through. I only have three more stories to go before I'd be finished with ADVENTURES, and, so far, this collection has a varied range of cases that are riveting, baffling and humorous (sometimes even downright unsettling for a few notable exceptions). Without further ado, here are my thoughts: ⇠⇠⇠⇠⇠⇠⇠⇠⇠❁⇢⇢⇢⇢⇢⇢⇢⇢⇢ ✫⎣Case #07⎦✫ THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE This can be readily seen as a Christmas story, given that it was set during the yuletide season. I remember this story well mainly because of the Granada adaptation. It started with Watson and Holmes examining a hat whose owner's identit...

Why do people love the Sherlock Holmes stories so much, or at least some adaptation of it or another? Save the Russian drama (which I've heard was pretty brilliant), I've watched a lot of Holmesian adaptations already; from the silver screen series of Basil Rathbone (not as great as I would have wanted), different interpretations from the canon (ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀɪᴠᴀᴛᴇ ʟɪғᴇ ᴏғ sʜᴇʀʟᴏᴄᴋ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇs and ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴠᴇɴ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴇɴᴛ sᴏʟᴜᴛɪᴏɴ are great standalones; ʏᴏᴜɴɢ sʜᴇʀʟᴏᴄᴋ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇs, sʜ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sɪʟᴠᴇʀ sᴛᴏᴄᴋɪɴɢ and ᴀ ᴄᴀsᴇ ᴏғ ᴇᴠɪʟ are unfortunately average) and down to the more recent Guy Ritchie ones with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law that surprisingly pack a punch. I also loved the animation ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴍᴏᴜsᴇ ᴅᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ and definitely thought the cinematography and feature film aspect of ʙʙᴄ sʜᴇʀʟᴏᴄᴋ every season to be astounding and entertaining, although I'm much more inclined to still believe its American cousin ᴇʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛᴀʀʏ to be the more nuanced series when it comes to character development and ...

I've reached the first anthology of the Holmes canon at last! THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is comprised of twelve short stories or standalone cases. Think crime procedurals in television shows. That genre of serials might as well hail from Doyle's Holmes canon itself. My idea for my next reviews of this book is that I'll divide the stories in groups of three so that I can discuss everything and hopefully make it as succinct as possible. After all, I can't really spoil too many details for each story, seeing as they are shorts and so the content of my reviews should also reflect that brevity. In the interest of furthering my reviews as an insightful reading material about the Holmes canon, I also want to raise a few observations not necessarily in regards of the plot or mystery/case presented, but also on the characterizations or themes made in each piece. Holmes and Watson's respective development as characters, particularly their personal and/or workin...

﹄✺﹃ Airiz and I have been unfortunately slacking off in our Holmes Peer Reading, but she probably has a better excuse than I have, what with the demands of her work and abundant social life. Me I'm always online and writing for Twitter RP, and that's where most of my creativity is focused on. I was really hoping to turn it around this year, however, which was why I've been writing fanfiction again and even started this peer reading for Sherlockian canon, and I'll do myself an injustice if I don't become consistent with these other commitments. On my end at least, I've accomplished the first two novels of the canon. My previous twitlonger post about A STUDY IN SCARLET indicated that I've always thought that THE SIGN OF (the) FOUR is a better story, and I definitely stand by that although I should clarify that this is an objective comparison with regards as to how Doyle approached the groundwork of SIGN that feels more intact than the one ...

﹄✺﹃ Here I am, 120 pages into A STUDY IN SCARLET , and the story has just reached its inevitable conclusion. As a debut story for a fictional character who will go to live on in such a way that his own creator never could have perceived, SCARLET didn't exactly have all the makings that would lead anyone who first read it to believe that Doyle can pen another story starring Holmes and Watson again, but that didn't make it any less engrossing or worth the second read. Detective work (especially forensic science) has been made to be so fascinating in televised adaptation that I believe the original medium in which it spawned from (the written form) may not be as captivating, considering that the entire thing was set-up in an era lacking the technology of today. But any good detective work is truly a matter of deductive reasoning which Doyle had done his best to capture in his Holmes canon. I've watched the very first CSI show in 2003 just months after I bo...

❛ Tнεяε'ѕ тнε ѕcαяlεт тняεαd σƒ мυяdεя яυииιиg тняσυgн тнε cσlσυяlεѕѕ ѕкειи σƒ lιƒε,  αиd συя dυтч ιѕ тσ υияανεl ιт, αиd ιѕσlαтε ιт, αиd εχρσѕε ενεяч ιиcн σƒ ιт. ❜ ﹄✺﹃ Reading through the first twenty-five pages for A STUDY IN SCARLET was most certainly very nostalgic. My peer for this endeavor, Airiz, just told me that it was the only Holmes story she had read a while back in high school, so this is more or less a re-read for us both in that aspect. My impression after coming back to this Holmes story (which was the Great Detective's first appearance ever in the Strand Magazine back in 1887 for their Christmas Annual) was not the same as the one I had before when I read it for the first time at thirteen years old. There was so much wild intrigue and fascination for me back then because I was viewing in the fresh eyes of a budding bibliophile. Doyle was also the first author in classical literature whose work I've had the pleasure to experience, and he ha...

❝Lɪᴛᴇʀᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴇᴅ ᴀ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ꜱʏᴍʙɪᴏᴛɪᴄ ɴᴏʀ ᴀ ᴡᴀʀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇʟᴇꜱꜱ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ.❞   ✺⇑✺⇑✺⇑✺  I just finished reading the introduction by Loren D. Estleman entitled ❛ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BOSWELLS❜.  Aside from tackling the contents of the stories provided in the two volumes of this collection that are more or less general summaries about notable titles, the essay also touched upon the role of Dr. John Watson. M.D, who is Holmes' biographer and chronicler of his cases.  I definitely agreed with the points raised regarding the unfair treatment which Watson had suffered throughout the decades in regards to his portrayal on-screen ever since Nigel Bruce in those series of black and white films from Hollywood starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes came out.  In those movies, he only served as a comic foil, this bumbling fool. They emphasized that he was fat, ignorant and useless. And that never made sense to me at all...