A "right" place to begin?

Although I once dressed up as Sherlock for Halloween, I confess I have not read a single story. Is there a "right" place to begin - something to be read first, or can I just jump in with any old book or story?

the canon begins in the first story, the novel entitled 'A Study in Scarlet'. this is where Holmes and watson meet, and where we are first introduced to the rather quirky detective.
however, the duo is so engrained in the collective public mind by now that i think nearly everyone knows who Sherlock Holmes is, so it probably isn't necessary to start at the beginning unless you're really into continuity.
i would suggest starting with the earlier ones though, just because they are so much better than the later stories. i might recommend 'Silver Blaze', 'The Musgrave Ritual' or 'The Red-Headed League' as good starting points, but only because these are three of my personal favorites (and all three contain lots of good Holmes flavor). 'A Scandal in Bohemia' or 'The Five Orange Pips' are very good too.
now if you're up for a novel then 'The Sign of Four' is the best story in the entire collection (imo).
but the fact is you really can't go wrong with any of them, however i would save 'The Final Problem' for a bit further down the road, and be sure to follow that one up with 'The Empty House'.

i envy you the opportunity to read them all for the first time... and have fun!

You might also look at your library for one of the collections that places the stories in a chronological order - William S Baring-Gould did this in his The Annotated Sherlock Holmes back in the late-60s/early-70s. I haven't looked at The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes to see if they are also presented chronologically. Of course, in both instances the editors are working from the information given in the stories in order to place them in sequence and sometimes just have to guess, or even disagree with the information given in the story. The annotations also offer a lot of good background information if you do not happen to be a student of late-Victorian England.

Robert A. Mosher

RM, it's funny you should post this now, as i was just looking through a new chronology not two hours ago in 'The Mammoth Book Of New Sherlock Holmes Stories', edited by Mike Ashley (1997), which lists many pastiches as well.

the complete sherlock holmes has the stories as facsimilie of the orignal strand newspaper as they appeared, and hence as they were published. I've always taken this to be a sensible reading order. However to be honest, there is very little referring to previous events in any of the stories so you can pretty much dive in anywhere. The exception being The adventure of the Empty house which should be read after the adventure of the final problem.

Yes, I'd probably go with The Complete Sherlock Holmes, which is a very manageable book in terms of size and weight, and in the Doubleday version, the introduction by Christopher Morley is great fun. Either of the annotated editions are great for all the extra information and minutiae. The Complete is what I started with in my teens.

I agree that, apart from perhaps reading A Study in Scarlet first, there isn't any special need to read Holmes chronologically. I think the stories jump about in time a bit anyway, plus Watson's habit of referring back to cases that he has yet to write about actually clouds matters and could send you off looking for a story that doesn't exist!

My personal preference is to read any author in chronological order. In doing so one call see how the author grows as a writer. In this case, one can also see how Holmes and Watson evolve. I'm about half way through The Complete Sherlock Holmes now. I'll be lost when there are no more stories to read!

I'm resurrecting an old thread.

I picked up Holmes for the first time several days ago and haven't put it down since. I started with The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes because that one was in at the library when I went. It quickly became my favorite classic and one of my favorite over all books. I now just have about half of the "Return" stories to read, Valley of Fear, and The Casebook. I don't know if I can choose favorite stories yet but I can't wait to reread them and start choosing favorites.

The Valley of Fear is one of my favourites.

I liked Valley of Fear, but I thought the digression a little too long. Wanted more at the manor house, less in the USA.

I second (or third, or whatever it is now) that anyone start w/ Study in Scarlet, and after that, just go nuts.

I tried to work out a chronological list of the stories once, using clues in the stories, little realizing that this was a great question that has occupied people with a lot more patience than I.

Yeah - the Annotated Sherlock Holmes was a very interesting two volume set that put the stories in chronological order with 'The Gloria Scott' that took place when Holmes was a college student, as the first, the 'Musgrave Ritual' second and then 'A Study in Scarlet' - the first story to be published - third. The side notes and illustrations and essays make for some really good reading. It may be hard to get a copy - check on ebay or a secondary dealer.

I bought the Barnes & Noble edition of the Complete Sherlock Holmes, in large part because i wanted a single, nice looking volume, instead of the pair of paperback volumes B&N also did. Will likely be investing in the new annotated Sherlock Holmes sometime in the near future, likely as a gift to myself once I get a job.