The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
The woman
Why is Irene Adler always "the woman" to Holmes, after the one case in which he is beaten?
Keep the conversation going
- What does it say about Holmes that he asks for her photograph rather than the King's reward?
- How does "A Scandal in Bohemia" set up the Holmes we see in the rest of the book?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
Why is Irene Adler always "the woman" to Holmes, after the one case in which he is beaten?
Keep the conversation going
- What does it say about Holmes that he asks for her photograph rather than the King's reward?
- How does "A Scandal in Bohemia" set up the Holmes we see in the rest of the book?
Which of Holmes's deductions in these stories impressed you most, and which seemed a stretch?
Keep the conversation going
- Why do you think Doyle lets Watson, rather than Holmes, tell the stories?
- How does Holmes's habit of explaining only at the end shape the pleasure of reading them?
In "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" and "The Blue Carbuncle" Holmes lets the guilty go: was he right to?
Keep the conversation going
- Where does Holmes put the law, and where his own sense of justice?
- Would you trust a detective who makes those choices for himself?
What did you make of "The Five Orange Pips", in which Holmes's client dies after asking for help?
Keep the conversation going
- Why might Doyle include a case where cleverness is not enough?
- How does Holmes react to his own failure, there and elsewhere?
What do "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "A Case of Identity" suggest about the gap between respectable lives and hidden ones?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does Neville St. Clair find begging more profitable than his City career?
- Where else in these stories do people hide who they really are?
How do the women in "The Speckled Band", "A Case of Identity" and "The Copper Beeches" find themselves at the mercy of the men around them?
Keep the conversation going
- What does Violet Hunter's courage add to "The Copper Beeches"?
- Do these stories take the women seriously, or only use them as victims?
Why are the oddest cases here so often built on dull things like a copying job, a goose or a pair of boots?
Keep the conversation going
- How does "The Red-Headed League" turn an absurd advertisement into a crime?
- Which story did the most with the least, in your view?
What does the friendship between Holmes and Watson look like across these twelve stories?
Keep the conversation going
- What does Watson give Holmes that Holmes cannot give himself?
- Why do you think these stories have lasted so much longer than most detective fiction of their time?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.