His Last Bow / The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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With a new Introduction by David Stuart Davies. 'Surely no man would take up my profession if it were not that danger attracts him.' In 'The Casebook', you can read the final twelve stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about his brilliant detective. They are perhaps the most unusual and the darkest that he penned. Treachery, mutilation and the terrible consequences of infidelity are just some of the themes explored in these stories, along with atmospheric touches of the gothic, show more involving a bloodsucking vampire, crypts at midnight and strange bones in a furnace. The collection His Last Bow features some of Sherlock Holmes' most dramatic cases, including the vicious revenge intrigue connected with 'The Red Circle' and the insidious murders in 'The Devil's Foot'. The title story recounts how Sherlock Holmes is brought out of retirement to help the government foil a German plot on the eve of the First World War. These two fascinating sets of stories make a glorious farewell to the greatest detective of them all and his erstwhile companion, Dr Watson. AUTHOR: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish physician and writer. His works encompass a wide variety of genres, and it was his historical novels that he considered his finest work. However, posterity remembers him only as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Each new generation discovers Holmes afresh, as the current TV and film adaptations demonstrate. Doyle created a character so well known that he exists in the borderline between fiction and reality. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I enjoyed most of the stories in this book especially the two told through the eyes of Sherlock Holmes himself (The Blanched Soldier and The Lion's Mane).
Didn't really like the story told from third-person POV (The Mazarin Stone); prefer to learn about the criminals from Holmes, rather than from themselves.
Preferred the stories in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes to the ones in His Last Bow.
Figured out a couple before Holmes (knew the ending of The Lion's Mane by about the second page! ;-D)
Looking forward to reading some modern Sherlock Holmes stories.
(*** for His Last Bow & **** for The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes)
Didn't really like the story told from third-person POV (The Mazarin Stone); prefer to learn about the criminals from Holmes, rather than from themselves.
Preferred the stories in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes to the ones in His Last Bow.
Figured out a couple before Holmes (knew the ending of The Lion's Mane by about the second page! ;-D)
Looking forward to reading some modern Sherlock Holmes stories.
(*** for His Last Bow & **** for The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes)
Několik případů světoznámého detektiva.
Apr 4, 2025Czech
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The most famous fictional detective in the world is Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. However, Doyle was, at best, ambivalent about his immensely successful literary creation and, at worst, resentful that his more "serious" fiction was relatively ignored. Born in Edinburgh, Doyle studied medicine from 1876 to 1881 and received his M.D. in show more 1885. He worked as a military physician in South Africa during the Boer War and was knighted in 1902 for his exceptional service. Doyle was drawn to writing at an early age. Although he attempted to enter private practice in Southsea, Portsmouth, in 1882, he soon turned to writing in his spare time; it eventually became his profession. As a Liberal Unionist, Doyle ran, unsuccessfully, for Parliament in 1903. During his later years, Doyle became an avowed spiritualist. Doyle sold his first story, "The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley," to Chambers' Journal in 1879. When Doyle published the novel, A Study in Scarlet in 1887, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to an avid public. Doyle is reputed to have used one of his medical professors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as a model for Holmes's character. Eventually, Doyle wrote three additional Holmes novels and five collections of Holmes short stories. A brilliant, though somewhat eccentric, detective, Holmes employs scientific methods of observation and deduction to solve the mysteries that he investigates. Although an "amateur" private detective, he is frequently called upon by Scotland Yard for assistance. Holmes's assistant, the faithful Dr. Watson, provides a striking contrast to Holmes's brilliant intellect and, in Doyle's day at least, serves as a character with whom the reader can readily identify. Having tired of Holmes's popularity, Doyle even tried to kill the great detective in "The Final Problem" but was forced by an outraged public to resurrect him in 1903. Although Holmes remained Doyle's most popular literary creation, Doyle wrote prolifically in other genres, including historical adventure, science fiction, and supernatural fiction. Despite Doyle's sometimes careless writing, he was a superb storyteller. His great skill as a popular author lay in his technique of involving readers in his highly entertaining adventures. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Arthur Conan Doyle has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Is contained in
Contains
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans Part 2 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans Part 3 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Devil's Foot: Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Devil's Foot: Part 2 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax: Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax: Part 2 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Problem of Thor Bridge: Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Problem of Thor Bridge: Part 2 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Creeping Man: Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Creeping Man: Part 2 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
BBC Sherlock Holmes Short Stories: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client: Part 1 by Arthur Conan Doyle (indirect)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes / His Last Bow; His Last Bow / The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
- Original publication date
- 1993
- People/Characters
- Sherlock Holmes; John H. Watson
- Important places
- 221B Baker Street, London, England, UK
- First words
- The friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is still alive and well, thought somewhat crippled by occasional attacks of rheumatism.
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Both police and coroner took a lenient view of the transaction, and, beyond a mild censure for the delay in registering the lady's decease, the lucky owner got away scathless from this strange incident in a career which has now outlived its shadows and ended in an honoured old age.
- Disambiguation notice
- This Wordsworth Classics work is not the same as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes; it contains in addition His Last Bow, and should not be combined with either smaller work.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 478
- Popularity
- 63,188
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.03)
- Languages
- 5 — Czech, English, Finnish, Italian, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 7
