2012 Book 15: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (#3)

I just wrapped up The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (#3) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These short stories were perfect to read while nursing my son in 15-30 minute increments. 

It struck me that the television show, House M.D., draws a lot of inspiration from Sherlock Holmes for the character of Gregory House. Also I think that Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job of portraying the eccentricities of Sherlock Holmes in the recent movies.

I found it interesting that Holmes likes to go on cocaine binges – is this just a common thing to the time period it was written in?

Excerpts from the book: 

"You have not observed. And yet you have seen."

 

 “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

 

She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men. 

 

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.

 

 “As a rule,” said Holmes, “the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be."

 

“...life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

 

“I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner."

 

"...it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”

 

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."