The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which the main character is fiction detective Sherlock Holmes. They were published for the first time on October 14, 1892; the stories had been published individually in The Strand Magazine between June 1891 and July 1892. In the book stories are not presented in chronological order and the only characters that are repeated in all of them are Holmes and Dr. Watson, who narrates them in the first person.

In general, the stories stand in solidarity with social injustices and try to correct them. Holmes is presented as someone who offers a new sense of justice. The stories were well received and caused subscriptions to The Strand Magazine to increase, prompting Doyle to demand more money for his next collection of stories. The first, Escándalo en Bohemia, includes the character of Irene Adler, who, despite being present only in this story, is one of the most prominent in the modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, usually as the detective's love interest. Doyle included four of the twelve stories in this collection among his twelve favorite stories of Sherlock Holmes, choosingThe polka dot band as his favorite among all.

This book was banned by the Soviet Union in 1929 because it was accused of spreading black magic, although there was actually no evidence to corroborate this opinion. Therefore, a few years later the ban was revoked.

Some of the stories of Sherlock Holmes's adventures in this book have been used as television series by Granada Television in England between 1984 and 1994. This book has also been appeared to the big screen starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as dr. John Watson. The film was directed by William Gillete.