The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

"It is hard to conceive of a more extreme character than Sherlock Holmes...with his monomaniacal focus on crime, fits of depression, cocaine injections, clouds of tobacco smoke, melancholic violin-playing, and bursts of furious energy once the game is afoot. Holmes is a brilliant creation, but he is excessive in every way. And Holmes' cases are filled with the exotic and bizarre--deadly trained snakes, ancient curses, dart-blowing dwarfs, mask-wearing children, rooms with crushing walls. A supernatural aura floats over many of the tales, unworldly forces are frequently evoked...It was Conan Doyle's genius to place the bizarre imaginings of his mind within an apparently realistic setting." MICHAEL CRICHTON "Every writer owes something to Holmes." T.S. ELIOT "The pairing of Holmes and Watson has triggered more imitators than any other duo in literature." JOHN LE CARRÉ "[Holmes} is probably the only literary creation since the creations of Dickens which has really passed into the life and language of the people." G.K. CHESTERTON