Study Guide

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle
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52 pages • 1-hour read

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1892

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Essay Topics

1.

How is Holmes presented in these stories? Is he a (super)hero?

2.

What is the basis of the strong friendship between Holmes and Watson?

3.

Why might Conan Doyle have chosen to narrate the cases through an observer like Watson rather than Holmes himself?

4.

Why do you think the stories about Holmes became so popular? Why do they continue to be popular at present?

5.

How are women presented in the stories? What gender stereotypes can you identify?

6.

What patterns can you identify among the various victims seeking Holmes’s help?

7.

What do these stories tell us about British society in the late 19th century?

8.

How are detective fiction genre conventions affirmed or subverted by the Holmes stories?

9.

What is Holmes’s idea of justice? Do you agree with his decisions in such cases as “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” or “A Case of Identity”?

10.

What kinds of ideas about morality, virtue, and evil are presented in the stories? How do the values expressed or implied in Conan Doyle’s texts differ from contemporary ones?

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