Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1892, featuring his famous detective. This edition includes: I. A Scandal in Bohemia II. The Red-Headed League III. A Case of Identity IV. The Boscombe Valley Mystery V. The Five Orange Pips VI. The Man with the Twisted Lip VII. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle VIII. The Adventure of the Speckled Band IX. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb X. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor XI. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet XII. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

El sabueso de los Baskerville, es la tercera novela de Arthur Conan Doyle que tiene como protagonista principal a Sherlock Holmes. La novela est principalmente ambientada en Dartmoor, en Devon en el Condado Oeste de Inglaterra. Conan Doyle escribi esta historia poco despu s de regresar de Sud frica, donde hab a trabajado como voluntario m dico en The Langman Field Hospital en Bloemfontein. Fue asistido en el argumento por un periodista de 30 a os de edad del Daily Express llamado Bertram Fletcher Robinson. Sus ideas provienen de la leyenda de Richard Cabell, que fue la inspiraci n de la leyenda de los Baskerville. Su tumba se puede ver en un pueblo llamado Buckfastleigh. Sir Charles Baskerville, baronet, is found dead on the grounds of his country house, Baskerville Hall. The cause is ascribed to a heart attack. Fearing for the safety of Sir Charles's nephew and the only known heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, Dr James Mortimer travels to London and asks Sherlock Holmes for help in figuring out the case. Mortimer explains that the Baskerville family is afflicted by a curse. According to an old account, said to have been written in 1742 and describing events which had occurred a century earlier still, during the English Civil War, Hugo Baskerville was infatuated with a farmer's daughter. He kidnapped her and imprisoned her in his bedroom. She escaped and the furious Baskerville offered his soul to the devil if he could recapture her. Aided by friends, he pursued the girl onto the desolate moor. Baskerville and his victim were found dead. She had died from fright, but a giant spectral hound stood guard over Baskerville's body. The hound tore out Baskerville's throat, then vanished into the night.

As a group of Western tourists travel down the Nile on the steamer Korosko towards the historical sites near Egypt’s southern border, they are kidnapped by a marauding band of dervishes who demand their conversion to Islam. Cut off from the world, deprived of the comforts of civilized society and shaken in their beliefs, they will have to overcome the most arduous obstacles to regain their freedom and safety. Written towards the end of the Victorian era and permeated with a sense of fear and uncertainty, The Tragedy of the Korosko calls into question the moral authority of Europe’s presence in the Arab peninsula and the cultural supremacy of British colonialism, all the while demonstrating Conan Doyle’s unparalleled ability as a storyteller.

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The story, set in 1889, mainly consists of a young London consultant hydraulic engineer, Mr. Victor Hatherley, recounting strange happenings of the night before, first to Dr. Watson, who dresses the stump where Mr. Hatherley's thumb has been cut off, and then to Sherlock Holmes himself. Hatherley had been visited in his office by a man who identified himself as Colonel Lysander Stark. He offered Hatherley a commission at a country house, to examine a hydraulic press used, as Stark explains, to compress fuller's earth into bricks. Stark warned Hatherley to keep the job confidential, offering him 50 guineas ( 52 10s, an enormous sum at the time, worth over 4000 today). Hatherley felt compelled to take this work, despite his misgivings, as his business was newly established and he had very little work.

"Souvenirs de Sherlock Holmes" par Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle tait un crivain cossais (1859-1930).

Inmediatamente despu s de El carbunclo azul, Conan Doyle escribi otro relato de Sherlock Holmes titulado The Adventure of the Speckled Band (La banda de lunares). Posteriormente, Doyle revel que cre a que sta era la mejor historia de Holmes. Doyle escribi y produjo una obra de teatro basada en la historia. Fue estrenada en el Teatro Adelphi, en Londres, en junio de 1910. En esta ocasi n, Watson nos traslada a su poca de soltero, cuando compart a con Sherlock Holmes las habitaciones del 221-B de Baker Street, despu s de su primera aventura, Estudio en escarlata, y antes de El signo de los cuatro. Una ma ana de abril de 1883, Holmes y Watson reciben la visita de Helen Stoner, una atemorizada joven que les cuenta una tragedia. Su hermana ha muerto en extra as circunstancias y aunque la prudencia le impide acusar abiertamente a su padrastro, el doctor Roylott, da a entender que esto es lo que cree, y a ade que teme seriamente por su vida. Tras la inesperada visita del violento Grimesby Roylott, Holmes y Watson se trasladan a Stoke Moran, la residencia de Helen, donde descubren y malogran el plan de su malvado padrastro, dispuesto a matar a la joven igual que hiciera con su hermana. Pero en su pecado encuentra el castigo, gracias a la aparici n de una serpiente que es rechazada por Holmes y acaba atacando y matando al padrastro. Se ha derramado ingentes cantidades de tinta sobre esta v bora, pues en los c rculos de seguidores de Holmes se discutir a a os m s tarde si, inconscientemente, Conan Doyle especulaba sobre la sexualidad de Holmes o sobre la suya propia. Resulta m s atinado pensar que, simplemente, le pareci interesante utilizar al peligroso reptil como un elemento m s de la acci n.

While the currently married Dr. Watson is paying Holmes a visit, a visitor arrives, introducing himself as Count Von Kramm, an agent for a wealthy client. However, Holmes quickly deduces that he is in fact Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and the hereditary King of Bohemia. Realizing Holmes has seen through his guise, the King admits this and tears off his mask. It transpires that the King is to become engaged to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meiningen, a young Scandinavian princess. However, five years previous to the events of the story he had a liaison with an American opera singer, Irene Adler, while she was serving a term as prima donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, who has since then retired to London. Fearful that should the strictly principled family of his fianc e learn of this impropriety, the marriage would be called off, he had sought to regain letters and a photograph of Adler and himself together, which he had sent to her during their relationship as a token. The King's agents have tried to recover the photograph through sometimes forceful means, burglary, stealing her luggage, and waylaying her. An offer to pay for the photograph and letters was also refused. With Adler threatening to send them to his future in-laws, which Von Ormstein presumes is to prevent him marrying any other woman, he makes the incognito visit to Holmes to request his help in locating and obtaining the photograph.

Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess; a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is 100 a year, later increased to 120 when Miss Hunter balks at having to cut her long hair short (her previous position paid 48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions. She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated. After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house. At another such session, Mr Rucastle told a series of funny stories that made Miss Hunter laugh until she was quite weary. The one astonishing thing about this was that Mrs. Rucastle not only did not laugh, but did not even smile.

Comienza este relato cuando Watson recibe un telegrama de Sherlock Holmes, mientras desayuna apaciblemente con la se ora Watson. El texto dice: " Tiene usted un par de d as libres? Acabo de recibir un telegrama del oeste de Inglaterra en relaci n con la tragedia del valle de Boscombe. Me encantar a llevarle. Tiempo y panorama excelentes. Saldr de Paddington a las 11.15 h." Watson parte con Holmes hacia el valle de Boscombe, una regi n cerca de Ross, en Herefordshire. A su llegada, el inspector Lestrade de Scotland Yard se encarga de ponerles en antecedentes de lo que, dentro de su miop a habitual, es un caso claro. El joven James ha asesinado a su padre, el granjero McCarthy. Aunque la culpabilidad del joven parece evidente, atendiendo a las s plicas de Alice Turner, hija del millonario John Turner e ntima amiga del joven, por caballerosidad, Lestrade ha solicitado la presencia de Sherlock Holmes. ste demostrar , una vez m s, la ineficacia de los m todos policiales habituales. Gracias a su brillante actuaci n, saldr a la luz un s rdido caso de chantaje y venganza, donde el aut ntico criminal resultar ser la propia v ctima.

Comienza este relato cuando Watson recibe un telegrama de Sherlock Holmes, mientras desayuna apaciblemente con la se ora Watson. El texto dice: " Tiene usted un par de d as libres? Acabo de recibir un telegrama del oeste de Inglaterra en relaci n con la tragedia del valle de Boscombe. Me encantar a llevarle. Tiempo y panorama excelentes. Saldr de Paddington a las 11.15 h." Watson parte con Holmes hacia el valle de Boscombe, una regi n cerca de Ross, en Herefordshire. A su llegada, el inspector Lestrade de Scotland Yard se encarga de ponerles en antecedentes de lo que, dentro de su miop a habitual, es un caso claro. El joven James ha asesinado a su padre, el granjero McCarthy. Aunque la culpabilidad del joven parece evidente, atendiendo a las s plicas de Alice Turner, hija del millonario John Turner e ntima amiga del joven, por caballerosidad, Lestrade ha solicitado la presencia de Sherlock Holmes. ste demostrar , una vez m s, la ineficacia de los m todos policiales habituales. Gracias a su brillante actuaci n, saldr a la luz un s rdido caso de chantaje y venganza, donde el aut ntico criminal resultar ser la propia v ctima.

Un ingeniero, llamado Victor Hatherley, dio lugar a la aventura de Sherlock Holmes titulada The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb (El dedo pulgar del ingeniero). El relato tiene lugar en 1889. El doctor Watson acaba de casarse, ha abandonado Baker Street, y se dedica al libre ejercicio de su profesi n. Al tener su consulta cerca de la estaci n de Paddington, atiende a muchos empleados de los ferrocarriles. Uno de stos, una ma ana de verano, trae a su consulta a un curioso paciente, as descrito por el doctor Watson: "Entr en mi consultorio, y me encontr con un caballero que estaba sentado junto a la mesa. Iba modestamente vestido con un traje de mezclilla, y hab a dejado su gorra sobre mis libros. Ten a envuelta una de sus manos en un pa uelo, en el que se ve an manchas de sangre por todas partes. Era joven, de no m s de veinticinco a os, seg n mi c lculo, y ten a el rostro muy varonil; pero estaba muy p lido..." Cuando Watson se entera de que no se trata de un accidente, recurre a su amigo Holmes, que le pide un relato completo. Victor Hatherley es un joven y emprendedor ingeniero hidr ulico, que a la muerte de su padre se ha instalado por su cuenta, sin demasiado xito. Un tanto desesperado y a punto de tirar la toalla, aparece un extra o individuo que se presenta como el coronel Lysander Stark y le hace una sorprendente proposici n. Debe viajar esa misma noche a Berkshire, para revisar una prensa hidr ulica y a cambio recibir cincuenta guineas. A pesar de las dudas que le ofrecen el aspecto del coronel y las intenciones que en l adivina, tentado por su oferta, la acepta. Su decisi n le obliga a protagonizar una rocambolesca aventura, en la que pierde un pulgar y est a punto de perder la vida. Holmes se hace cargo de la situaci n y, una vezm s, deja asombrados a Watson y al inspector Bradstreet de Scotland Yard, por la rapidez con que resuelve el caso. Pero demasiado tarde, ya que los malhechores han escapado. Por desgracia, el lector se pierde un hipot tico y apasionante enfrentamiento entre el malvado Fritz -el falso coronel Stark- y Sherlock Holmes. Al final, el ingeniero se lamenta ante un euf rico Holmes: "-He perdido mi dedo pulgar y he perdido mis cincuenta guineas de honorarios. y qu he ganado? -Experiencia -le dijo Holmes ech ndose a re r-. La experiencia puede tener para usted un valor indirecto. no debe sino ponerla en palabras para ganar por todo el resto de su vida fama de excelente compa ero."