Sherlock Holmes: Big Ideas Explained in an Easy-to-Understand Way

Amazon Customer: Different approach

India on Sep 30, 2023

Armando Perez: Loved The short stories and The brief descriptions. The photos are a plus. I want to read it again. A Judy have for any fan.

United States on Jul 25, 2023

N. Platt: If you’re obsessed with Sherlock holmes like me then you’ll love this!!

United Kingdom on May 26, 2023

Jane: This book begins with a short bio of Conon Doyle and then goes over all things, Sherlock.
It discusses the short stories and novels. Then it goes over Holmes, influence on the detective genre. In the end, it went over all the adaptions of the stories through the years as well as other characters that were parodies of Holmes.
It was a great way to show the history of a literary character that is as popular today as he was in Conan Doyle's time.
Great book any Sherlock Holmes fan would love and a great jumping-off place for new fans to see the magnitude of the character.

United States on Nov 05, 2021

AllieAllie: It's pretty thorough but it is also opinionated about the era in which these stories were written (being critical of Doyle while also acknowledging how progressive he was), and contains errors. They label Holmes an asexual, and they refer to Eustace Brackenstall as "Bracknell" in the section "The Legend Returns".

If they could do more thorough editing and remain unbiased in their facts, this would be a decent encyclopedia. The thing is, encyclopedias are supposed to report facts as they are without opinions or theories, something lost on DK in this instance.

The graphic design is impeccable and the charts and photos do a great job of providing backdrops and explanations for anything either cultural puzzling or puzzling to everyone but Holmes himself.

Everything aside, I am happy I bought this. It's a decent companion alongside the Annotated and New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. I recommend getting this in a physical format, as the ebook version seems incapable of rendering the graphic design as beautifully as it is laid out on print. It wasn't made to be an ebook.

United States on Jun 11, 2021

susi079: So many insightful information on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's super sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. To those who are lazy enough reading long sentences or paragraphs, this book is a heaven sent with short and concise information plus wonderful photos and images.
Love the fact that one of the main contributors of the book's content is Mr. David Stuart Davies, the writer who wrote that amazing biography of the legendary yet underrated British actor, Mr. Jeremy Brett, called "Bending the Willow." Mr. Jeremy Brett was my number one idol during my childhood and teenage years, the most beloved British actor EVER to play Sherlock Holmes in the Granada Series on ITV UK (1984-1994). He died peacefully on September 12, 1995, aged 61, due to heart failure caused by the medication of his manic depression/bipolar disease. Gone too soon. So happy to find several beautiful pictures of Mr. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in this book. He was and still IS the Sherlock Holmes. For me, he IS forever my definitive Sherlock Holmes.

United States on Jun 08, 2021

Leila de Carvalho e GonçalvesLeila de Carvalho e Gonçalves: Este livro é considerado o mais completo sobre Sherlock Holmes. Se voce é fã do detetive e possui um certo domínio do idioma inglês, certamente, ele vai lhe interessar. Por sinal, seria muito bem-vinda uma edição em português, já que é indiscutível o sucesso do protagonista em nosso país.

Lançado em 2015 pela DK Publishing, um selo da Penguin Random House, trata-se do resultado da colaboração de vários escritores, críticos de cinema e jornalistas. Reunindo uma série de informações relevantes, até mesmo surpreendentes, sua edição em capa-dura distingue-se pela boa diagramação e o projeto visual bem planejado composto de fotos, gráficos e ilustrações, inclusive, algumas raras cujo autor é Sidney Paget, criador de alguns traços característicos da personagem, como o indefectível chapéu de caçador.

Prefaciado Leslie Kinger, uma das maiores autoridades sobre o detetive, logo nas primeiras páginas, o leitor terá à disposição não só a biografia do mais famoso morador da Baker Street mas também de Arthur Conan Doyle, Dr. John Watson, Professor James Moriarty e o Inspetor G. Lestrade.

Em seguida, obedecendo a ordem cronológica,...

Brazil on May 27, 2018

Castle: "The Sherlock Holmes Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained" is a fantastic, well researched, high quality book from DK.

As a lifelong fan of all things relating to the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I thought I had seen it all. In fact, I was getting a little tired of purchasing books that kept regurgitating the same information again and again with little new or interesting information to add. So, when I purchased this book, I was a little skeptical and prepared for disappointment. Wow, was I wrong!

After the introduction, this book immediately focuses on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as both an individual and an author with a very short, but highly detailed biography. Then, this book dedicates a few small chapters to each of the key characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and examines how these fictional characters connected were born of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's real life experiences.

Then, this book launches directly into a study of each story in the Sherlock Holmes canon. All 56 short stories and the 4 novels are examined in the same manner with one story per chapter.

These chapters tend to average about 8 pages per story. Every chapter begins with a...

United States on Mar 10, 2017

Sherlock: This is a wonderful book for reading about the background to the Sherlock Holmes' canon.
It is for seasoned readers of the stories, rather than those dipping their toes into works, as it includes plot spoilers.
Each story has a list of characters, a brief outline, some have tv shots, and some have a useful graphic, which captures the essence of how the case was solved, (which I found the most memorable feature of the book).

United Kingdom on Aug 29, 2016

bazquin: I loved this book and read it in 2 days. It is easy to read and gives an overview of each story and the background to the politics and attitudes at the time in which it was set. it also illustrates any scientific flaws in the storey and any criticisms that have been made and the response of Conan Doyle to those. The background of Conan Doyle is also enlightening. I have read loads of stuff on Doyle and Holmes and there was certainly new info here that I was not aware of.

United Kingdom on Jan 06, 2016