Sherlock Holmes, Advice Before Reading

[npod]

I have never read the Sherlock Holmes books. It’s been on my bucket list. Today, I got a copy of the definitive works. Good old fashion hard cover book.
This being a pipe discussion group, I’m sure some of you are Sherlock Holmes aficionados. Any advice for me Before I start? Should I just jump in or do you have a link or two to look at before I start?

 

[aldecaker]

Jump right in! The only advice I can give you is to have a dictionary (online or otherwise) near to hand. Unless you're already familiar with words like "jezail" and "antimacassar", that is. The prose is Victorian, after all.

 

[Waning Embers]

Yeah, most of the stories are stand alones. Dive in and enjoy!

 

[sasquatch]

Just enjoy... ACD was really a gifted writer. The stories occassionally stretch the bounds of suspension of disbelief, but the writing quality is good enough that it's still really nice reading.

 

[Olkofri]

You have to smoke a calabash pipe when reading them.
(Though I don't know which blend Holmes smoked. Maybe it's in one of them books.)

 

[mso489]

I sometimes avoid reading introductions and prefaces to make more direct contact with an author, and save the explanations for later. That's what I'd suggest you do. I have no idea what jazail means, but I know antimacassar, because my grandma had them on her Victorian furniture, velvet upholstery and horse hair padding, a little stiff. The antimacassar are lace doilies pinned in place on upholstery as decoration. She was a lot more adventurous and lively than that would make her sound.

 

[aldecaker]

A jezail was the type of middle-eastern musket Dr. Watson took a bullet from while serving in Afghanistan.

 

[npod]

Great advise everyone. Thanks. I started tonight with no research prior. Old school.

 

[dmcmtk]

Definitely, dive right in! :puffpipe:

 

[jpmcwjr]

I believe "macassar" was a heavy oil or grease like substance put in men's hair to make it shiny/lay flat/be uptodate. Thus, the little doilies to keep that crap off the back of chairs when a guy leaned back to get comfortable were the "anti" part.

 

[jpmcwjr]

And for the AC Doyle cognoscenti, wasn't the calabash solely from the movie? Is it definitive in his writing what pipe(s) Holmes smoked?

 

[dino]

Npod,

Don’t worry, dive right in. As for navigating Victorian language use, idioms, and “stuff,” if your edition isn’t one of the two annotated ones by William S. Baring-Gould, or Leslie Klinger, you may want to pick up a copy of Jack Tracy’s The Encyclopædia Sherlockiana, or the similarly titled one by Matthew Bunson.

Also helpful, and fun, is Steven Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes For Dummies (Steven is the publisher of the esteemed periodical, The Baker Street Journal).

As for related pipe lore, there is a terrific article, “Sherlockian Pipes” by William Serad, in the Summer 2000 issue of Pipes and Tobaccos. Back issues are available from the magazine’s website : https://pipesandtobaccosmagazine.com/store/?wpsc_product_category=back-issues

And, should you get “hooked,” look for a local Sherlock society, there’s one nearby almost any major city in the world. You’ll find the same camaraderie and endless information you’ll find in a local pipe club.

Read on—the game is afoot!

 

[didache]

I agree … dive right in! In general, the earlier stories are the best, up to Sherlock's 'death' at the hands of Moriarty. In terms of the four novels, the Hound of the Baskervilles is the best and not a bad place to start.
Mike

 

[Waning Embers]

Is it definitive in his writing what pipe(s) Holmes smoked?

The only book references were briar, clay, and cherry wood.

 

[workman]

In one of the stories he ordered "a pound of the strongest tobacco you can find".

 

[papipeguy]

I've the SH stories countless times and always enjoy the. A good friend of mine. Father Michael Venditti, wrote a book as a reader's companion. I highly recommend Father Mike's book. He spent many years researching the material and it is written in a very friendly manner.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/263587641428

 

[davek]

Here's a link listing tobacco references.

http://www.pipes.org/wp-content/uploads/Articles/140_Different_Varieties.text

 

[npod]

^^^Thanks All^^^
Great stuff. I ordered two of the companion books thanks to the advise.

 

[npod]

^^^Thanks All^^^
Great stuff. I ordered two of the companion books thanks to the advise.

 

[bnichols23]

Well, it's too late to suggest starting point, of course, but Adventure of the Speckled Band was the first he wrote, & to me one of the most enjoyable.
And yes, the calabash was never in any of the books, but as cosmopolitan as Holmes was, it wouldn't have been surprising if he did.
The story on the calabash is that one of the first actors to play Holmes on the stage (forget his name) found it easier to speak his lines with a curved stem in his mouth than a straight one. Popular appreciation being what it is, people began to associate him (name was Bendix, I think) with bent stem as Holmes with calabash.