The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Cover of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
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| Author | Arthur Conan Doyle |
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| Illustrator | Sydney Paget |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Sherlock Holmes |
| Genre | Detective fiction short stories |
| Publisher | George Newnes |
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Publication date
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1894 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | viii, 279 pp |
| Preceded by | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
| Followed by | The Hound of the Baskervilles |
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1894, by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The twelve stories (eleven in American editions) of the Memoirs are:
The first London edition of the Memoirs in 1894 did not include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", although all twelve stories had appeared in the Strand Magazine. The first U.S. edition included the story, but it was very quickly replaced with a revised edition that omitted it.
The reasoning behind the suppression is unclear. In Britain the story was apparently removed at Doyle's request as it included adultery and so was unsuitable for younger readers. This may have also been the cause for the rapid removal of the story from the U.S. edition, and some sources state that the publishers believed the story was too scandalous for the American public.
As a result, this story was not republished in the U.S. until many years later, when it was added to His Last Bow. Even today, most American editions of the canon include it with His Last Bow, while most British editions keep the story in its original place in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Additionally, when the story was removed from the Memoirs, its opening pages, where Holmes emulates Dupin, were transferred to the beginning of "The Adventure of the Resident Patient". In some later U.S. editions of the Memoirs, which still omit "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", this transfer still appears.
Doyle had decided that these would be the last collection of Holmes's stories and initially decided to get him killed in "The Final Problem". However public pressure forced him to write the character again in "The Hound of Baskervilles" and resurrect him in the forthcoming "The Return of Sherlock Holmes".
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (apart from "The Cardboard Box") were adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 1991–1992 as part of Bert Coules' complete radio adaptation of the canon, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Notable guest stars included Peter Davison as Inspector Forrester in "The Reigate Squires", and Brian Blessed as Henry Wood in "The Crooked Man". Episodes were written by Bert Coules, Gerry Jones, Denys Hawthorne, Vincent McInerney, Peter Mackie, Robert Forrest, Peter Ling, and David Ashton, and directed by Enyd Williams and Patrick Rayner.
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