I remember watching Sherlock Holmes on PBS as a child and hearing people say, “Okay, Sherlock,” after somebody else states an obvious fact. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is by far the most famous literary detective in the world, and now that he has completely crossed over into the public domain, his fame has increased as many authors and filmmakers have started to create their own Sherlock Holmes stories.
My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.
Stephen King wrote a Holmes story. Robert Downey Jr. and Henry Cavill have each portrayed the detective in film and there has been a steady stream of Sherlock Holmes TV shows including Elementary (2012-2019) and Sherlock (since 2010).
Maria Konnikova, psychologist and champion poker player, wrote a non-fiction bestseller entitled Mastermind: How To Think Like Sherlock Holmes. There are popular board games, video games, and, of course, books.
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
It’s my guess that the Sherlock Holmes industry will only continue to grow. (It’s my bold prediction that we will eventually see Sherlock Holmes in major theme parks). Why not?
I’ve been working through the Sherlock Holmes cannon. I started with The Hound of the Baskervilles and, after finishing, immediately started at the beginning of the series. At the time of this writing I’m about half way through Valley of Fear.
But what is the beginning of the series???
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
You will find, as did I, there is a dedicated Sherlock Holmes fan base playing “The Game,” (which goes way beyond the scope of this article) in which they try to deduce many things about Holmes, such as his lineage, his education, and–most importantly for us–the chronological order of the stories.
There are 4 novels and 56 short stories that make up the cannon of Sherlock Holmes. The 56 stories have been collected into 5 books. Rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of the “correct” order, I suggest following a simple reading program–which is reading the books in the order of their publication date, which is what I am personally doing.
No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.
Now that we have a reading program in order, all that remains is to fulfill the promise of the article headline–getting all 9 books for free.
All of the books are in the public domain. So, unless you want to have physical books with fancy covers, do not spend a dime buying the Sherlock Holmes books. They are all free via Project Gutenberg, which is an online collection of public domain ebooks, available for free download.
“Excellent! I cried. “Elementary,” said he.
Without further ado, here are the books in publication order (the recommended reading order) with direct links to their free downloads via Project Gutenberg:
- A Study in Scarlet (1887) Link
- The Sign of Four (1890) Link
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) Link
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) Link
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) Link
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905) Link
- The Valley of Fear (1915) Link
- His Last Bow (1917) Link
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) Link