The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Book review)
BOOK REVIEW:
Petualangan Sherlock Holmes
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Currently, one of my favorite books. I hope this short review will also make you love this book.
A. Novel Identity
2. Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Publisher: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama
4. Year of publication: 2020
5. Place of publication: Jakarta
6. Thickness: 344 pages
7. Translation: Dra. Daisy Dianasari
8. ISBN: 9786020635514
B. Synopsis and Table of Contents Novel
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a novel that contains a collection of the adventures of the famous 19th-century detective, Sherlock Holmes with his loyal friend, dr. John Watson is the narrator in this book. This novel contains twelve stories of Sherlock Holmes' adventures during his 'career' as an eccentric private detective, starting from the story "Scandal in Bohemia" to "Adventure in the Copper Beeches".
One of the stories in this book is entitled Scandal in Bohemia, it is told in this story that Sherlock Holmes is defeated by a woman. That person was Irene Adler, he would never forget her.
Irene Adler was a woman born in New Jersey in 1858, as well as the imperial prima donna of the Warsaw Opera. A mysterious woman who is considered dangerous, so that it can threaten the engagement of the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bohemia named Wilhelm Gottstereich Sigismond von Ormstein with the second daughter of the King of Scandinavia named Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen. In addition to threatening the engagement of the two men, Irene Adler is considered to be able to influence European history.
The story of the Crown Prince and Irene Adler began about five years ago when the Crown Prince visited Warsaw. Since that meeting, the Crown Prince's relationship with Irene Adler has grown closer, starting from correspondence to capturing photos together. Because there is no desire from Irene Adler to have a further relationship with him, making the Crown Prince choose another woman.
Now that five years have passed, the Crown Prince is about to enter into an engagement with the second daughter of the King of Scandinavia. Because the photo was in the hands of Irene Adler, it made the crown prince nervous. Irene Adler threatened to send the photo to the family of the King of Scandinavia on the day of the engagement. Efforts have been made to retrieve the photo
It was from Irene Adler's hands, but the Crown Prince's efforts have not yielded results. Until finally he asked Sherlock Holmes for help.
Sherlock Holmes moved quickly after accepting the job. He was only given three days by his client, along with his friend, dr. Watson, he managed to find where Irene Adler kept the photo. A fire trick at night managed to trap Irene Adler showing where the photo was stored.
In the morning, they went to Irene Adler's residence to take the photo. They were shocked that Irene Adler had left with her husband to leave England. Irene Adler went with the photo. It turns out that Sherlock Holmes' plan was foiled by a woman. Irene Adler with her ingenuity managed to escape her detective instincts.
The Adventures of Holmes and Dr. Watson did not stop at the scandalous case in Bohemia. There are several more cases waiting to be solved. Many interesting stories are summarized in this book. In each story, it is as if the reader is invited to visit Holmes' rented room at Baker Street No. The famous 221B. Then, the reader is taken to enjoy the countryside in England at the end of the 18th century.
ADVENTURE 1: "SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA"
The King of Bohemia enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes to obtain an image that can be used against him in the political arena.
ADVENTURE 2: “SOCK OF RED HAIR PEOPLE” A man comes to Sherlock Holmes for advice on the disappearance of a strange society of young redheads funded by men who sympathize with redheads.
ADVENTURE 3: "CASE IDENTITY"
Miss Sutherland asks Sherlock Holmes to help her find her mysterious fiancé who has disappeared. However, she had not given him enough information in their hasty engagement.
ADVENTURE 4: “MYSTERY IN BOSCOMBE VALLEY”
Sherlock Holmes is confronted by the Boscombe Valley Tragedy, in which a man is murdered and his son is accused of the crime.
ADVENTURE 5: “FIVE ORANGE SEEDS”
Sherlock Holmes is faced with a strange case that is a family matter. Two brothers and a son all received a letter from the KKK, addressed from India containing five dried orange seeds, a sign of death. When it was his son's turn, he begged Holmes for his advice.
ADVENTURE 6: "CHOPLE-LIpped MAN"
Mr. Watson finds Holmes in an opium den while searching for his missing friend. Holmes is studying a case in which a man disappeared from an upstairs room in the study. All that was found was a disfigured man with a limp and traces of blood and the man's clothes without any apparent violence.
ADVENTURE 7: "BLUE RUMBLE"
On the day before Christmas a man gets caught in a fight and loses a goose and his hat. Sherlock Holmes was trying to find out who the hat belonged to when a blue carbuncle was discovered on the goose.
ADVENTURE 8: "SPOTTLE COLLECTION"
A woman comes to Sherlock Holmes begging for her help to solve the mystery of her sister's death. A sum of money was offered for their dowry and her sister died before her wedding day. Now the woman was afraid that she would meet the same fate.
ADVENTURE 9: “THE ENGINEER'S THUMB”
A man knocks on Watson's door early in the morning and he finds the thumb that was missing from a murder attack in the night. They decide to meet Sherlock Holmes about the case.
ADVENTURE 10: "Young Nobles"
Sherlock Holmes is faced with the case of Lord St. Simon where the bride disappeared after the ceremony, asks himself to his room claiming to have a sudden dislike.
ADVENTURE 11: "TIARA ESTABLISHED BY GREEN JEWEL"
A banker makes a very large loan to a prominent customer and accepts a beryl coronet to hold. He finds his son trying to harm him and he has a case against him when he enlists expert help from Sherlock Holmes.
ADVENTURE 12: "ADVENTURE FROM COPPER BEECH"
A woman hires Sherlock Holmes to watch over her as she takes on a mysterious position as a nanny. The woman must comply with strange requirements and a sense that something is not right in the home environment.
C. Novel Strengths and Weaknesses (Including intrinsic element analysis)
The most prominent advantage of this novel is how the description of the atmosphere and events is explained in very descriptive sentences. This novel is a novel about the mystery of crime and its resolution by a detective, so a very detailed and clear description and explanation are needed so that the events that occur can be easily imagined and understood by the reader, which I think the author has succeeded in doing. As in the story “Five Grains of Orange Seeds”, one paragraph reads:
“Sherlock Holmes sat still for a while with his head bowed. His eyes stared intently at the red light gleaming from the fireplace. Then he lit the pipe. While leaning on
in his chair, he stared at the bluish swirls of smoke from his pipe that followed upwards."
The second advantage, the point of view of this novel is that of Sherlock Holmes' colleague, dr. John Watson. Therefore, the reader feels like a direct partner of Sherlock Holmes when asked to think about solving cases that require high focus, and when dr. John Watson narrates that he does not understand what Holmes is saying, readers often feel the same way, thus creating a sense of destiny that makes readers happy to follow the plot of this Sherlock Holmes adventure.
Another advantage that is also a drawback is the foreign and ancient dictions that are less familiar to the reader. On the one hand, it can increase the reader's insight, and on the other hand, make the reader have to stop reading for a moment and look for the meaning of the word he does not understand.
Another drawback of this novel is the lack of illustrations. Illustrations in this kind of novel seem quite necessary. Why? because the setting of the story is in ancient London (19th century) which of course cannot be imagined by the brain, then the plot is back and forth because sometimes telling the client's past is quite confusing, as well as foreign and ancient dictions that need to be searched first. In the past, the diction itself (in Indonesian) used was true quite a high level. Sometimes it is necessary to repeatedly read a paragraph in order to understand the meaning of the paragraph. The message in this novel is sometimes implied and sometimes expressed, directly conveyed by Holmes, some of which are irrelevant and only to be applied in ancient times.
D. Conclusion
Although there are some shortcomings, the advantages can cover the shortcomings, and I don't think it becomes a significant thing because I think that is the hallmark of the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This novel can be a tool to look at the condition of ancient London and the roles of society and its characteristics for readers who are curious about the atmosphere of ancient London from the point of view of a genius.
Overall, I highly recommend this novel to book fans, especially to fans of books with the theme of crime, mystery, and ingenuity, because this novel has all of these things in every adventure story from Sherlock Holmes.
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