What I’m Reading: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allan Poe: Stories and Poems
Last summer I wandered into Antipodes, a cute bookstore in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. They had a lovely collection of books, but what caught my eye were the several large-format hard cover editions of classics, such as Brothers Grimm fairytales, Edgar Allan Poe and Sherlock Holmes stories, and Pride & Prejudice. It turns out they were all by the same publisher, Rockport Publishers, but each featured its own illustrator and had its own unique look.
The books were beautiful, and I spent quite a while deciding which to take home with me. I actually ended up leaving the shop and coming back, deciding to get not just one but two of the books (there was one dramatic *gasp* moment where I thought the Edgar Allan Poe collection had been sold… but it had just been moved to another shelf. Cue sigh of relief).
I happily took them home back to Melbourne, where they feature on the top stack of books on my bookshelf, always readily available. I have taken to reading them slowly; in between novels I’ll read a Sherlock story here, a Poe poem there, and leisurely admire the gorgeous illustrations. I’ll often spend time simply flicking through the pages, deciding what to read next.
Left to right: The awesome cover; An interior spread; The spine (how cool!)
I’m a particular fan of the Edgar Allan Poe stories; the atmosphere he creates is so tangible, so intense, that to have the feelings that the stories evoke physically represented by the book itself is, in my opinion, a fantastic reading experience. I love the titles of his works as well, they have a certain ring to them: Never Bet The Devil Your Head, The Tell-tale Heart and The Pit And The Pendulum are some of my favourites. I foolishly read the story ‘The Masque Of The Red Death’ before bed one night, and ended up having to distract myself with Facebook and YouTube clips before I could relax and settle down enough to sleep. And then of course the second half of the book includes his poems, with the likes of Annabel Lee, The Bells, The Raven, and A Dream Within A Dream.
Left to right: The amazing cover; An interior spread showing the beginning of a new story; An interior spread.
The Sherlock Holmes stories, by Arthur Conan Doyle, are of course another thing entirely. There’s something so satisfying about reading a British detective story, and watching Sherlock work through Watson’s eyes. The quirky illustrations are a little old-fashioned, and suit the style of stories just perfectly. There are twelve stories in all, including A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League and The Five Orange Pips.
After a quick Google I discovered there are currently six books in the ‘Classics Reimagined’ series, as it’s called, and you can view them here. I think Pride & Prejudice may be next on my list…
Happy reading!
P.S. Click here to head to the Antipodes bookshop’s website.
