Favorite Conan Doyle story (about Sherlock and non-SH too)
Большое спасибо за вопрос!
I guess I have to answer in English?.. Very tricky indeed, очень хитро ;) But you'right - in this way more people can read it.
To be honest, I was never a fan of Conan Doyle's works - probably because I've read some of them when I was little (age 12) and couldn't understand their context and meaning. And when I read my first Holmes stories I found them... very boring. I liked Brigadier Gerard and later The White Company (I read it when I was 15), but Holmes was not interesting. Maybe because I don't like mystery novels as a genre - I never care 'who-did-it' - or maybe because I didn't understand the time and people which ACD was describing.
So I've read the whole canon only after watching 'Sherlock' (which happened when I was 24). I can't say that it made me a huge fan. I still find his narration a little boring, but now I see that his stories are very clever. And they are a great historical source for anyone who's interested in British history (and now it includes me).
Having said that I say that my favourite story is The Hound of the Baskervilles. Maybe it is a cliche, but it is very well structured, and the story is simple, but at the same time strangely unique. From the short stories I like The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (it is very ingenious, and I like Violet Hunter as a truly strong female character), The Adventure of Musgrave Ritual (Holmes tells it himself very good, and I like an air of mystery around the whole case), The Adventure of the Final Problem (the dismal atmosphere of this story is terrific), The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (another fascinating plot) and The Adventure of the Devil's Foot (very scary and truly tragic at the same time). And I also like the ending of His Last Bow which presents a lapidary but tremendous hommage to the whole lost era.
