Ask Jot

Chosen Answer by Vidocq

Oh boy. I'm going too put it lilke this. The books have been around for 120 years, more or less, with many different editions, collections and omnibuses printed in every single modern written language and they never seem to go out of print. So the actual number has been lost and by now it would be virtually impossible for anyone to find a deffinite number, the most accurate estimate would be: More than Harry Potter and Less than the Bible.

Chosen Answer by Jallan

The best thing is to buy one of those anthology volumes which have all the stories in them. For example, http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Complete-Stories-Classic/dp/0553212419/ref=bxgy_cc_b_img_b and http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Complete-Novels-Stories/dp/0553212427/ref=bxgy_cc_b_img_a , However the type is somewhat small. For a complete list of the books, individually, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Sherlock_Holmes . Note that Arthur Conan Doyle did not write these in the order they are supposed to have occurred in reality. Indeed, one often cannot figure out when exactly a particular story was supposed to have occurred, especially since the supposed narrator, Watson, claims to have sometimes changed the details to hide the true chronology. See http://www.sherlockpeoria.net/Who_is_Sherlock/SherlockTimeline.html and http://blog.smartmemes.com/2010/03/sherlock-holmes-a-complete-chronology/ for two of these which appear on the web.

Chosen Answer by SirNavid 

The famous books are in fact the only books.and these are the same titles, other answerer mentioned. but if you mean Short stories too , these are the best stories and you can easily find it on project Gutenberg : 1.speckled band 2.Greek interpreter 3.Devil's foot 4.Bruce Partington plans

Chosen Answer by ♥★pinky★♥

The Canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same characters. Novels A Study in Scarlet (serialised 1887) The Sign of the Four (published 1890) The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised 1901–1902 in The Strand) The Valley of Fear (serialised 1914–1915) Short stories The short stories were originally published in periodicals; they were later gathered into five anthologies: 1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (contains stories published 1891–1892 in The Strand) 2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (contains stories published 1892–1893 in The Strand as further episodes of the Adventures) 3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (contains stories published 1903–1904 in The Strand) 4. His Last Bow (contains stories published 1908–1913 and 1917) 5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (contains stories published 1921–1927) Lists of favourite stories There are two famous lists of favourite stories: that of Conan Doyle himself, in The Strand in 1927, and that of the Baker Street Journal in 1959. Conan Doyle's list: 1. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" 2."The Red-Headed League" 3."The Adventure of the Dancing Men" 4. "The Adventure of the Final Problem" 5 "A Scandal in Bohemia" 6."The Adventure of the Empty House" 7."The Five Orange Pips" 8. "The Adventure of the Second Stain" 9. "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" 10."The Adventure of the Priory School" 11. "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" 12. "The Adventure of the Reigate Squire" The Baker Street Journal's list: 1."The Adventure of the Speckled Band" 2."The Red-Headed League" 3."The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" 4."The Adventure of Silver Blaze" 5."A Scandal in Bohemia" 6."The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" 7."The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" 8."The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" 9."The Adventure of the Dancing Men" 10."The Adventure of the Empty House"

Chosen Answer by Cuckoo

Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories that featured Holmes. All but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson; two are narrated by Sherlock Holmes himself, and two others are written in the third person. The first two stories, short novels, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890, respectively. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine in 1891; further series of short stories and two serialised novels appeared until 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1878 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914. Conan Doyle, when asked if there was a real Sherlock Holmes, always maintained that Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, for whom Doyle had worked as a clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Like Sherlock Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations. Dr. Bell was also interested in crime and assisted the police in solving a few cases. The character and name of Sherlock Holmes were inspired by one Wendell Scherer, who acted as a "consulting detective" in a murder case that received a great deal of newspaper attention in England in 1882. Newspaper accounts of the case told how Scherer had been castigated by the magistrate for describing himself as a "consulting detective". In devising a name for his new character, Doyle changed "Wendel" into "Holmes" by association with the only familiar "Wendell" of the time, the American essayist Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was popular in England and had recently visited there. "Scherer" is German for barber, "shearlocks" is an old slang word for a barber, and the fictional consulting detective's name finally became "Sherlock".