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The Best of Sherlock Holmes

1999 Poll Results
The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories

Ranking the Long Stories

Story

Points

Rating

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (179)

880

100

2. The Sign of the Four (24)

602

68

3. A Study in Scarlet (23)

535

61

4. The Valley of Fear (17)

413

47

 

The Top 12 Short Stories

Story

Points

Rating

1. "The Speckled Band" (50)

1,713

100

2. "The Red-Headed League" (40)

1,668

97

3. "A Scandal in Bohemia" (37)

1,468

86

4. "Silver Blaze" (23)

1,332

78

5. "The Blue Carbuncle" (20)

1,282

75

6. "The Musgrave Ritual" (14)

1,013

59

7. "The Final Problem" (9)

880

51

8. "The Empty House" (2)

791

46

9. "The Dancing Men" (3)

766

45

10. "The Six Napoleons" (4)

715

42

11. "The Bruce-Partington Plans" (6)

696

41

12. "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (4)

463

27

 

Rating the Collected Tales

Volume (date)

Rating

Top 12

Rank

Adventures (1892)

100

5

1, 2, 3, 5, 12

Memoirs (1893)

58

3

4, 6, 7

Return (1905)

53

3

8, 9, 10

Last Bow (1917)

39

1

11

Case-Book (1927)

14

0

 

Reference:
Randall Stock, "Rating Sherlock Holmes" The Baker Street Journal, December 1999, pp. 5-11.

Notes
- A 12-point weighting model was used to determine the best stories.
- First-place votes are listed in parentheses after the title.
- "Ratings" for individual stories were computed by dividing each score by the maximum score for that category and multiplying by 100. This provides a simple value for comparing the relative positions of stories within a category.
- "Ratings" for the collected tales were based on the average score of all the stories in a volume and then indexed for a top rating of 100. Although "The Cardboard Box" is often included in His Last Bow, it was counted as part of the Memoirs because of its original publication date.

 


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Vers. 1.4x Original work
Copyright © 2000 Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.