Changes in the Adaptations of The Adventure of The Speckled Band and Sherlock Holmes Novels

For this homework assignment, I chose to compare the two classic novels by Sherlock Holmes and The Red-Headed League and The Adventure Of The Speckled Band. With new media adaptations such as comic-books, graphic novels, and children’s books now available, there are now new experiences that can be had from classic novels such as these. While the adaptations are fine, there are certain aspects of the “original” brand that fans of the novels would like to keep intact. The aspects of the stories that stay the same are the literary language, dialogue, and maintaining of the mystery until the end of the piece. While some storylines are different, the authors for both The Red-Headed League and The Adventure Of The Speckled Band did change some things for the new adaptation(s).

One of the biggest changes in the adaption I noticed was the fact that the order of events on both The Red-Headed League and The Adventure Of The Speckled Band differed from the original book. With the adaptation of these novels, comes changes in story format.

Graphic novels, for example, can illustrate details and side stories that may have not been available in the book. The format change of the media adaptations allows me to visualize the characters and that makes it easier for me to understand the story. Conway does good work at making the reading digestible for the younger crowd that may not understand or appreciate the literary jargon used in the classic novels. “Things Went on this way for eight weeks. I copied out all the facts about animals. I began to get tired of the A’s. I hoped to finish soon and get on to the B’s. Then all at once, the whole business came to an end.” (The Adventure Of The Speckled Band)

This quote is an example of how the adaptation(s) differ in nature from the original and how they are using their new versions to improve upon things and give them an interesting spin. In the original novel, when Wilson went to Holmes to explain the reason his services were needed, it wasn’t elaborated on quite as much and if you aren’t familiar with the language might confuse you. By Wilson explaining “apples and airplanes” and the different aspects of his job he was hired to do, it’s clearly showing the attempt to make the reading more digestible for whoever is reading it.