Eliminate the impossible, Sherlock Holmes said, and whatever is left must be the solution. But, as Pierre Bayard finds in this dazzling reinvestigation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, sometimes the master missed his mark. Using the last thoughts of the murder victim as his key, Bayard unravels the case, leading the reader to the astonishing conclusion that Holmes—and, in fact, Arthur Conan Doyle—got things all wrong: The killer is not at all who they said it was.Part intellectual entertainment, part love letter to crime novels, and part crime novel in itself, Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong turns one of our most beloved stories delightfully on its head. Examining the many facets of the case and illuminating the bizarre interstices between Doyle's fiction and the real world, Bayard demonstrates a whole new way of reading mysteries: a kind of "detective criticism" that allows readers to outsmart not only the criminals in the stories we love but also the heroes—and sometimes even the writers.

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles

Literature & Fiction

BAYARD, Pierre

Literary

Tantor Audio

In this mischievous book, literature professor Bayard contends that, in this age of infinite publication, the truly cultivated person is not the one who has read a book but the one who understands the book's place in our culture. Using examples from works by Graham Greene, Umberto Eco, and others (and even the movie Groundhog Day), Bayard examines the many kinds of "non-reading" (forgotten books, books discussed by others, books we've skimmed briefly) and the many potentially nightmarish situations in which we are called upon to discuss our reading with others. At heart, this delightfully tongue-in-cheek book challenges everyone who's ever felt guilty about missing some of the great books to consider what reading means, how we absorb books as part of ourselves, and why we spend so much time talking about what we have, or haven't, read.

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

History & Criticism

Blackstone Audiobooks

Argues that it is more important to understand a book's relevance than to be familiar with its details, drawing on examples from key modern works while offering specific advice on how to speak knowledgeably in a variety of social occasions.

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read: Library Edition

Blackstone Pub

In this delightfully tongue-in-cheek book, a #3 bestseller in France, literature professor Bayard contends that, in this age of infinite publication, the truly cultivated person is not the one who has read a book but the one who understands the book's place in our culture. Using examples from works by Graham Greene, Umberto Eco, and others (and even the movie Groundhog Day), Bayard examines the many kinds of "non-reading" (forgotten books, books discussed by others, books we've skimmed briefly) and the many potentially nightmarish situations in which we are called upon to discuss our reading with others. The book urges everyone who's ever felt guilty about missing some of the great books to consider what reading means, how we absorb books as a part of ourselves, and why we spend so much time talking about what we have, or haven't, read.

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Raincoast Book Dist Ltd

Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?: The Mystery Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery

A French psychoanalyst and literary scholar offers a dramatic re-reading of Agatha Christie's classic novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, challenging Hercule Poirot's conclusions about the identity of the killer and presenting a startling new solution to the crime.

New Press, The

A French psychoanalyst and literary scholar offers a dramatic re-reading of Agatha Christie's classic novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, challenging Hercule Poirot's conclusions about the identity of the killer and presenting a startling new solution to the crime. Reprint.

If civilized people are expected to have read all important works of literature, and thousands more books are published every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social situations in which we're forced to talk about books we haven't read? In this delightfully witty, provocative book, a huge hit in France that has drawn huge attention from critics around the world, literature professor and psychoanalyst Bayard argues that it's actually more important to know a book's role in our collective library than its details. Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, and even the movie Groundhog Day, he describes the many varieties of "non-reading" and the horribly sticky social situations that might confront us, and then offers his advice on what to do. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them. It's the book that readers everywhere will be talking about-and despite themselves, reading-this holiday season. 
Check out these articles about the French edition of How to Talk about Books you Haven't Read: 
New York Times - 'Read It? No, but You Can Skim a Few Pages and Fake It' by Alan Riding (also published in the International Herald Tribune) 
Chronicle of Higher Education - 'Huckleberry Who? by Lennard J. Davis 
Times Online (UK edition) - 'Viewpoint' by Sarah Vine 
The Harvard Crimson - 'You've Read 'Gravity's Rainbow'? Bullshit'm by Madeline K. B. Ross 
Broad Street Review - 'The only book you'll ever need' by Leonard Boasberg

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Bloomsbury USA

A playfully brilliant re-creation of one of the most-loved detective stories of all time; the companion book no Holmes fan should be without.
Eliminate the impossible, Holmes said, and whatever is left must be the solution. But as Pierre Bayard finds in this dazzling reinvestigation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, sometimes the master missed his mark. Using the last thoughts of the murder victim as his key, Bayard unravels the case, leading the reader to the astonishing conclusion that Holmes – and, in fact, Arthur Conan Doyle – got things all wrong: The killer is not at all who they said it was.
Part intellectual entertainment, part love letter to crime novels, and part crime novel in itself, Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong turns one of our most beloved stories delightfully on its head. Examining the many facets of the case and illuminating the bizarre interstices between Doyle's fiction and the real world, Bayard demonstrates a whole new way of reading mysteries: a kind of "detective criticism" that allows readers to outsmart not only the criminals in the stories we love, but also the heroes ― and sometimes even the writers.

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BAYARD, Pierre. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BAYARD, Pierre

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BAYARD, Pierre. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read: Library Edition

How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?: The Mystery Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery

Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?: The Mystery Behind the Agatha Christie Mystery

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles