Book Review: Sherlock Holmes Annotated Edition

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."

~Arthur Conan Doyle

Phoenix Lodge No. 257, England

For Valentine's Day, my wife gave me a wonderful gift--The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: Volume 1.  I've had my eye on them for a long time, but they were a little pricey (about $120 for all three volumes).  She knows me well, and it was a great gift.  For the past week, I've been slowly working my way through the stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.  It's a huge 10 x 8 book, over six hundred pages in length, and featuring more than 450 illustrations (not counting margins crammed full of detailed notes.) 

The margin notes and period photographs have really enhanced my enjoyment of the stories. I've read the stories many times over the years, and there were always parts I didn't understand--Conan Doyle was writing stories in his own era for people of his own era.  There were many references to popular literature, theater, and science of the time that I simply didn't catch.  All those references are explained in the margins of this volume.  I can honestly say that I now know the difference between the types of horse carriages used during that period now, and now know what a gasogene is--handy bit of cutting edge Victorian technology for those back then that might like to have a scotch and soda.  Those notes and illustrations have greatly broadened my understanding of the Victorian Era.

The edition includes all of Sidney Paget's original illustrations from The Strand Magazine, and also include many of the illustrations created by the American press when the stories were reprinted here.  It was kind of entertaining to see the dramatic differences in a scene illustrated by Paget and the same scene illustrated by an American magazine.

These books are a little pricey, but well worth it for fans of the Sherlock Holmes stories.  If I'm good, maybe I'll get the second volume for my birthday--that one includes stories from The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.  The third volume contains the four Sherlock Holmes novels.

And in case you're wondering--in all, there are 56 short stories, and four novels in what Sherlockians call "the canon."  If you haven't read them, you should give them a try--they're timeless.

~TEC

Book Review: The Sherlockian

Everyone seemed to enjoy my post last week about Sherlock Holmes, so I thought I'd point out a really interesting book I just finished reading.  Few characters in literature have enjoyed the kind of fame as the detective Freemason Arthur Conan Doyle created.  To this day, his books and stories remain popular, his character has once again made the leap to the big screen (although little about Sherlock's lately incarnation is recognizable).  There are countless societies and organizations dedicated to the study of Doyle's character.  And other interesting fact--just like Star Trek, many of the fantastic technologies first "invented" by Sherlock Holmes have since come to pass--fingerprinting, blood spatter evidence, trace evidence, etc. 

I enjoyed this book The Sherlockian--half was told in the current day, and half followed a fictitious story about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his friend Bram Stoker.  It's interesting, because as Star Trek has its Trekies, Holmes has its lunatic fringe groups too--and this story takes place during the annual meeting of the Sherlockian group The Baker Street Irregulars.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In December 1893, Sherlock Holmes-adoring Londoners eagerly opened their Strand magazines, anticipating the detective's next adventure, only to find the unthinkable: his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had killed their hero off. London spiraled into mourning -- crowds sported black armbands in grief -- and railed against Conan Doyle as his assassin.

Then in 1901, just as abruptly as Conan Doyle had "murdered" Holmes in "The Final Problem," he resurrected him. Though the writer kept detailed diaries of his days and work, Conan Doyle never explained this sudden change of heart. After his death, one of his journals from the interim period was discovered to be missing, and in the decades since, has never been found.

Or has it?

When literary researcher Harold White is inducted into the preeminent Sherlock Holmes enthusiast society, The Baker Street Irregulars, he never imagines he's about to be thrust onto the hunt for the holy grail of Holmes-ophiles: the missing diary. But when the world's leading Doylean scholar is found murdered in his hotel room, it is Harold - using wisdom and methods gleaned from countless detective stories - who takes up the search, both for the diary and for the killer.

Enjoy!

~TEC