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The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories (2 Vol. Set)
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The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories (2 Vol. Set)
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by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Leslie S. Klinger, and John Lecarre
Sales Rank: 17331
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List Price: $95.00
$57.00
At Amazon
on 12-29-2007.
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Features
Hardcover: 1878 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company November 30, 2004
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393059162
ISBN-13: 978-0393059168
Product Dimensions:
21.7 x 10.8 x 4.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.5 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Sherlockians and more casual Holmes fans alike will delight in this comprehensive edition of the 56 original short adventures featuring the world's first private consulting detective. Modeling his efforts on William S. Baring-Gould's 1968 Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Klinger (The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library) packs as many extras into these two volumes as a special director's cut DVD: detailed essays on subjects as diverse as the Boer War and the history of rugby, illuminating citations to early drafts of Doyle's original manuscripts,and full discussions of the numerous theories developed over more than a century concerning ambiguities, contradictions and unresolved issues in the stories. Those new to such scholarship will be fascinated by the sophisticated multidisciplined approach, much of it based on close readings and historical research similar to Bible study. The synthesis of the commentaries will engage veteran Sherlockians, who will be able to compare hypotheses concerning, for example, the true identity of the king of Bohemia or Holmes's actual whereabouts during the Great Hiatus. First-time readers might want to skip Klinger's brief intros to each tale, as they presume familiarity with the plot and often hint strongly at the solutions. Many will prefer this to the Oxford University Press uniform edition of a decade ago.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
"Poor Holmes is dead and damned," remarked Arthur Conan Doyle in 1896, soon after consigning the famous detective to death at the Reichenbach Falls. "I have had such an overdose of him that I feel towards him as I do towards paté de foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so that the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day."
Needless to say, Sherlock Holmes did not go gentle into that good night but came raging back to face a further series of perils, including a spectral hound, a sinister air gun and an exotic Asiatic poison. Even the death of Conan Doyle did not bring about any noticeable slowing of Holmes's career. Though the "official" adventures -- 56 short stories and four longer tales known as "The Canon" -- came to a close more than 75 years ago, the detective continues to enjoy a robust career in books, movies, television programs, musicals, plays and even a ballet.
Along the way he has acquired a cult of followers whose devotion borders on the mystical. Sherlockians, as they call themselves, can be found in every corner of the globe -- and, increasingly, on the Internet -- discussing such matters as the depth to which a sprig of parsley might sink in butter on a hot day, and the true location of Dr. Watson's strangely transient war wound. Ask a Holmes buff for news of the giant rat of Sumatra, and he or she will answer, gently, that it is a tale for which the world is not yet prepared.
"What is it that makes this subject inexhaustible?" asked the noted Sherlockian Edgar W. Smith in 1952. "There is nothing like it, to one's knowledge, in all the field of literature. Not Robinson Crusoe, nor Mr. Pickwick, nor yet great Hamlet has been so honored by the imp of the inquisitive. . . . Ivanhoe and Hiawatha, Dr. Jekyll and David Copperfield, Hercules and George Babbitt -- who cares if they were married once or twice, or how profound their knowledge of the Solar System may have been? We know just where Achilles had his wound, and we let it go at that. . . . But Sherlock Holmes is different." Author Christopher Morley, reviewing a torrent of submissions to the fledgling Baker Street Journal, put the matter more succinctly: "Never has so much been written by so many for so few."
It is a problem that Leslie S. Klinger confronts with remarkable success and good cheer in his new annotated edition of the Sherlock Holmes short stories. As Klinger knows full well, the original tales have now been picked over so many times that it is fair to wonder what is left to say. Indeed, there has already been a two-volume annotated edition, edited by William S. Baring-Gould, which appeared in 1968, and, more recently, a distinguished nine-volume edition from Oxford University Press.
"I set out to create for this edition an annotated set that reflects the spectrum of views on Sherlockian controversies rather than my own theories," writes Klinger in his preface. "In addition, this work brings current Baring-Gould's long-outdated survey of the literature, including references to hundreds of works published subsequently. Recognizing that many of the events recorded in the stories took place in England over 100 to 150 years ago, it also includes much background information on the Victorian age, its history, culture, and vocabulary."
The result is a beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable edition that somehow manages to synthesize all that has come before, and will appeal to both first-time readers and seasoned veterans. The lavish boxed set presents all the original short stories in the order of their publication (setting aside the eccentric chronology of the earlier annotated edition) and will be followed next year by a third volume devoted to the four longer stories -- including, of course, The Hound of the Baskervilles. An evocative preface by John le Carré is followed by an informative essay from Klinger, offering useful background on Holmes and his world. More than 800 illustrations are scattered throughout the text, many of them culled from the magazines in which the stories first appeared. Periodic sidebars guide the reader through potentially rocky terrain such as the Boer War; the rules of rugby; and baritsu, the obscure Japanese system of self-defense that proved so helpful to Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls.
For many readers, the most useful feature will be the annotations running alongside the text, which illuminate unfamiliar or obscure details without breaking the flow of the stories. Klinger brings an admirable clarity and precision to this task. In the opening pages of "A Scandal in Bohemia," for instance, when Watson is directed toward a spirit case, Klinger offers this helpful note:
"A 'spirit case' or 'tantalus' is a stand containing usually three cut-glass decanters, which, though apparently free, cannot be removed until the bar that engages the stoppers is raised. Many such cases have a padlock on the bar, to avoid 'tantalizing' the servants." An illustration from the Harrod's catalogue of 1895 completes our edification.
If there is any fault to be noted, it is that Klinger must occasionally find an awkward perch between scholarship and whimsy as he struggles to maintain what he calls "the gentle fiction that Holmes and Watson really lived." For example, an admirable discussion of the life of Conan Doyle is followed immediately by a somewhat frivolous speculation as to when Conan Doyle and Dr. Watson might have met: "Perhaps these two young writers met in Edinburgh . . . or perhaps their similar medical backgrounds led them to the same lecture." In Sherlockian circles this is known as "playing the game," and it has been raised to an art form in such societies as the Baker Street Irregulars, but newcomers may feel themselves excluded. Klinger wisely keeps it in the background for the most part.
Perhaps I am betraying my own prejudices. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that my own work on this subject -- a biography of Conan Doyle -- is generously acknowledged in these pages, and I should also mention that I see Klinger once a year at the January meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars, where he manages the not inconsiderable feat of appearing stylish and au courant in a tuxedo. I am grateful for the former and rather jealous of the latter, but I trust that neither has unduly influenced my opinion.
At some 1,800 pages, with the additional volume to come, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes is a considerable undertaking, and some readers may balk at its sheer heft. One could do worse than to heed the advice of le Carré: "Do not be dismayed," he writes in his preface. "Nobody writes of Holmes and Watson without love."
Reviewed by Daniel Stashower
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
I cannot exaggerate the excellence of this edition. In almost every way, it's an improvement on its predecessor (the Baring-Gould "Annotated Holmes" of 1968). Like the earlier one, this is a "Sherlockian" edition which discusses the stories as if they were histories of actual persons and events-but it avoids the clubby, cutesy excesses of many Sherlockian publications and provides many useful historical asides and photographs. The annotations entertain and often enlighten. The production values are stunning: the typography is elegant and clear, and despite the abundance of notes on many pages, the layout is never cluttered. It is big and heavy, but surprisingly you can actually READ this edition, which one cannot say for the Baring-Gould. And the reproductions of hundreds of period illustrations are simply the best I've ever seen in a Holmes edition. Sidney Paget (for example) has often been ill-served by muddy, contrast-less reproductions, but here they are as clean and crisp as the original materials probably permit them to be. Kudos to the photo editor! My regrets are few. The introduction, though long and well-written, seems a bit skimpy treating the movie and radio adaptations of Holmes: Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett are adequately represented, but the rest of the section (too brief) is a scattershot itemization of a few movies. (I mean, does "Without a Clue" really warrant any mention at all other than as a comic anomaly?) Holmes iconography in general could really have stood a few more pages, since it has been so central to Holmes's continuing popularity. And one other small regret: weirdly, Frederick Dorr Steele's illustrations grace the box and dust jackets, but he isn't represented nearly enough inside: it's nice to see his fine sequence of pictures for "The Creeping Man," but it's sad that his flawless portrait of Holmes on the cliff (from "The Lion's Mane") isn't here. But these are cavils. For anyone (not just Sherlock junkies) interested in the Holmes cycle, this is the edition to have: it'll keep you company for a long time to come. I look forward to the concluding volume (with the four novels) next year!
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The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories (2 Vol. Set)
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