The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes

by Arthur Conan Doyle, Leslie S. Klinger (Editor), John le Carré (Introduction)

Softcover Book

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, Crime, Literature, Detective

776 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE CASE OF THE ANNOTATED DETECTIVE


"So what did you make of it?"

"Well, it's a handsome volume, Holmes. I think a fitting tribute to the many cases you've solved over the years."

"No more than that, Watson? Come come, what of this man Klinger?"

"The annotator?"

"Precisely."

"Well, he seems a trifle fussy, a bit like an over-eager terrier jumping up and barking all the time. But he's also very knowledgeable."

"Anything else? You know my methods."

"Now Holmes, I know you just wish to bamboozle me again – let's have it."

"Did you not observe that Mr Klinger has a stoop, has suffered from pneumonia, and recently returned from a trip to the Caribbean? Also that he has a daughter but no sons, his favourite tipple is cointreau, and his wife is thinking of leaving him."

"Ah, now I know you are pulling my leg, Holmes."

"Not a bit of it…" [Holmes then continues with an unlikely series of outrageous deductions, assumptions and inferences which would explode the brain of any passing logician.]

***

This is a very curious volume and well deserves a little investigation. I have come to the following tentative conclusions.

1. It is by far the most beautiful book I have had the pleasure of actually reading. As you turn the exquisitely printed pages and feast upon the abundant illustrations and photographs, you feel like the Prince of Readers. At last you're in first class! Wow, the leg room and the service! For lovers of the physicality of books, the smell, the heft, the font, the flyleaves, the whole kit and caboodle of a book, this edition is very heaven.

2. This is the HEAVILY ANNOTATED Sherlock, but also it's the MORE THAN SLIGHTLY DEMENTED Sherlock. The whole of the annotating enterprise is built on a crazy foundation, as follows :

The reader of these volumes will not find reference to the literary sourcers of the stories or to biographical inidents in the life of Sir Arthur that may be reflected in the canon. I perpetuate the gentle fiction that Holmes and Watson really lived and that (except as noted) Dr John H Watson wrote the stories about Sherlock Holmes, even though he graciously allowed them to be published under the byline of his colleague and literary agent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

This "gentle fiction" leads the jovial Sherlockians into many Byzantine attempts to make the fictional world consistent with itself. I see this as a tiresome, blokeish and wholly unnecessary pursuit; they see it as a hugely amusing "game" (their word.) Given that Conan Doyle did not have the benefit of a computer database housing every last detail of every last story, there are many loose ends and contradictions in the stories. The Sherlockians have been writing umpteen learned essays in the last 100 years trying to resolve all this stuff. It's all slightly barmy. About half of the annotations, then, are useless for the reader who does not want to participate in the "gentle fiction" that Holmes was real.

An example of what they get up to from p 184 - the text reads

He took off his coat and waistcoat, and put on a large blue dressing-gown

This is annotated as follows

In "The Blue Carbuncle" Holmes wears a purple dressing gown; in "The Empty House" and "The Bruce-Partington Plans" he sports a "mouse-coloured" gown. Whether Holmes owned three dressing gowns or one is addressed by Christopher Morley : "This particular gown was blue when new… It had gone purple by the time of "The Blue Carbuncle". During the long absence 1891-1894, when Mrs Hudson faithfully aired and sunned it in the back yard, it faded to mouse.

3. Another very noticeable and very curious aspect of these Sherlockian annotations is their occasional attempts to undermine Holmes' unique deductions. You might think that fans would frown on this sort of thing, but no, they are eager to point out how ridiculous or plain wrong their hero is :

There are numerous improbabilities in this line of reasoning, helpfully desconstructed by JB Mackenzie in 1902. First, it would seem unnecessary for this individual to bring his hat upstairs at all etc etc … it is a bit rash to assume etc etc

4. However, the half of the non-silly annotations are great – in a short succession of pages you will get, for instance, potted histories of English assize courts, the role of coroners, what constituted a legal marriage in England, the Australian gold rush, diabetes, the Ku Klux Klan, the Thames water police, the Opium Wars and the use of opium in England, London Bridge, bowler hats, Christmas, Christmas cards, whether big heads = big brains = great intellect, Elizabeth Browning, the Bloomsbury Group and very numerous capsule histories of places in London like Covent Garden, Shoreditch and the British Museum. All of this is most delightful.

Therefore, taking all in all - 5 stars and a perfect Xmas present for the old buffer in your life



******************


PREVIOUSLY

In Waterstones yesterday, my vacant gaze fell upon a large oblong I initially took to be part of the shop furnishings. But it wasn't, it was this. It's big. It's nearly bigger than big. They had a copy I could peruse. So with the help of a few sturdy fellow browsers, I wrestled one of the volumes out of its box (they come in a box which if you put four legs on it you could have your dinner off it) and flipped open the pages. Lushness and vibrancy filled my eyes and my brain. There were pictures (not all by the same damned illustrator) and there was typography which had clearly been selected and honed by a rare typographer of authority and grace. There were annotations, by the pailful, the kind of mentalist let's pretend Sherlock Holmes is real sort of thing. More fun than putting your arm into a tank of piranhas with phds (they discuss your arm at length before they eat it). So I will be getting this. Even though my shelves groan with unread books. I know you understand my pain. I could not not get this.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've never read the Sherlock Holmes canon this is NOT the place to start. You're better off going with a more portable, straightforward edition without all the notes. But if you're a hardcore fan this is an awesome book. You'll be amazed at the attention to detail and the contortions the editors go to make some sort of continuity ouf of Conan Doyle's stories.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I broke down and bought all three volumes in this series after reading what other Goodreads reviewers had to say about them. It is going to be awhile before I finish the three, because each story contains some of the most interesting and useful footnotes ever appended to a piece of literature, along with illustrations not just from The Strand magazine, but from other sources as well. They also showcase various locations around London where the story takes place, along with drawings of other characters.

As if that is not enough, John Le Carre wrote the introduction, which introduces to the reader to the idea that Holmes and Watson are referred in the notes throughout as real persons. Instead of coming across as a ridiculous fancy, this makes sense. Truly, Holmes and Watson were Conan Doyle's contemporaries in every sense of the word.

These books will be the joy of any Sherlockian bibliophile. They are thoughtfully laid out with care so that the massive amount of supporting information beautifully supplements the stories. It is possible to read the stories without being distracted by the footnotes, which are printed in a soft red in the left-hand column of each two column page, so that the eye moves sideways easily from the footnote number to the note itself. The typeface is pleasing, and the paper upon which the pages are printed is of very high quality and soothing to the touch. These are books which will be passed down and cherished for generations to come.

[Brandon Forsyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short version: if you're a Holmes fan, you owe it to yourself to splurge for these editions.

The long version: This was my "project read" for 2016, and it very nearly didn't get done. My initial idea was that I'd read one short story every weekend, as there are 56 stories collected here, and I thought that at a leisurely pace of about one a weekend, I could get the whole thing done. Well, life intervened, and I ended up reading about one per day in the hectic last week of December, but I still had several exceedingly pleasant starts to my weekends, lounging like Holmes and Watson in a comfortable chair and considering the facts of the relevant cases. There are some weaker stories than others (especially in the Case-Book), but all things considered, the character and canon are unbelievably strong.

I remember visiting the countryside of England as a young boy with a ‎£3 version of "The Adventures" in my pocket (a copy that is still on my shelves today) and feeling that extreme satisfaction of logic and science triumphing over crime and violence - a feeling that I still exulted in reading them this year. Holmes was my unabashed hero in those days, and I still think he is one of the finest characters ever created. Re-reading these stories so much later, I really appreciated to a greater extent just how novel how much of this was: the early courts and police systems of Victorian England were extremely rudimentary, if they existed at all, and the idea of systemic, logical investigation and the tools needed to practice it feels revolutionary. As we continue to examine the justice system today, this served as a refreshing reminder that the legal system we have created was always imperfect, and there were certain stories that make you appreciate just how far we have come. That eternal search for a more perfect system is maybe the reason Holmes is the definitive detective.

This is certainly the definitive edition of these stories, which is why it garners five stars from me. I have not only re-affirmed my love for Conan Doyle, but found a new author to fawn over: Leslie S. Klinger! For those who may be unaware, this book plays by the "gentle fiction" that Holmes and Watson really lived, and that Conan Doyle was merely Watson's literary agent (who may have penned a few of the less-absorbing stories on his own). Only occasionally will the footnotes stray too far down this well-meaning avenue, into the realm of the absurd, but far more often they are invaluable, illuminating elements of the Victorian age that are meaningless to the modern reader, or providing greater context to the creeds and values the English citizenry of the period believed in. There's also a fair bit of "armchair detecting" that Klinger pulls in from the publications of the Baker Street Irregulars that are a hoot - there's a fair bit of criticism of Holmes' methods in some of these, and other intriguing possibilities for looking at the stories in a different light. Klinger has done a terrific job pulling all this together, in what I'm sure was a Herculean task. He has also annotated Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN, DRACULA, and some of the stories of Lovecraft, and I can't wait to explore those (and, in point of fact, have already bought the Lovecraft).

All told, an absolutely beautiful package that is well worth your pennies. I highly recommend sitting down with these to start your weekend.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I need a Sherlock Holmes fix - often - I go straight to the stories, but this book and the companion book of the Holmes novels is a must for any real Holmes addict. The side notes are fascinating and give insight to elements of the period that might be lost on readers. Hefty price, but worth it.

[Richard Bartholomew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur Conan Doyle never revealed how he came to meet John Watson, although one theory noted by Leslie Klinger is that it was at the Phoenix Masonic Lodge, which Doyle joined in 1887. Whatever the circumstances, we know that Doyle became Watson’s collaborator and agent, and within the same year he arranged for Watson’s account of a double-murder investigation in London to be published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. The first part of the work introduced Watson’s flatmate Sherlock Holmes, the world’s first self-described “consulting detective”, while in the second half another author (most likely Doyle himself) filled in the American background to the case, which involved Mormonism, forced marriage and revenge. A second long adventure appeared three years later in Lippincourt’s magazine, after which a further 58 stories about Holmes – mostly, but not all narrated by Watson – were famously published in the Strand magazine and collected into a series of books.

Klinger’s “New Annotated Edition” in three volumes covers the complete canon of four novels and 56 stories, and alongside a wealth of general historical and geographical contextualisation his notes draw on decades of “Holmesian” (or, as Americans prefer, “Sherlockian”) scholarship. Like Bram Stoker (Klinger’s New Annotated Draculareviewed here), Watson and Doyle hid many names and locations behind pseudonyms, and a close reading of the stories – which were published over four decades – reveal numerous continuity muddles, character inconsistencies and arguable interpretations of events. For example, was Watson wounded in Afghanistan in the shoulder or in the leg? Or do both versions cover a more embarrassing anatomical location? Why does Watson in “The Adventure of the Empty House” present Holmes’s survival of his encounter with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls as a great revelation, when the stories that follow demonstrate that everyone must have known about his return to London for some time already?

One tempting explanation is that Doyle made the whole thing up as he went along: this is the approach taken by the Oxford Sherlock Holmes, which is concerned with Doyle’s supposed sources. Holmesians, however, for the most part reject this reductionist perspective, instead suggesting ingenuous (and sometimes tortuous) explanations and inferences that either resolve problems or put a different light on events (including how Holmes botched some cases or was taken in by false mitigations). Even among Holmesians, though, there are reservations about the authenticity of some of the material: “The Mazarin Stone”, for example, seems to be a pastiche based on a play script by Doyle, and it is notable that scientists even now are unable to explain or replicate the simian transformation described in “The Creeping Man”. One “fundamentalist” theory is that Holmes really did perish in Switzerland, but Watson or Doyle fabricated his return for financial reasons. On the other hand, similarity in “The Problem of Thor Bridge” to an incident related by the Austrian criminologist Hans Gross need not imply a derivative story, but rather that the individuals concerned were themselves inspired by Gross’s work.

Although real identities are for the most part obscured, a few historical figures appear as themselves: most famously, A Study in Scarlet features Brigham Young, although Klinger notes that he is described as being younger than he actually was during the exodus to Utah, and that the size of the his entourage is too large (a few hundred rather than Doyle’s “nigh ten thousand” – Klinger also disputes allegations of forced conversions and of the continuation of the “Danite” secret society). More usually, though, real identities have had to inferred: according to Klinger, the character of Birdy Edwards in The Valley of Fear is “beyond question” the Pinkerton detective James McParlan, although their subsequent histories diverge. Holmes describes his grandmother as a sister to the French painter Vernet, although the family produced several painters and so it’s not clear which one is intended. There are also some more speculative connections, such as the suggestion that a figure met by Holmes at the Lyceum in The Sign of the Four was Bram Stoker himself, or that Holmes may have met M.R. James during the “Adventure of the Three Students” or worked against the Russian agent Dorijev in Tibet.

Some of the notes also locate Holmes within a wider literary universe, although again the claims are speculative. Given Holmes’s French grandmother, might C. Auguste Dupin have been his grandfather, despite Holmes’s dismissive assessment of the French detective’s abilities? Might Nero Wolfe have been his son by Irene Adler? Was the unnamed politician mentioned in The Veiled Lodger “Dollmann” from The Riddle of the Sands? Was Fred Porlock, Moriarty’s minion in The Valley of Fear, actually Adolf Verloc from Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent? Was the dictator Murillo, mentioned in The Adventure of Wsiteria Lodge, actually the “Tiger of Haiti” Mayes, described in Arthur Morrison’s The Red Triangle? There also may be links with other non-Holmes Doyle stories, with Lady Frances Carfax perhaps related to Lord Rufton from “How the Brigadier Triumphed in England”. The “Great Hiatus” – the period when Holmes was thought be dead – has created a lot of Holmesian scope for this kind of thing. Did Holmes visit Shangri-La during this period? Was he a secret agent who, disguised as a Chinese official, rescued Rider-Haggard’s Ludwig Horace Holly from execution? Did Moriarty also survive, and reinvent himself as Fu Manchu?

I was sorry to get rid of my old one-volume edition of facsimile reprints from the Strand, but the New Annotated Edition is far superior: Klinger notes textual variations between different editions, as well as material excised or amended from manuscripts. All the Strand illustrations by Sidney Paget and others are reproduced, as well as images from other editions (mostly American, but also including a German edition of A Study in Scarlet). The notes include the continuity recaps for serialised stories, and the extra material that appeared when the stories were collected into books are also present: prefaces by Watson and by Doyle, and a short essay by Joseph Bell. Klinger also provides a long introduction, titled “The World of Sherlock Holmes” (there is also a short foreword by John Le Carré, confusingly called the “Introduction”), as well as short essays on various themes attached to particular stories, and a chronology.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels is marvellous, and absolutely worth the price (which works out to about $30 per volume). The book is physically gorgeous and lovely to touch, with lots of black and white illustrations and notations in red, and smooth glossy paper. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. And the cover design is awesome.

What I've seen of the annotations has really impressed me, too. They are partially fannish theories sprouting around narrative discrepancies and plot holes - these evoked fond memories of arguing crazy theories in my HPFGU days just for the fun of it, even when we all knew that the true answer was something along the lines of a mistake - and factual and historical details that provide some context and make the stories that much richer. For instance, I liked the bit where they tried to figure out what sort of snake the Speckled Band was. (Here the answer is, "No real snake, he just made something up.")

(Oh, and it goes without saying that I'd give five stars even to an old crummy be-stained falling apart edition of these stories, but this rating should be read as an emphatic five stars.)

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is THE definative set for fans of Sherlock Holmes. There's loads of great footnotes here, detailing aspects of Victorian culture and discussing the links between the stories. It doesn't take itself overly seriously, though -- there's some amusing stuff about possible errors in the manuscript, discontinuities (for example, Watson's wandering war wound), and unlikely but interesting possible connections between the characters. The whole thing's also liberally illustrated, with Sidney Paget's illustrations of course, but also with illustrations from various other magazines and newspapers that serialized the stories. I just can't recommend this enough.

[Old-Barbarossa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sure there's the odd weak story here, but the gems more than balance them out. The whole of the canonical short stories. Good notes too. OK, there're cheaper PB editions but this is for the ACD geek. Get the annotated novels too.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: this review addresses editor Leslie S. Klinger's essays, annotations, and appendices rather than Doyle's works. For my reviews of the individual Holmes novels, please see my separate entry for each particular book.)

When I reviewed The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels , I said I'd save the bulk of my comments for this review, but I now find that I mostly said it all already. These two volumes have the same strengths and weaknesses as their companion: background, context, arcane Sherlockiana, and (alas) spoilers. I understand the theory that one doesn't pick up a book like this without having read the original, unannotated texts first, but to my mind the existence of annotations explaining certain obscure, outdated terms should put that notion to rest. Happily, as with the novel volume, this problem seems to fade the farther one gets, but that it exists at all is the sole reason for the lack of a fifth star.

It's a shame, too, because I'm otherwise blown away by the sheer depth and breadth of familiarity with the Holmes Canon Klinger puts on display here. I thoroughly enjoy his approach and tone, and if his digressions into "perpetuating the gentle fiction that Holmes and Watson really lived" generate the occasional eyeroll, they nonetheless betray an abiding love for the original material. Reading these New Annotated volumes doesn't just allow one to read the Holmes Canon, they also give the reader an appreciation of the Victorian era in London, the early years of crime detection and crime fiction, and just how much interest these tales have sparked over the last century and a half.

So, despite the spoilers, I think I'm ultimately happy to have read these books in this way rather than another. That these volumes include just about every illustration produced for the original publication of these stories adds immensely to their charm, and the overwhelming abundance of information in the annotations provides an education unto itself. I hope Klinger fully learned his spoiler lesson here, as I have an idea to read his The New Annotated Frankenstein and The New Annotated Dracula at some point down the line. Regardless, I thank him for shepherding me on my first trip through the Canon, and I tip my hat to the incredible amount of time, work, and love he clearly put into it.

[William Stuckey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who is a fan of Sherlock Holmes would be estatic to read this new edition. So many facts and elements to get into not only Sir Arthur Conan Doyles head but to also understand the time period. Sherlock Holmes has never been read better..

[Andrew_B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of excellent background information, but for people who claim to love the stories, the annotators don't half spend a lot of time finding fault with them, picking holes in the details or in Holmes' methods...

[Crystal Ellyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!!!!!!!!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection works on the assumption of the reality of Holmes and Watson. “The reader of these volumes will not find reference to the literary sources of the stories or to biographical incidents in the life of Sir Arthur that may be reflected in the canon”. Such details, I think, would be helpful or make sense perhaps of inconsistencies, but work under the assumption of reality, apparently.
Chronology section (in Vol I and III but not II, and I had to return the other volumes while I still had II) is helpful but a little confusing, because it includes expert fan hypotheses which I don't know whether they can be confirmed in Canon, like family members' names and pre-case histories. Annotations include these kind of speculations and reference to the many works trying to explain inconsistencies or connections. But they also include the usual helpful references to things that were of the times, like objects, places, historical people or events. And the inclusion of a variety of story illustrations and pictures of the times and places is great, too.
I don't think you'd want to read this edition for a first read as they reference later stories within earlier ones, plus it's big and bulky. I read most of the stories for the first time via audio.
As the stories go on, perhaps especially from The Return, the annotations seem to poke lots of holes in the “master’s” (meaning Sherlock Holmes) stories, especially it seemed in “The Bruce-Partington Plans” (from The last Bow), and yet in its intro it's said to be “regarded as one of the finest mystery stories in the annals of detection”.
I am perhaps unreasonably annoyed by the editor’s use of the word “role” with a symbol over the “o”. I understand that the word might be from another language which uses symbols over letters, but is it's use in a book published in 2005 a little pretentious? Maybe it's a UK/US difference but I don't believe I’ve ever seen it like that before this trio of books.
And an exchange in French between Arthur Conan Doyle and a French general on the front lines in 1916, shared in a footnote to “His Last Bow”, is not translated. Yet whenever Holmes, in the stories, spouts a line of French or other language, it’s translated.

Short stories Vol.1 finished 6/20. Just reading the annotations (having previously read all the stories) takes some time.
Last volume started 6/27 and finished 7/14.

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: This review is for Volume I of The Annotated Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes, which contain stories from the first two collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, respectively.

I began reading the Sherlock Holmes stories early into my intern year in internal medicine; I'd felt that this was a major gap in my reading, and decided to be assiduous in making up the deficit. It was a brilliant choice; Sherlock Holmes has much to teach any budding doctor. In part, this is because Conan Doyle was himself a doctor and he based Holmes on one of his favorite professors in medical school, a man who could glance at a patient and ascertain not just their medical problems but also their emotional state, their line of work, their station in life. This is, I think, what makes Sherlock Holmes the master that he is; he's basically an attending physician who treats crimes instead of diseases. He also traffics in H&Ps, differential diagnoses, pre-test probabilities, the accumulation of carefully observed details into illness scripts, and above all the thing that makes a great doctor: ignoring the vortex of noise for the lone straggly shard of signal. Of course, it also helps that Conan Doyle is, within this narrow realm, a master of his own--he has this almost indefatigable talent for clear, efficient description, but also of capturing a faded and comforting vision of London, a well-organized city with any number of subcultures, hidden intrigues, secrets within secrets, ultimate meaning. Holmes is a captivating, compelling character, his monomaniacal curiosity about the world infectious; one of the charms of the mysteries is that he doesn't make you feel dumb, because Doyle carefully writes the stories in ways that are impossible for the reader to figure out--so you can just save your energy for astonishment at Holmes's brilliant deductions. I grew to love the familiar rhythms of these stories--the early rapport between Holmes and Watson, the introduction of the case, the single detail which intrigues Holmes without its significance being apparent to us, the initial set of interviews, the puzzling gambits, the ultimate reveal. Holmes never asks for our affection; in fact, he seems to scorn sentiment outright from anybody but Watson. And yet his ostensible death, over the Reichenbach falls in a tangle with Moriarty, managed to devastate me all the same. I think of these stories, within the Canon of 56 stories, as the true Canon; but I cannot wait to recharge and re-enter this world through the back half of the short stories.

"A Scandal in Bohemia", 8.5/10
“The Red-Headed League”, 9/10
“A Case of Identity”, 7/10
"The Five Orange Pips", 9/10
“The Man with the Twisted Lip”, 7/10
“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”, 8.5/10
“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, 9.5/10
“The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb”, 8.5/10
“The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor”, 8/10
“The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”, 8.5/10
“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, 6/10
****************
“Silver Blaze”, 9.5/10
“The Stockbroker's Clerk”, 5/10
“The Gloria Scott”, 9.5/10
“The Reigate Squires”, 9.5/10
“The Crooked Man”, 7/10
“The Greek Interpreter”, 10/10
“The Naval Treaty”, 10/10
“The Final Problem”, 10/10

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read pretty much all of the Sherlock Holmes short stories years ago when my children were little. I started out with the most famous, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and could not get through it, found it difficult reading, dry, etc. At that point in my life, to keep my adult brain nourished; my goal was to pick a new author or genre of literature and read all that I could of that author or new genre during a year. Well, Holmes was what I had chosen to stretch myself and I was determined to finish what I barely had started. I began with a more simple short story; enjoyed it and continued reading all of the Holmes stories I could get a hold of. Then, I finished my Holmes experience (after months of getting to know and love these short stories) with "The Hound of the Baskervilles" loving and enjoying the story. I could see why it was considered Doyle's best.

Since then I have loved all of the ways the media has explored Sherlock. My favorite being the PBS version. I still catch it when they bring that series out of the vaults. I totally enjoyed the most recent movie with Rober Downy Jr. It was certainly ramped up for the younger audience; but I LOVED all the Sherlock elements that were woven into that experience.

My husband gave me the first two volumes of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes a few months ago. I marveled at the detailed dedication of Klinger's notes. I LOVED all of the additional information about the time and places that the stories took place as well as all the juicy gossip and theories about the origen and authenticiy of the characters and the author/s?!

I have enjoyed pulling these stories out over the last months and delving into one or several of the stories in between other reads. What a great friend Doyle, Watson and most of all Sherlock has become over the years.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can you not say you like Sherlock Holmes? Annotated by a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, this tome was bound to be informative and strange at the same time. One of the things that came to the forefront to me repeatedly on this read-through was how strangely different life was just 100 years ago. It is easy to delude ourselves into believing that we can understand people of the Victorian age (it certainly is a popular time for people to talk about / emulate), but their attitudes on justice, and labor, and country, and race, and religion, and gender are foreign to our modern discourse. The footnotes are largely interesting and about evenly split between information a modern reader could use to understand the story better and ways people have attempted to maintain the great fiction that "the Canon" is all real.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an item distinct from The Complete Sherlock Holmes already on my shelf. If you have not read all of Sherlock Holmes already, read the un-annotated version. That done, this is the place to turn if you want to know more about the great detective. It contains an amazing amount of added material, going far beyond the classic annotated edition from the mid-20th century. I really appreciate the detailed explanations of Victorian era terms with which I am unfamiliar (such as antimacassar), and possible explanations of the inconsistencies between some of the stories. There are some details I could do without, and I rebel against some of the alternative theories casting Holmes or Mycroft in a bad light. But this is a great resource for anyone who wants to go beyond the surface of these great stories.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am giving 5 stars to the conan doyle stories-- not to this particular annotated collection. i read an annotated holmes once years ago that was much better than this. this version has an annoying conceit of pretending that "watson" actually wrote the stories and conan doyle was merely his literary agent. while many of the annotations supply some interesting information about items common to victorian england but obscure to the modern reader, the inanity of the notes' pretense of reality far outweighs their utility.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to take on the reading of the complete canon of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. James Watson. I'm very glad to have done so via the annotated versions (this is the first of three volumes). The annotated versions allow you to understand archaic Victorian terms and context of the stories - which is incredibly handy and makes thorough understanding of the stories possible. I can't wait to start on volume 2!

[Niklas Pivic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally. Finished.

The annotations are worth the price as a whole, totally. Despite the original writings being filled with racistic, nationalistic, anti-feministic and insane values, The Canon is still enjoyable, if one is able to see past these things. It's a brilliant collection, and I firmly recommend it. "The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes" is a bit dodgy as it's written at the very end of The Canon, when Conan Doyle basically wanted to stop writing about Holmes, which is very evident.

[Ann O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this treasure at the library. While, I will finish before its due date, I will purchase because of its value as a reference. The annotation format is 360 degree enrichment. Lots of great illustrations and social history gems that will make you a Baker Street aficionado. (I was lukewarm about the author until I discovered this volume)

I would love to find an annotation edition for all of the classics.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I last read the Holmes books as a child. So after reading the first couple of novels on my DS I decided to purchase the Annotated versions. It took several months to get through as these two contain all 56 original short stories along with an untold number of annotations. The annotations definitely added to my knowledge of Holmes arcana as well as that of Victorian England. While not for everyone, anyone who has read and enjoyed the Holmes books will enjoy these.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably deserves four stars, but Sherlock Holmes has a special place in my heart. The footnotes are mostly good, and the accompanying essays run the gamut from odd and somewhat interesting to pretty boring. The Baker Street Irregulars are a weird bunch (and happily so, I imagine). As much as I love Holmes and Watson, the stories are uneven and often absurd (and a bit dated). That said, the care and effort put into this version is astounding and worthy of five stars.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!! As a dedicated Sherlockian I cannot recomend this set high enough.The research alone that went into these 3 volumes must have taken years. Not to mention the stories themselves. There are very few books ever written that people still read for pleasure that are this old. I give this twelve stars out of five.

[Ram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you a complete nerd? Do you read detective stories and come away confused by the details, wondering just what all of Holmes' offhand comments meant in the vernacular, and where they originated? Do you care that Conan Doyle made hundreds, nay, thousands of little, tiny, meaningless mistakes in his novels? This is the annotated collection for you, chum!

[2bnallegory · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the Sherlock stories then this is a very good book to read them from, it is filled with a biography of Arthur C Doyle, tidbits and explanations of things that were once common knowledge and time lines and time line errors. It is also filled with many illustrations from the various publications.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't actually own thes books, so I check them out of the library EVERY time I am home. They're pretty much the definitive Sherlock Holmes texts. Not only do they have notes on the historical details, but readers are also exposed to the wide variety of Sherlockian theories, ranging from analysis of the story-telling, contradicting details, and speculation regarding untold tales.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic presentation of favourite stories. I was perhaps looking for a bit more depth to the annotations as there's too much explanation of things which are obvious to UK inhabitants. I was hoping for a bit of cross-referencing of stories, theories etc.

Still, I'll read this edition again and again. Now to save up for volume 3 - the novels.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rating is for the edition not the stories. There's something gloriously nuts about it. Take a fictional character, pretend he's real, and then argue over ways of sorting out the discrepancies. The stories stand alone, but the annotations are worth the price of entry. And the amount of odd information that gets thrown up would keep the average trivia fanatic happy for months.