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Last year the NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES was published, almost immediately garnering a well-deserved award for its treatment of the world's most famous short stories. Now Leslie Klinger has completed this invaluable collection with the publication of the Holmesian novels. The sheer scale of the volumes in this set can be daunting -- each one is roughly the size and weight of a phone book, and holds almost as much information. But no phone book is as witty and interesting as these. While I'm not normally a fan of footnotes, the whole point of annotating lies in those notes, and Klinger delivers with an attention to detail worthy of the great detective. Volume 1 covers the Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, but before we get to the stories there's a short introduction by Le Carre and a long essay titled The World of Sherlock Holmes which covers the history of detective novels, the Victorian era, Holmes in film, the rise of fan groups, the pastiches, and most importantly, the lives of Doyle, Watson, and Holmes. Klinger subscribes to the fannish fantasy that Sherlock really lived; as he puts it, tongue firmly in cheek, "[People] sneer that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character. However, such a wild assertion will not be considered in a work as serious as these volumes." The same sly wit appears in the footnote "For reasons undiscerned, English Sherlockians are known as "Holmesians;" American Holmesians are known as Sherlockians." Volume 1 ends with a timeline comparing events in the life of Doyle, Holmes, and Watson with the concurrent events happening in England, on the Continent, and in the world. In between are the stories, where the footnotes shift to explaining the history of their publishing, translating Victorian terms, speculating on who people like the King of Bavaria really might have been, and a mineralogical analysis of blue carbuncles, to name a few among the hundreds of asides. After several of the stories are informative essays relating to them, such as A Winter's Crop, which discusses The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle in light of the fact that geese have no crops, contradicting a major plot point. ("Holmes made an alimentary error.") This book, like all in the set, is lavishly illustrated with artwork culled from previous Sherlockian publications or showing Victorian items. Volume II completes the short story collection with the contents of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. There is no introduction, and the inter-story essays include a codebook of Dancing Men, the history of bicycling, and a study of Early English charters. After an exhaustive bibliography, the appendixes include a geographical list of active Sherlockian societies around the world (with contact information) plus a list of the sites on the Sherlockian Web, with notes on further research on Victorian resources. Instructions are even given on how to subscribe to the Hounds of the Internet, a high volume email list. Volume III continues the tradition set by the previous releases. It covers A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Valley of Fear, and the infamous Hound of the Baskervilles. Footnotes include an accurate background of the Mormon Church (correcting many of the sensations within Study in Scarlet), details of phrenology (Baskervilles), and the history of the Molly Maguires (Valley of Fear). The after-novel essays include a direct Valley/Maguire comparison table, Doyle's letters discussing the sources for Hound of the Baskervilles and best of all, Dr. Joseph Bell writing On Sherlock Holmes. This is the same Dr. Bell who had originally inspired Sherlock in the first place, so reading his discussion on deductive reasoning is worth the price of the book right there. The volume ends with another timeline like the one from Volume II. Klinger's insistence on Holmes' reality gets a tad cutesy at times, but that's nothing compared to how fascinated and impressed I was with everything else he provided. THE NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES might not be the books to pick up if you just want to curl up and do a little quick, mindless reading, but you won't regret the days you spend savoring the wealth of facts, speculation, and background provided. Even fans of Sherlockian spinoff series such as Laurie King's Mary Holmes and Carole Nelson Douglas' Irene Adler will find something just for them; both are discussed in context of the canon. This set is a must-own for everyone even tangentially interested in Sherlock Holmes. How convenient that the final volume is arriving in time for Christmas shopping!
Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, October 2005
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