The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle; William S. Baring-Gould, ed. 

All right, so I'm a little bit obsessed with Sherlock Holmes at the moment, but it's really an old passion (it started in high school) recently inflamed by the RDJ movies. (I like the "modern" BBC series too, but not as much; so sue me. I like big smart movies with lots of things exploding, and I cannot lie...) So you may be reading a lot of reviews of Holmes books from me this summer as I study the canon (the original Holmes stories and novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), scholarly and popular works about the canon, and pastiches (stories and novels about Holmes written by other authors). Baring-Gould's annotated canon is one of the great classic works that any Holmes aficionado should have -- he was a renowned Sherlockian scholar, and this, his magnum opus, was published in 1967. This two-volume set presents the complete text of the canon plus copious helpful and just plain interesting annotation, as well as a ton of illustrations and graphics. The current heir to Baring-Gould is Leslie Klinger, probably the greatest Holmes expert now living, who will be appearing at Chapman's Big Orange Book Festival this September! I'll be tackling Mr. Klinger's own massive two-volume annotated Holmes next, to see how his more modern scholarship compares to Baring-Gould's 1967 work. Should be fascinating, as the Great Detective himself might say...!

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR 4620 .A5 B3 1971, 2nd Floor Humanities
Review submitted by Mary Platt , Public Relations

Rating: Highly Recommended