The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1: The Complete Short Stories: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

905 Pages·2007·20.48 MB·English

by  Arthur Conan Doyle

T S A C D
O IR RTHUR ONAN OYLE
“Steel true, blade straight”
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction by John le Carré
The World of Sherlock Holmes
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE
A CASE OF IDENTITY
THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY
THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS
THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP
“A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME . . .”
THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE
A WINTER’S CROP
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND
“IT IS A SWAMP ADDER! . . . THE
DEADLIEST SNAKE IN INDIA.”
THE GUNS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
AND JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER’S
THUMB
THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR
THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET
THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES
THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
SILVER BLAZE
“. . . AND THE CALCULATION IS A
SIMPLE ONE”
“I STAND TO WIN A LITTLE ON THIS
NEXT RACE . . .”
THE CARDBOARD BOX
THE YELLOW FACE
THE STOCK-BROKER’S CLERK
THE “GLORIA SCOTT”
THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL
THE RITUAL OF THE MUSGRAVES
THE REIGATE SQUIRES
THE CROOKED MAN
THE INDIAN MUTINY
THE RESIDENT PATIENT
THE TEXT OF “THE RESIDENT
PATIENT”
THE GREEK INTERPRETER
MYCROFT HOLMES
THE NAVAL TREATY
THE FINAL PROBLEM
REVISIONS OF “THE FINAL
PROBLEM”
Chronological Table: The Life and Times of Sherlock
Holmes
Other Annotated Books
Also by Leslie S. Klinger
PREFACE
I
N 1968, WHEN I was supposed to be engrossed in law
school studies, I received a gift of William S. Baring-
Gould’s The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, published the
previous year. This magical pair of volumes entranced
me and led me back to the stories that I had enjoyed when
I was young(er) and had subsequently forgotten. More
importantly, the books introduced me to the idea of
Sherlockian scholarship, the “game” of treating the
stories as biography, not fiction. In later years, as I avidly
collected things Sherlockian, I dreamed that someday I,
too, would produce an annotated version of the Canon.
Baring-Gould’s Annotated Sherlock Holmes remained
in print for more than twenty-five years and became the
cornerstone of every Sherlock Holmes library. Yet it had
its idiosyncrasies, with the stories arranged in the
controversial chronological order created by Baring-
Gould and with footnotes that embraced, in many cases,
Baring-Gould’s personal theories regarding the life of
Holmes. Sadly, Baring-Gould did not live to see
publication of his greatest work, and as a result,
occasional errors were not corrected. In contrast to the
Baring-Gould edition, the Oxford Sherlock Holmes,
published in 1993, presented the stories in nine volumes
(as they were originally published in book form), but the
scholarly notes largely ignored Sherlockian scholarship,
concentrating more traditionally on analysis of Conan
Doyle’s sources.
I set out to create for this edition an annotated text that
reflects the spectrum of views on Sherlockian
controversies rather than my own theories. 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. For the serious scholar of the
Sherlockian Canon, there is an extensive bibliography at
the end of Volume II. Chronological tables, summarizing
the key dates in the lives of Holmes, Watson, and Conan
Doyle and major world events, are set forth at the end of
each volume. I have avoided “lawyerly” citations of the
works consulted, but full citations may be found in the
nine volumes of my Sherlock Holmes Reference Library,
published by Gasogene Books.
Thirty-seven years have passed since publication of
Baring-Gould’s monumental work, and the world of
Sherlock Holmes has grown much larger. This edition
was created with the assistance of new resources that now
exist for the serious student—Ronald L. DeWaal’s The
Universal Sherlock Holmes, Jack Tracy’s Encyclopaedia
Sherlockiana, Steve Clarkson’s Canonical Compendium,
and scores of other handbooks, reference works, indexes,
and collections, many in computerised format. It also
reflects the aid of a new tool—the Internet, which makes
accessible immense quantities of minute detail.
This is not a work for the serious student of Arthur
Conan Doyle. While Doylean scholarship is vitally
important, 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. 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.
To keep this work from approaching the length of a
telephone book, it is published in three volumes: The first
two volumes consist of the fifty-six short stories that
appeared from 1891 to 1927 (Volume I containing the
stories collected in the volumes called The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes,
Volume II containing the stories collected under the titles
The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, and The
Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes); the third volume (to be