Book Review: The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Leslie Klinger
1878 pages. W. W. Norton, 2004. $75

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When I was a teenager, I, like many people that age, discovered Sherlock Holmes. These stories, with their subtleties and unique view of people and their foibles, got me interested in the detective genre. Holmes is, of course, the archetypal detective, with his deerstalker hat, pipe and magnifying glass. But when you look deeper, and see him with his cocaine addiction, he becomes a complex person.I’m not a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, but I’ve read the stories and novels several times over the years. Reading Doyle also got me interested in other fiction from the Victorian era, one where modern fiction was first taking shape.

This two-volume edition with annotations about characters, places, ideas and all the tiny details that make these stories a rich example of literature, but also a true mirror of the period. With a third volume scheduled for 2005 (containing the four novels), this is the ultimate Sherlock Holmes set.

This set is a delight to the eyes, with excellent layout and beautiful paper. The text is printed in columns near the gutter, about 3/5 of the page width, with annotations at the exterior of each page in red. At first, one might think that red print would be distracting, but once I started reading it faded out of my consciousness, except when I wanted to read a note.

The annotations cover many things: details about the stories, about the “lives” of Holmes and Watson, places referred to in the stories, people and characters, and a wealth of details about the Victorian period. When reading literature from this period, I’m often unsure of the meanings of some words, or the exact details about some objects. These annotations bring the Victorian era to life, helping the reader understand the many details that are present. However, one must read the stories in order to fully appreciate the notes; the first time a “hansom” is seen, it is annotated; the note is not repeated at subsequent appearances of the word.

Leslie Klinger’s annotations range from erudite to humorous. He often cites other Holmesian scholars and their opinions on the stories and events, even those who point out major discrepancies in the narrative. It’s a fun read, not only for the Holmes stories, but for the wealth of detail, which is there for the picking if you want to go further.

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