The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, vols. I and II, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; edited with notes by Leslie S. Klinger. 1,945 p.I've been meaning to reread the canonical Holmes stories for a while now, and I finally got around to it. These two volumes cover all 56 of the original short stories by Conan Doyle, though they don't include the four novels, which I hope to cover in January. (For some of the stories, I'd watch the Jeremy Brett television adaptation, then read the story. I was amazed at how much of the dialogue the shows reproduced exactly!) It's been so long since I've read the stories that the sloppiness of Conan Doyle's writing surprised me. I was also surprised by how many of the stories were set when Watson was not living at 221B Baker Street with his friend.
I enjoyed the annotations immensely. There are two kinds: factual ones explaining some aspect of history or setting, such as the values of pre-decimal British money--I actually know the difference between a pound and a guinea now!--and "Sherlockian" notes, discussing theories about how stuff in the stories that contradicts itself might be explained away, such as positing that John H. Watson's middle name is Hamish, and thus when his wife calls him James she's merely using the English version of his middle name, not getting his name completely wrong. Anyway, if you're a fan of annotations, definitely check out this collection. If you're a fan of any of the new Holmes adaptations, movies or TV shows--and I highly recommend the BBC's Sherlock--more familiarity with the original stories can only add to your enjoyment.
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