If you're a Sherlock Holmes devotee, you will be delighted to learn that there is a new two-volume annotated collection of the Victorian detective stories. For the price of three commonplace hardbacks, you can own a mammoth state-of-the-art edition of some of the most entertaining stories ever written.
Don't confuse this new set with the justly famous Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William S. Baring-Gould, published in 1967. Klinger's work really is a whole new edition, occasionally referring to the Baring-Gould but never dependent upon it. These first two volumes contain all 56 stories about the great detective and his devoted Boswell, arranged in the order of the original collections. The four novels will follow next year in a third volume.
If you already have the Baring-Gould edition, you face an obvious question: why would anyone need two annotated sets of Sherlock Holmes? First because, despite the distractions of a scary world, nerdy scholars never cease burrowing after more details, thus further enlightening us about an ever more distant Victorian England; and second, because there were many lonely illustrations yearning for the society of their fellows. This book is stuffed with glorious artwork, from the original magazines, from various book editions, from catalogs and albums. Fans simply cannot afford to miss these excellent books.
