Sherlock Holmes Month at Tip the Wink Concludes
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Published 1988 by Dorset Press, Hardcover, 1,122 pages, preface by Christopher Morley, 1,122 pages
I’ve posted a lot about Sherlock Holmes this September. All of my reading of the Canon has been done in this, my preferred edition of the complete novels and stories.
The complete set of four novels and fifty-six stories, are or have been available in many (perhaps as many as 200) various editions, in print, as ebooks and as audio books, and there is an excellent two volume annotated edition, but I like this one, which I bought in 1989.
Yes, this book is door-stop thick, yes, the print is rather small (though it didn’t seem so to me when I bought it) and no, it doesn’t have the Sidney Padget illustrations. But it does have that preface by Christopher Morley, which I like a lot, and it’s the edition I like best.
Because I also spent time reading various pastiche collections, I didn’t get through all of the original works, but I did read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I didn’t get all the way through His Last Bow or even start The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, but rest assured I will do so in the next few days. I also plan on rereading The Valley of Fear, just to close things out.
Sherlock Holmes appeared in a total of 60 stories (4 novels, 56 short stories), written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published between 1887 and 1927. The four novels and five volumes of short stories now often appear as The Complete Sherlock Holmes.
Table of Contents:
- A Study in Scarlet (novel, 1887)
- The Sign of the Four (novel, 1890)
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- A Scandal in Bohemia, 1891
- The Red-headed League, 1891
- A Case of Identity, 1891
- The Boscombe Valley Mystery, 1891
- The Five Orange Pips, 1891
- The Man with the Twisted Lip, 1891
- The Blue Carbuncle, 1892
- The Speckled Band, 1892
- The Engineer’s Thumb, 1892
- The Noble Bachelor, 1892
- The Beryl Coronet, 1892
- The Copper Beeches, 1892
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
- Silver Blaze, 1892
- The Yellow Face, 1893
- The Stock-broker’s Clerk, 1893
- The ‘Gloria Scott’, 1893
- The Musgrave Ritual, 1893
- The Reigate Squires, 1893
- The Crooked Man, 1893
- The Resident Patient, 1893
- The Greek Interpreter, 1893
- The Naval Treaty, 1893
- The Final Problem, 1893
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (novel, 1901-02)
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes
- The Empty House, 1903
- The Norwood Builder, 1903
- The Dancing Men, 1903
- The Solitary Cyclist, 1903
- The Priory School, 1904
- Black Peter, 1904
- Charles Augustus Milverton, 1904
- The Six Napoleons, 1904
- The Three Students, 1904
- The Golden Pince-Nez, 1904
- The Missing Three-Quarter, 1904
- The Abbey Grange, 1904
- The Second Stain, 1904
- The Valley of Fear (novel, 1914-15)
- His Last Bow
- Wisteria Lodge, 1908
- The Cardboard Box, 1893
- The Red Circle, 1911
- The Bruce-Partington Plans, 1908
- The Dying Detective, 1913
- Lady Frances Carfax, 1911
- The Devil’s Foot, 1910
- His Last Bow, 1917
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
- The Illustrious Client, 1924
- The Blanched Soldier, 1926
- The Mazarin Stone, 1921
- The Three Gables, 1926
- The Sussex Vampire, 1924
- The Three Garridebs, 1924
- Thor Bridge, 1922
- The Creeping Man, 1923
- The Lion’s Mane, 1926
- The Veiled Lodger, 1927
- Shoscombe Old Place, 1927
- The Retired Colourman, 1926
And thus concludes Sherlock Holmes month at Tip the Wink. I started this expecting to have The MX Book of New Sherlock Homes Stories in hand by the middle of the month, and certainly by late in the month, but as I write this on September 29th there is no sign of it. Though it didn’t arrive, there was more than enough Holmes reading to keep me occupied for the month and I greatly enjoyed all of it. I hope those of you who dropped in enjoyed my sharing some of it with you.
Tip the Wink 
But it does have that preface by Christopher Morley, which I like a lot, and it’s the one I like best.
Kurious Koincidence Korner:
To the best of my knowledge, I’d never heard of Christopher Morley before about two hours ago, when I discovered he wrote a foreword to detective writer Hulbert Footner’s posthumous novel. So off I went to look Morley up on Wikipedia.
And then, a couple of hours later . . .
Flabbergasted, I am. Reet flabbergasted. It’s the oddest coincidence I’ve come across in, oo, days.
John, it’s amazing/cool when things like that happen. in this case it’s neat because you came up with a very interesting person. As Jeff suggests below, you should check out Morley’s PARNASSUS ON WHEELS.
realthog: You should check out Morley’s PARNASSUS ON WHEELS.
Nice job on Holmes month. I can’t take such small print these days. I have an ebook version of The Complete Holmes, complete with the Paget illustrations. It’s not Holmes, but Martin Edwards included an 1893 Conan Doyle story (“The Case of Lady Sannox”) in his CAPITAL CRIMES anthology.
I thought about buying that ebook version, Jeff, but didn’t pull the trigger. I missed that CAPITAL CRIMES collection, Jeff. Thanks for the complement.
You should check out Morley’s PARNASSUS ON WHEELS.
Which, to my delight, I’ve discovered is available from Project Gutenberg. Many thanks for the tip — I’ll give the book a try Real Soon Now.
I’m with Jeff on small print. A couple years ago I nagged Art Scott into buying the ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES. I really enjoyed your Month of Sherlock!
Thanks, George, I had fun doing it. There is still a lot of Holmes left to read. I saw last week that there have been over 200 new Holmes-related books published in the last year! I’m still waiting, not very patiently, for that big three-volume collection to land on my doorstep.
Elementary!
Good one, Charles, good one.
I haven’t been commenting on your blog much lately, but I read each new post. I sure appreciate your comments here!
Did you read Kareem’s novel about Mycroft? Are you planning to?
No and no.
Me either. I read a review of it today.
Somehow I seem to have missed your Sherlock Holmes Month, Richard. Shame on me. This is only my very favorite series of all time. Lately I’ve been ‘re-reading’ by listening to the audio versions – I have the complete collection on audio read by Simon Vance who does a fabulous job.
I’m working on a post of my favorite series for next week, and the Holmes collection will top the list.
It’s a funny thing how these stories still stand up to re-reading and re-reading. Little did Conan Doyle know how his creation would live on and on and on…
Yvette, I have the same audio version, but I prefer reading. I did read some of the tales ad ebook, and that was okay, but this hefty book remains my favorite.