“The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes”, by Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Sidney Edward Paget

 

636 pages, Castle Books, ISBN-13: 978-0890090572

I got the omnibus The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes from…hell, I don’t remember, but it is every Sherlockian’s dream, collecting as it does 37 short stories originally published in the famed British magazine The Strand and later collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (I just wish it contained the stories collected in His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, but oh well). This edition was originally published way the hell back in 1976, so I’m sure I must have picked it up from a used bookstore or a garage sale or something like that – but no matter; it was this edition of the classic tales that launched my Sherlockmania and got me interested in reading and whatnot, so there’s that.

If you’ve read these classics or, at least, have seen their interpretations on television – Jeremy Brett being the best Holmes – THE BEST, I tell ya – although there are many more to choose from – then they will all be familiar to you, from A Scandal in Bohemia to The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, from The Adventure of Silver Blaze to The Final Problem, from The Adventure of the Empty House to The Adventure of the Second Stain – and, of course, The Hound of the Baskervilles. After reading each story you will be reminded why Conan Doyle’s creation left such an indelible mark on the public’s imagination (much to his later chagrin), as Holmes, using his prodigious mind, depthless knowledge and observational magnificence solves the most intriguing and vexing mysteries using only reason and the scientific method.

One mustn’t forget Sidney Edward Paget, the original illustrator of these tales for The Strand and the man just as responsible for the look of Holmes as his creator was. The illustrations presented in this volume are all reproductions of the artist’s original drawings and, by default, the template from which all subsequent interpretations of the character are based upon. While one, of course, must not discount Conan Doyle’s descriptions of his most famous creation, without Paget’s pen the imaginations of most people would not be able to conjure up what this most peculiar of detectives was supposed to look like. While lacking a gourd Calabash (but not the deerstalker), the way in which Paget drew Holmes is the way in which the world will always remember him and in which actors the world over will portray him.

I’m sure that there have been many more such omnibus’ that have been published since this one – which, hopefully, include the last two collections and maybe even the other novels. But when I was a kid The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes was all I needed to get me started on my reading and love of this strange, driven, dedicated and utterly unique crusader for justice.