The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, ed. Leslie S. Klinger
The whole canon with a scholar at your elbow and hundreds of period illustrations.
The canon rewards close reading, and a century of people reading it closely has left a great deal to explain.
You have read some of the stories already, and now you want to know what everything in them meant to the people who first read them.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: all sixty texts, across three volumes: the short stories in two, the four novels in the third.
Changes: how you read: every page carries notes on Victorian life, on the publication history, and on the theories Sherlockians have built for a hundred years. Norton’s pages count more than 450 illustrations in each story volume and about 350 in the novels.
Whose story is it?
the readers’ as much as anyone’s — this is the canon as an object of devotion, with the devotion printed in the margin.
How much time does it ask?
Three volumes. W. W. Norton currently lists all three as ebooks, and Amazon lists the hardcovers: the two short-story volumes as a set, and the novels on their own. The printed set is also the one your library is likeliest to hold.
Volume one carries an introduction by John le Carré.
Where to find it
Other ways to get it: Hardcover, the short stories (2 vols) — Amazon · Hardcover, the novels — Amazon · Ebook — Kobo · Ebook, vol. 1 — W. W. Norton · Ebook, vol. 2 — W. W. Norton · Ebook, vol. 3 (the novels) — W. W. Norton
Borrow it free: Borrow on Libby · Find at your library — WorldCat
Common questions
Is The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes still in print?
W. W. Norton's own site currently lists all three volumes as ebooks — two of short stories and one of the four novels. Amazon lists the hardcovers: the two short-story volumes as a set, and the novels volume on its own. The printed set is also the version most libraries hold, so the library links on this page are another route to the paper edition.
More versions: The Complete Novels and Stories, Bantam Classics (two volumes) · The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Oxford World’s Classics (2025) · The Hound of the Baskervilles, Oxford World’s Classics (2023)