The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

CONAN DOYLE, Sir Arthur.

Item Number: 148123

London: George Newnes, 1892-1894.

First editions of these classic stories starring literature’s most famous detective. Octavo, two volumes, bound in full twentieth-century blue calf with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, tissue-guarded frontispiece in ‘Memoirs’, illustrated by Sidney Paget. First issues, ‘Adventures’ with “Violent” for “Violet” on p 317. Original light blue and dark blue cloth bound in at the end of each volume. In fine condition, bookplates to the front pastedowns. An exceptional presentation.

Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887), but his adventures in the Strand Magazine would bring both him and his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, lasting fame. "The initial 12 tales were collected between covers as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in England and America in 1892; and 11 of the second 12… as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1894. If any reader be prepared to name two other books that have given more innocent but solid pleasure, let him speak now— or hold his peace!" (Haycraft, 50). These volumes contain such famous and memorable tales as "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Of special note is the last case in the Memoirs, "The Final Problem," in which Holmes apparently meets his death in a struggle with "the Napoleon of crime," Professor Moriarty. "At one point, tiring of the detective, Doyle attempted to exterminate him… but the clamor of his admirers forced him to resurrect Holmes for several further volumes, and his popularity has waned little since" (Benet, 273).