Looking for a nice edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes

[mekare]

My dear fellow Sherlockians,

I am on the lookout for a nice edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes and would like to ask if any of you can recommend one?

I am looking for:

- preferably hardback
- not too small
- easily readable font
- not necessarily a one or two volume work (too heavy to read comfortably)
- quality paper (i.e. no shining through of the back page!)
- illustrations optional but always a plus :-)

Today I had a look at volume 1 of the Barnes and Noble 2012 hardback edition (in my local library) and was very disappointed. The font is nice but hard to read (IMHO) and most importantly there's hardly any margin on the page! Absolutely no space to make notes.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Comments

[kalypso]

Yes, it was the old-fashioned look of the green cloth cover (no dustjacket) that first drew my eye to it in the bookshop.

Not sure whether it meets your requirements on margins and paper quality (don't know the weight of that); you certainly can see the shadow of text on other pages, but that never struck me as a problem while reading.

One thing I don't like is the running heads. The left-hand running head, for virtually all of the 1,122 pages (sorry, should have specified that!) is THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, and the right-hand running head is the name of the volume in which the story first appeared. In the page above, that's A STUDY IN SCARLET, because it was published as a standalone novel, and that's OK, because I don't particularly remember the chapter titles. But it's more annoying when you come to the collections of short stories, where the right-hand running head is no more specific than ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, or MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, or THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, or whatever.

If I'd been the publisher, I'd have dropped THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES - that's on the cover, by the time I've opened the book I know what it is! - and run the title of the volume on the left and the title of the individual story (or chapter, in the novels) on the right, eg THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES on the left and THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON (slightly spookily, that's where the book opened today) on the right.

But that's a minor quibble, because there's a perfectly good Contents list at the front. It would just speed navigation when searching for a particular story if the running-heads were more helpful.

Forgot to say that there is also a two-and-a-half-page introduction by P. D. James at the start.

[mekare]

Thanks for the heads-up! This is a decision which is going to take some time but I really appreciate your detailed input!

I am looking at the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes atm, which is 3 volumes (and way too heavy to lug around) but which I will buy at one point anyway because of all the lovely background info and pictures.

[kalypso]

Oh, I love annotation! That sounds fascinating - but my volume worked well as something to read.