Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Rating:
Summary: Beyond the official texts...
Review: This book, which overlaps somewhat Jack Tracy's 'Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha', is a book of the 'leftovers', those things that didn't make it into the official canon of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail adddressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales. The official canon is 60 stories -- 56 short stories, and 4 novels, published at various times during Conan Doyle's life. However, Conan Doyle wrote far more than he ever published -- even this collection (and Tracy's) do not include all of the previously unpublished Holmes material, as some is being intentionally withheld by the Conan Doyle estate until a future time (which Tracy mentions, but Haining does not).

The collection here consists of twelve pieces Haining declares are essential to the overall collection -- this being a supplementary volume to the 'existing definitive two-volume edition of the stories', by which Haining undoubtedly means the Baring-Gould collection. The twelve pieces can be broadly classified as follows:

- Commentaries by Conan Doyle about Holmes
- Two parodies of Holmes by Conan Doyle himself
- Some complete short stories, albeit with interesting stories about them
- Two plays, one possibly done with William Gillette
- Atypical pieces, a proto-Holmesian tale, and a poem

Haining has interesting commentary on the various pieces. Like Tracy, he traces the ambiguities of some of these tales -- 'The Man Who Was Wanted' is a good case in point. Whereas Tracy sees it as a forgery (however, a very good forgery), Haining doesn't see the case as clear-cut. In other pieces, such as 'How Watson Learned the Trick', the history between the two editors covers the same material with essentially the same conclusions.

Haining includes three pieces in the appendix, very rare indeed -- two pieces by Conan Doyle about Holmes, including a rare interview about Holmes' 'death' at Reichenbach Falls (prior to his 'resurrection'), a piece for 'The Strand' in which there was a competition for selecting the best Holmes story, and a very early, pre-Holmes short story by Conan Doyle that foreshadowed the later 'Hound of the Baskervilles'.

Haining provides commentary on each piece, as well as some general history and publication data. Haining also refers to pieces not included in this collection (additional plays, for example, based upon stories, including the very famous 'Sherlock Holmes' performed and amended by William Gillette) included in Tracy's collection, but not here.

For the sake of completeness, any Sherlock Holmes fan will want both volumes. However, each gives a clear indication of the breadth of Holmes beyond the official canon. This volume is well done and entertaining.