The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The first scholarly edition of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes including a detailed introduction, an essay on the text, a textual apparatus and explanatory notes. Arthur Conan Doyle's The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was first published by George Newnes, Ltd in December 1893. The first edition featured eleven short stories which had all appeared in the Strand Magazine over the preceding twelve months. The sequence of stories culminated in the apparent death of Sherlock Holmes in 'The Final Problem'. The Memoirs contained some of the most well-regarded and dramatic of the early Holmes stories, but also served as a compelling document of Conan Doyle's struggle to balance the commercial demands of modern authorship with his own literary aspirations. This scholarly edition offers students and researchers a detailed resource with which to understand the volume's composition, publishing history and reception. Jonathan Cranfield is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. He is the author of Twentieth-Century Victorian: Arthur Conan Doyle and the Strand Magazine, 1891-1930 (EUP, 2016), co-editor of Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes (2013) and has published various peer-reviewed articles on late-Victorian periodical culture, popular fiction and early cinema.