This is a great value edition. I did not find the print to be as legible as I might have wanted it to be for this oversized paperback. I am starting out with volume one first to see how I do; have had some problems with my eyes so some of these jam packed paperbacks which have been scaled down to size are sometimes difficult to read; they pare down everything including the font size. So far so good; but I have put on some reading glasses so as to not tire my eyes out. The print is definately not large enough; and that is the one drawback. I am sure for some this would be a non issue; but not for this reader.

In terms of value you cannot go wrong except with the font size; the paperback is not one of those books which will take a beating either. But the selection of stories is phenomenal.

Now to the volume itself: the price point is good ($7.95); the font size small from my perspective; the stock used thin. But the anthology selection is glorious. There are an introduction and notes by Kyle Freeman who has been a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast for many years; there is a timeline of Doyle's life and outstanding events related to the character Holmes. There is even a note on the conveyances used during that time period. Holmes makes his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet and we are off. The volume has a set of end notes, some questions and answers from some well known authors; there are 23 wonderful classic Holmes tales as well as the The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Study in Scarlet (already mentioned) and The Sign of Four.

It was wonderful to learn more about Arthur Conan Doyle's own life as a young ship's surgeon and how he sailed the Arctic in a whaling ship and all of his very unique adventures. He had a Jesuit education but turned his back on catholicism; though championing spiritualism causes as he grew older. He was knighted by King Edward VII; but one of his greatest influences was Thomas Macaulay who happened to have passed away the same year that Doyle was born. From the time he was introduced to Macaulay at his Jesuit boarding school, he carried a volume of Macaulay's essays around with him for the remainder of his days. Doyle was very frank in admitting that these essays influenced him more than anything else.

Sherlock Holmes remains synonymous with the idea of the great detective. And everyone of us loves the idea of opening up one of Doyle's tales and hearing Holmes utter one of his famous quotes which infers his superior intellect and not too humble demeanor.

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know." And so it goes.

Good value, you cannot go wrong; just get a good pair of reading glasses and then everything is elementary!

Bentley/2008
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Can't beat it, it's a classic. I think I'd go with a hardcover and smaller volumes for my collection but I've read this three times. Time for the next volume!

This is great book. My 13 years daughter loves it and read it multiple times.

For collectors: Barnes & Noble put out three series of hardcover "Barnes & Noble Classics" in the last decade. The first has yellow dust jackets (1992), the second has all black matte dust jackets with gold type and a diamond-design (1997), and the third in 2003 has black-spines with a literary picture on the top of the spine. This edition is the third kind (2003). It has a black silhouette of a detective on a blue background. The book is a regular trade-sized hardback book. It is held together with glue that makes crispy crackling noises when you open it. Normally, I'd love that, but with a book that is well over 700 pages, I worry about the quality and hope that the pages manage to stay in the spine. The edges of the pages are the "rough cut" kind, which is quite charming, even when you're picking the machine-leavings off the side of the book. The text size is readable, which is to say, it's not 8-point font. I'd say more 10 to 11 point.

However, if you're looking at this edition, you're looking at it because it's cheap, not because it's superb quality. And boy, at $9.95 list price for a 709-page book, you are getting a deal.

It looks quite nice on a bookshelf and the extraneous notes within are as listed: a short (short) timeline of Conan Doyle's life, a rather brief introduction to Sherlock Holmes, a page on "Conveyances (Modes of Transportation)," and a few notations in the back. But if you're like me, you're going to initially skip all of that babble for the substance. In this book, you will get: "A Study in Scarlet," "The Sign of Four," "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and "The Memoir of Sherlock Holmes." If you purchase this volume, it would be wise to buy the matching volume of "The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II." Worth it and recommendable? Yes, absolutely.

Why this series, when there are so many editions of Sherlock Holmes? I wanted a complete anthology, and I settled on this series because it was (1) inexpensive and (2) the text was big enough for 50+ eyes to read comfortably. This 2-volume series is all those things, plus it has excellent foot- and end-notes to explain references and concepts that are not contemporary. I recommend it highly.