"I Even Embodied It in a Small Brochure." [SIGN]

Back in November, I wrote about the new Discovering Sherlock Holmes series that Stanford University was starting. These are reproductions of the original stories as they appeared in the Strand Magazine, beginning with The Adventure of the Empty House and continuing with 11 additional titles. The series is available for download here; there are also story notes here.

Well, the first issue arrived last week and it looks fantastic. The previous run, while faithful to the original layout of the Strand, was made of newsprint, which made the images a little muted and felt cheap. After the raging success of the subscriptions, Stanford is charging $20 for the set of 12, including postage. With higher quality paper inside and a glossy cover, it's well worth it. The Paget drawings are crisp and clear and the piece feels substantial.

If you haven't already subscribed to the series, get on it!

And if you can't wait for the stories to arrive in serial form, there's always the old standby The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which features the stories with the original Sidney Paget drawings as they appeared in the Strand.