Introduction

As compiled by Arthur Conan Doyle, the original cases of Sherlock Holmes may be categorized in any number of ways. There are, for example, those that feature animals such as The Hound of the Baskervilles, “The Veiled Lodger,” and “The Lion’s Mane.” Others, like “A Case of Identity” and “The Noble Bachelor,” may be labelled as stories of love gone awry. Some, like “The Three Garridebs” and “The Dancing Men,” feature American villains. And still others, like “The Second Stain” and “The Bruce Partington Plans,” depict political subterfuge.

The eleven stories gathered together in this two-volume anthology share their own common feature. All have connections to the world of belles lettres, the world of literature—some to authors in particular, others to themes or stories associated with specific writers.

In both volumes, the stories appear in the chronological order of the cases they depict. Those in Volume One take place before Sherlock Holmes reappears from his presumed death at the Reichenbach Falls. The stories in the second volume proceed well into his retirement.

By way of introduction to the stories, allow me to establish their literary associations:

• “The Missing Necklace” tells of Holmes’s friendship with French author, Guy de Maupassant, which led to the writing of one of the French author’s most famous stories.
• “The Amateur Emigrant” pairs Holmes with Robert Louis Stevenson on the single night the writer spent in New York City.
• “The Second William Wilson” serves as a sequel to a frightening psychological tale by Edgar Allan Poe.
• “The Aspen Papers” offers Watson’s account of a situation that Henry James fictionalized in his acclaimed short story, “The Aspern Papers.”
• “For Want of a Sword” and “Capitol Murder” identify the role of Sherlock Holmes in two historical events—one involving the British Navy in the Mediterranean; the other, the assassination of an American governor—both occurrences originally reported by American journalist and novelist, David Graham Phillips.
• “The Smith-Mortimer Succession” that begins Volume Two illustrates a case referenced by Holmes’s Boswell-like biographer, Dr John Watson, in “The Golden Pince-Nez.”
• “An Adventure in Darkness” completes the story about the country of the blind first made public by author H.G. Wells.
• “An Adventure in the Mid-Day Sun” presents a case in the voice of the young American mystery writer Raymond Chandler, who in his youth served as a page-boy at 221B Baker Street.
• “The Star-Crossed Lovers,” like the title, echoes the primary theme of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
• Finally, “A Case of Mistaken Identity” documents the meeting between Sherlock Holmes and the American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald that took place late in the detective’s life.

Let others plumb this collection for more subtle themes. From Maupassant to Fitzgerald, the authorial giants who populate the pages of both volumes are explanation enough for its title. As interesting as such literary associations may be, of course, one can never forget that these sketches depict a series of heartless criminal acts—some more gruesome than others—in the finest tradition of all the other adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Daniel D. Victor, Ph.D.

Los Angeles, California

June 2019