LTHOUGH I figure many readers of A Study in Sherlock already know about this, I thought I should be sure to mention it for those newcomers to Holmes who may have missed the original announcement. (This is not to mention, I’ve had a few dozen kindly people send me email about it in the past couple of weeks.)

Stanford University is now publishing paper and PDF facsimiles of the original stories of Sherlock Holmes exactly as they appeared in the Strand Magazine, over a century ago, complete with the wonderful illustrations of Sidney Paget. The downloads are free, but if you have a U.S. mailing address (alas! I’m a Canadian!), you can subscribe to this most excellent service and have each one mailed to you as they are printed, free of charge. Once the program ends on April 14th, they will be shipping to international addresses.

Over 12 weeks from January through April 2006, Stanford will be republishing, free of charge, two early Holmes stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Speckled Band”; the nine-part novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles; and the famous “last” encounter between Holmes and Moriarty, “The Final Problem.” If you would like to receive paper facsimiles of the original magazine releases, you may sign up on our website. If you would prefer to download the facsimile as a pdf from the website, each installment will be available on successive Fridays.

Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

To date, they’ve published A Scandal in Bohemia [SCAN], The Speckled Band [SPEC], and the first eleven chapters of The Hound of the Baskervilles [HOUN], all excellent choices for those who have never read an original Holmes story. I eagerly await April 14th, but in the meantime still become possessed with an insane jealousy whenever I hear of my American friends receiving one of these collectors items….