• Published as part of a wider series of new Oxford World's Classics editions of Sherlock Holmes, this collection includes some of the detective's greatest cases, such as 'Silver Blaze' and 'The Naval Treaty', the emergence of Professor Moriarty, and even one case which Holmes fails to solve
• Brings readers cases from the beginning of Sherlock Holmes' career to what could have been his final case
• Includes an up-to-date bibliography, chronology of the author, and helpful explanatory notes

New to this Edition:

• This is new edition has a set of detailed annotations, a revised bibliography, and a long introduction which takes account of recent scholarship on Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation
• Jarlath Killeen examines subjects such as the collection's treatment of the British Empire, race, social breakdown and the complex relationship between rationality, religion, and the occult
• Contains a new examination of 'The Final Problem' in which Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty, appears as the centre of a vast criminal conspiracy, with Holmes as the last agent capable of preventing the world falling into chaos

  
"I never can resist a touch of the dramatic."
  
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is now best remembered for its concluding story in which the great detective appears to plunge to his death into the waters at the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls, locked in a struggle with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty. However, the collection also brings the reader back to the beginnings of Holmes' career, involving a mutiny at sea and a treasure hunt in a Sussex country house, and a first encounter with Holmes' older brother Mycroft, of whom Holmes says, "If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from any armchair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived". This collection includes some of the detective's greatest cases, such as 'Silver Blaze' and 'The Naval Treaty', and even one case which Holmes fails to solve.
   
Edited with an introduction by Jarlath Killeen, this volume examines Holmes as a safeguard against social breakdown and chaos, as well as an agent of justice and goodness against the forces of evil. It also situates the collection in the growth of life writing in the period, and explores the ways in which Holmes became increasingly 'real' to readers as more details about his personality and biography are revealed in the stories.