Review:The Collected Brigadier Gerard Stories/Christopher Roden
This review of the books "The Collected Brigadier Gerard Stories", by Arthur Conan Doyle was written by Christopher Roden and published in the The Parish Magazine (No. 13, november 1995).
This review warmly welcomes Hearthstone's collected Brigadier Gerard volume, praising its thoughtful arrangement, strong introductory appreciation, and its contribution to renewed interest in a neglected part of Conan Doyle's work. By contrast, The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories is seen as competently produced but slight and purposeless, offering only Conan Doyle's own selection without introduction or commentary.
Review
- The Collected Brigadier Gerard Stories
- The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories
- by A. Conan Doyle
- Hearthstone Publications, 1995; 420pp (Gerard), 380pp (Holmes);
- £9.50 (paperback) £22.00 (limited edition hardback);
- ISBN: 0-9520471-7-9 (Gerard paperback); 0-9520471-6-0 (Gerard hardback);
- 0-9520471-8-7 (Holmes paperback), 0-9520471-9-5 (Holmes hardback).
Reviewed by Christopher Roden
What a delight it is to see the Brigadier Gerard stories together in one volume, but what a pity that Hearthstone could not have been a little sooner in bringing out this edition. I say that out of sympathy with their position: their volume arrived in the same week as The Complete Brigadier Gerard was published by Canongate, and I fear that the latter volume, edited by Owen Dudley Edwards, will, by virtue of Canongate's marketing alone, affect the sales of the Hearthstone edition to some degree.
But this is a sterling effort. The appreciation by John Whitehead provides a splendid general overview of Gerard, and the book has the stories arranged in historical order. This is not, as the dust wrapper tells us, the first time that this has been done: Jack Tracy's two editions of the stories (1982) did the same thing, although in separate volumes. It also has to be said that Mr Tracy and Mr Whitehead differ somewhat in their chronology — but this review need not concern itself with adjudicating the matter.
It is pleasing to see so much interest in Gerard at the moment — it can only enhance our efforts to bring attention to neglected areas of Conan Doyle's work.
The Best Stories of Sherlock Holmes is a somewhat strange volume. It reprints the stories Conan Doyle himself chose as 'the best Sherlock Holmes stories', but does nothing else. There is no Introduction, no commentary, and, with the number of versions of Sherlock Holmes currently available, one is left wondering what purpose this volume will serve.
However, both books are nicely produced on good quality paper, and I wish the publishers well.
The Canongate Edition of the Gerard stories will be reviewed in the 1995 issue of ACD.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
