The deerstalker cap and cape-backed Overcoat. The pipe. The grace of gaslit Victoriana. The clop-clop of carriage on cob- blestone. The fog rolling in from England's imperial seas. Baker Street.

Here is the immortal detective, Sherlock Holmes, in his orig- inal, classic setting: the pages of The Strand Magazine, the stage where he made his debut in 1891 and where Arthur Conan Doyle chose to lay him to rest—albeit temporarily—in 1893.

These are the most beloved of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the ones written in the first flush Of Conan Doyle's genius. There are twenty-four stories here. and between ' 'A Scandal in Bohemia" and • The Final Problem' • there lie such masterpieces as • 'The Red-Headed League," Adventure of the Speckled Band," •The Five Orange Pips," • •The Adventure Of the Silver Blaze," and • • The Adventure OF the Musgrave Ritual.

Here, too, are all the original illustrations by Sidney Paget, an average of eight per story. Sidney Paget was one of the great illustrators of Sherlock Holmes, and the first one bringing Holmes to life in these Strand stories. He was the most consistent creator of the detective's lasting image, and the artist responsible for the famed Holmes profile.