THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

1902. London: George Newnes, 1902. Original red cloth decorated in gilt and black.

First Edition of Doyle's famous full-length Sherlock Holmes novel, with 15 full-page plates by Sidney Paget -- a tale Doyle himself termed "a real creeper." This was the first Sherlockian tale since Doyle had apparently killed Holmes off in "The Final Problem" of late 1893. However, since THE HOUND takes place chronologically before then, Doyle was not here officially "reviving" Holmes; this he would do the following year, when he wrote "The Adventure of the Empty House" -- which would be the first tale of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in 1905. This is an attractive, near-fine copy -- the red cloth remarkably clean and unfaded, with scarcely any external wear except for slight erosion of the gilt letters "OY" at the foot of the front cover; there are a few ink-marks on the bottom edge of the leaves. Atypically, the original endpapers are intact (unusual for a flat-spined volume), and the thick wove-paper leaves have no foxing. The front endpaper bears a penciled signature dated May 1902 (the book was published on March 25th). (We do not bother to say "first issue" because there is just one issue -- all copies have the typo on page 13.) In the distinctive (initialed) binding by Alfred Garth Jones, THE HOUND was issued in considerable numbers -- but it is becoming difficult to find in truly advantageous condition. Green & Gibson A26a.