Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a beautiful, well constructed, and finely printed volume of the collected works of Sherlock Holmes. These are my impressions of the book (mostly good!): THE PROS: * It is a hardcover book with a cloth cover. It has an elegant houndstooth pattern and simple cover design (as shown in the picture). It also comes with a yellow ribbon bookmark and a slipcase for storage. Overall I think it's a really attractive book that would certainly catch my eye on the shelf. It's one of those book designs that makes you want to read it. * The binding is cloth and seems to be very durable. Cloth bindings are, of course, commonly used on big books, such as bibles and dictionaries, that are large and heavy and need to last a long time. I think that's the goal with this volume as well. * The book itself is quite large: approximately 10 inches tall, 7 inches wide, and nearly 3 inches thick. It's also fairly heavy owing to its thinnish pages. In my opinion, these attributes qualify as good things. The entire collected works are here in one volume, which I can keep in a single place on my bookshelf, and use as a single volume when I want to take the book on a trip or read the stories to my children. But I see that this is a matter of preference (see my "cons" section below). * The text is printed on the small side, but I think it falls easily within the readable category (not always to be expected from a single volume edition of Sherlock!). See my photo for a better look. * The paper is nice, in my opinion. It's not quite as thin or glossy as bible pages, but it's on the thin side. Any thicker and it could never fit into a single volume. * The price is right. I briefly considered The Complete Sherlock Holmes (The Heirloom Collection), which is beautiful and seems nice (complete with illustrations), but it is $60 and seemed on the pricey side. This Knickerbocker Classics edition is much more affordable, and has the added benefit of matching a large number of other collections of other famous novels. * Best of all, it contains all 4 novels and 56 short stories -- the full collection, printed in order of publication. THE CONS: * Many of the things I stated in PROS could also be CONS depending on individual preference. * Some may prefer to have their Sherlock divided into tiny, lightweight paperbacks that they can stuff in a jacket pocket or purse to read on the bus or at the coffee shop. This volume is not very suitable for that. It's large and heavy and would be MOST awkward to read on the bus. * Others may find the print to be too small. I have attached a photograph to this product page so that you can get a better idea of how it looks. I would say it's slightly smaller than most academic texts. Personally, that doesn't bother me. But older readers, children, or individuals with bad eyesight may want to look for one printed on a larger font. * The book is NOT illustrated. Again, to me, this is immaterial, but a large number of readers have become accustomed to Sherlock illustrations and take great care to find books that have certain iterations by certain illustrators, and so on. Keep looking if you want lavish illustrations. I think what you get in this edition is a plain, no-nonsense, quality binding for those interested merely in reading. Overall, I think it's a great edition for buyers with certain preferences. If it meets your criteria, I recommend it with five stars.