The Return of Sherlock Holmes by DOYLE, [Sir] Arthur Conan (1859-1930)

London: George Newnes. 1905. [Detective mysteries] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.[8]; 403; [1]; [4] publisher's advertisements. Publisher's blue cloth, simply titled in gilt to spine and upper. Illustrated with a frontispiece and fifteen further plates by Paget. Housed in a modern protective cloth wrapper. Internally nice and clean and bright, inner paper joint parted, some browning to the endpapers, bookplate to pastedown. Some light wear to cloth at joint and spine ends, a few small nicks to spine. Shows well. The Great Detective returns after the infamous events at the Reichenbach Falls, in a collection of thirteen stories, among them some of the most interesting in the whole series - 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton' is a good example (which Doyle first called 'The Adventure of the Worst Man in London'). Four of the stories ('The Empty House', 'The Dancing Men', 'The Priory School' and 'The Second Stain'), were listed by Doyle in 1927 as being among his favourite Holmes episodes. Green and Gibson [A29a]. Book Collector No.271, 'The Great Illustrators'.