Sherlock Holmes Lives!
Featured in 4 novels and 56 short stories, Sherlock Holmes has long lasting appeal to lovers of detective fiction. His birthday is celebrated each year on January 6 even though a date was never specified by his creator Arthur Conan Doyle.
Doyle had a difficult relationship with his character. He felt that the popularity of the Holmes books and stories overshadowed his other writing and in 1893 had the character die heroically in a short story called The Final Problem. Readers were outraged. In 1901, Doyle produced another Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles set prior to Holmes’ death. Later, he revived the character entirely, writing that the famed detective had merely faked his own demise.
As Doyle discovered, Sherlock Holmes is not a character who is easily set aside. He lives on in the works of others. Laurie R. King has imagined Holmes’ not-so-quiet retirement in her Mary Russell series, beginning with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. Michael Chabon’s novella The Final Solution features an elderly detective who may be Sherlock Holmes. A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin takes place in 1947 as a 93 year old Holmes re-evaluates a life dedicated to logic and reason. In The Sherlockian by Graham Moore is set at a contemporary Sherlock Holmes convention where a long-missing Doyle diary leads to murder.
Can’t get enough Holmes? Visit the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library.
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3 thoughts on “Sherlock Holmes Lives!”
I love Laurie R. King. What a great twist on the original.
Has anyone seen the marvelous modern adaptation “Sherlock” by the BBC? It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson. Season one (3 shows) aired on PBS and Showcase and will probably return again: http://tinyurl.com/2b9lor3
…and Sherlock is the creation of Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss who are responsible for many wonderful Doctor Who scripts.
I would go on and on but I don’t want people to think I’m a total geek.
A co-worker was telling me about an excellent children’s series Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer. Enola is Sherlock’s 14-year younger sister who rebels against her older brother, runs away and starts up her own detective business in Victorian England.