The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes Novels
The Complete Collection of
Sherlock Holmes Novels
Sherlock Holmes is one of those fictional detectives that you are either hooked on or are indifferent to (I alternate over cycles of about seven years -- must be some comet or something like that -- the comet must have come round again in 1998 to revive the Holmes interest, hence this web page). By using that deliberately provocative phrase 'one of those fictional...', my point is either that you believe in his reality or you don't, somewhat similar to one's consciousness of King Arthur or Horatio Hornblower. But then if you BELIEVE in him, there is not enough original material in the Watson memoirs by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who unlike many recipients of this honor actually deserved a knighthood -- he was really an admirable person, although he got taken in by fake fairy pictures) to assuage your hunger. Now that the Doyle estate, which fanatically prevented copyright infringements for years, has gone belly up (or down), the 'pastiches' or pseudo-Holmes new stories are all over the place. I happen to like that a lot, since I'm no purist over the Canon: just as I was able to accept Jeremy Brett as the ultimate media portrayer of the person as opposed to Basil Rathbone. (Those Granada Holmes's with Brett are absolutely the best 'pure' SH's ever done -- no out-of-period stuff, like SH in Washington during World War II. Unfortunately he died with just 19 left of the 'canon' to be done. Nobody yet has done all of them. But as Brett said once in an interview, even Doyle needed 'help' with some of the stories -- paraphrasing Tyrone Guthrie's comment that Shakespeare needed some 'help' with Troilus and Cressida.)
Sherlock Holmes is one of those fictional detectives that you are either hooked on or are indifferent to (I alternate over cycles of about seven years -- must be some comet or something like that -- the comet must have come round again in 1998 to revive the Holmes interest, hence this web page). By using that deliberately provocative phrase 'one of those fictional...', my point is either that you believe in his reality or you don't, somewhat similar to one's consciousness of King Arthur or Horatio Hornblower. But then if you BELIEVE in him, there is not enough original material in the Watson memoirs by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who unlike many recipients of this honor actually deserved a knighthood -- he was really an admirable person, although he got taken in by fake fairy pictures) to assuage your hunger. Now that the Doyle estate, which fanatically prevented copyright infringements for years, has gone belly up (or down), the 'pastiches' or pseudo-Holmes new stories are all over the place. I happen to like that a lot, since I'm no purist over the Canon: just as I was able to accept Jeremy Brett as the ultimate media portrayer of the person as opposed to Basil Rathbone. (Those Granada Holmes's with Brett are absolutely the best 'pure' SH's ever done -- no out-of-period stuff, like SH in Washington during World War II. Unfortunately he died with just 19 left of the 'canon' to be done. Nobody yet has done all of them. But as Brett said once in an interview, even Doyle needed 'help' with some of the stories -- paraphrasing Tyrone Guthrie's comment that Shakespeare needed some 'help' with Troilus and Cressida.)
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