Murder Rooms
Apr. 9th, 2018 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Arthur and Sherlock - Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes, by Michael Sims
This was immediately appealing when I saw it in the work book sale, and I'm pleased to report that it didn't disappoint. It looks quite a thin volume, but the small text is quite dense. It's not a complete biography of Doyle; rather, it covers the period from childhood up to the first Holmes short stories. This includes of course his family upbringing, schooling, and medical training, so we get to meet characters such as classmate Patrick Sherlock, and a former dean of St Paul's, William Sherlock; together with the Doyles' appreciation of the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sims suggests these as possible origins for the character's name. At medical school in Edinburgh, of course, we meet Dr Joseph Bell, who astounded students by his inferences about patients from the most minor details. Doyle's father was an draughtsman and architect, who became alcoholic and in later years was detained in various institutions, which may have provided some inspiration for darker and fallen characters. Doyle's own often unsafe medical self-experimentation in the area of toxicology also gets an airing; could Holmes and Watson's divergence over the matter of the cocaine-bottle be a reprimand to his earlier self? There's also a tour of detective fiction prior to the recognition of the genre, with he shadow of Edgar Allan Poe in particular looming large. Although he had modest success with early short stories and other writings, publishers were reluctant to take A Study in Scarlet, but it quickly became a success. This must have given Doyle mixed emotions, as he had sold the copyright outright, but it provided a starting point from which to build his popular character.
This was immediately appealing when I saw it in the work book sale, and I'm pleased to report that it didn't disappoint. It looks quite a thin volume, but the small text is quite dense. It's not a complete biography of Doyle; rather, it covers the period from childhood up to the first Holmes short stories. This includes of course his family upbringing, schooling, and medical training, so we get to meet characters such as classmate Patrick Sherlock, and a former dean of St Paul's, William Sherlock; together with the Doyles' appreciation of the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sims suggests these as possible origins for the character's name. At medical school in Edinburgh, of course, we meet Dr Joseph Bell, who astounded students by his inferences about patients from the most minor details. Doyle's father was an draughtsman and architect, who became alcoholic and in later years was detained in various institutions, which may have provided some inspiration for darker and fallen characters. Doyle's own often unsafe medical self-experimentation in the area of toxicology also gets an airing; could Holmes and Watson's divergence over the matter of the cocaine-bottle be a reprimand to his earlier self? There's also a tour of detective fiction prior to the recognition of the genre, with he shadow of Edgar Allan Poe in particular looming large. Although he had modest success with early short stories and other writings, publishers were reluctant to take A Study in Scarlet, but it quickly became a success. This must have given Doyle mixed emotions, as he had sold the copyright outright, but it provided a starting point from which to build his popular character.