Customer Reviews

SHERLOCK HOLMES. The Man and His World.

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First off, the book is rather short, some 150 pages less an extremely detailed index, but not accounting for the lavish contemporary illustrations. Slightly longer than a story and not quite a novella, "Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World" is really an extraordinary book.

The author treats the subject as an entirely non-fictional character. In doing so, Mr. Keating weaves together illustrations from the various publications of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles' tales of the great detective with contemporary photos, newspapers, and illustrations from the late Victorian and early Edwardian era.

This isn't so much a biography as a character study. In seeking to illustrate the personality of Mr. Holmes, Keating brilliantly weaves together events of the age into the wholly fabricated chronology of Holmes' life. Put into it's place is everything from the Boer War to the death of Queen Victoria, the rise of the Edwardian era, to the coming of the First World War.

It's really an interesting insight into the views and culture of the classical Golden Era of British Empire, a time when the sun literally never sat on England. The stereotype of the stuffy Brit are explained, even extolled, by illustration from the Holmes' mysteries. Concepts such as the nobility of work, honor (or the better "honour") and the expected conduct of the "English Gentleman" are discussed as they relate to the complex personality of Holmes' and his faithful Watson.

There are no chapter breaking the tale down into specific topics; instead the tale moves chronologically from the "Gloria Scott" case (set in 1873) to his final adventure (the appropriately named "The Last Bow") Keating seeks to explain, or illustrate, what's made Sherlock Holmes a figure of such fascination over the years; everything from what today we would call manic-depression, to his cocaine use.

If you've ever had any interest in Sherlock Holmes or the Victorian era, this book is a must read.

This book fills in the facts of Holmes life, with contemporary news and inventions. For example before meeting Watson in 1881, we learn that Disraeli and the Brits had become imperialist, and that Holmes would have access to "new" technology such as the Telegraph (1876), and electric light (1879), and pneumatic bicycle tire (1888). We are also made aware that Sherlock would have been reading Darwin's The Origin of Species, Flaubert, Alfred Tennyson, and Oscar Wilde. Despite Holmes's calling American the "enfant terrible nation", and the violet nature of America (e.g. KKK in the 5 orange pips) at the time, about 1/5 of the cases have reference to America. Holmes even quotes Henry David Thoreau , despite his apparent movement away form Victorian England. Holmes would have also had occasion to witness the Queen's Jubilee, and the ascent of Edward. Some of the Holmes' quotes that Keating, (for example "What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is rules by change, which is unthinkable"), point to a deeper Holmes, and Keating calls Homes a "lost Darwinian". Keating even speculates the Nietzsche was Moriarity.

The book includes around 130 wonderful illustrations, including contemporary photographs and 30 Strand plates done by Sidney Paget. My favorite illustrations include a copy of "Agony columns" from the London Times of 1881, a series of 1899 photographs demonstrating bartisu self-defense, and a 1893 photograph of "street arabs".

This is more about the victorian age than about mr Holmes, but it is very informative and amusing to read. It do adress the relationship between mr Holmes and dr Watson, and do so in a very ubspeculative way. Overall a good book.