I've been listening to the Stephen Fry's narration of the entire Holmes canon, and stumbled on this at some point while I was down a Sherlockian rabbit hole.

 

This book won an Agatha Award, and was a finalist for both the Edgar Award and the Anthony Award. It is a bit on the long side but I downloaded the sample and was completely drawn in.

 

I can't put it on my plate until after Halloween Bingo, and probably even until 2019. I thought that some of the Sherlockians on BL might be interested in an early 2019 buddy read! My library has it, so I just need a general timeframe so I can put a hold on it!

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.]

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, more than I thought it would be—the matter of course I was definitely interested in, but the way the author gathered and presented his material gave the whole book a ‘storytelling’ side that kept me wanting to read, and read, and read. Much like Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. A biography-slash-history book that is in itself a big story.

I won’t deny that some chapters towards the middle (the period between Conan Doyle’s death and the modern adaptations after the 1970s-80s) weren’t the most interesting for me, but even those didn’t detract from the book as a whole. It takes us through the genesis of the original Holmes & Watson stories, how they came to be, how their author perceived them, the conundrum of seeing them more successful than his ‘most serious’ works and of wanting to kill Holmes... How they gradually escaped his and his family’s grasp, in spite of efforts to keep a hand on them, because what Doyle gave birth to was bigger than him, bigger than just a handful of people, and wanted out, plain and simple.

I’ve read all the original stories (will read them again), yet I admit I’m lagging behind when it comes to movies. Well, now I know exactly what to catch up on, what to look for, and what kind of tone these adaptations’ would be—the movies with Basil Rathbone won’t be the same than the BBC Sherlock series, nor is their Holmes the one from the 1980s series with Jeremy Brett. I’d need half a lifetime to catch up on all this (and I’d want to catch up several times, for sure), but now at least I have a clearer view of ‘the bigger picture’.

Arthur Conan Doyle gave life to Holmes and took it away, but the Great Detective just won’t stay dead, will he? It’s all the readers and actors and directors and other authors that gave him a much, much longer life than expected.

Conclusion: Highly recommended!

So I thought I would buy my mother some books for Christmas, but I managed to reveal the perfect book I found (Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye) because I got so excited that it was the sequel to the one I bought last Christmas so I had to show it to her. Sometimes I need to think before I speak...

 

So I bought it for her anyway as a not-Christmas-present...and she also got Birdman by Mo Hayder since it was buy 2 for 79:- Swedish kronor and I had found 3 books to order...

 

So now I have some more books to read...:P

 

 

 

Det her er en bog, som jeg var lidt i tvivl om. Jeg har (endnu) ikke læst Conan Doyle’s værker, så ville den her bog spoile alt for mig? Jeg ved allerede en masse, men bøgerne er jo gamle og det er min egen skyld, jeg ikke har læst dem endnu, så det kan jeg ikke rigtig klage over. Men at sætte mig ned og bevidst afsløre det for mig selv? Det gad jeg ikke. Og sådan blev det da heller ikke. Der var selvfølgelig visse afsløringer i forhold til de oprindelige værkers handling, men ikke mere, end hvad jeg tror, de fleste allerede godt ved.

Det er en fagbog skrevet i skønlitterært sprog. Det betyder, at jeg måtte stoppe op undervejs og huske mig selv på, at det faktisk var en rigtig historie og ikke bare fiktion. Det var så let at glemme. Og det er absolut til bogens fordel. Den er utrolig videnstung og rummer rigtig mange informationer på hver eneste side, men det bliver aldrig tørt eller kedeligt, men formår at forblive spændende og let. Bogen tog mig en rum tid at læse, i forhold til hvor glad for den jeg var, men igen, den var meget videnstung. Der optræder utrolig mange navne, som man skal have styr på, fordi de senere i bogen får en vigtig betydning, og man skal derfor helst kunne huske nogenlunde, hvem de er. Det var ikke et problem, hvilket egentlig kom som en overraskelse for mig, fordi jeg jo ellers ikke er særlig god til navne.

Bogen handler om, hvordan Doyle i sin tid fik idéen til Sherlock Holmes, og hvordan han (Holmes) har udviklet sig til det han er i dag. Det er virkelig interessant! Det var ikke alle dele i bogen, jeg fandt lige interessant, og derfor var den svær at give en karakter. Jeg har alligevel valgt topkarakter, for selvom jeg ikke var lige begejstret over alle dele af bogen, så er de med til at vise, hvor grundig en bog det her er. Det føles måske mindre relevant, men viser den grundighed Boström har lagt i det. Den er virkelig gennemarbejdet.

En svær bog at anmelde, fordi der simpelthen er så mange ting at tage fat på. Alle, der har bare den mindste interesse i Sherlock Holmes, bør læse den her bog!

Det her er en bog for dig, der gerne vil vide:

…hvordan Oscar Wilde og Sherlock er forbundet
…Dracula og Sherlock er forbundet
…hvordan Doyle fik idéen til The Hound of the Baskervilles
…hvad Charles Chaplin har med Sherlock at gøre
…hvordan amerikanske præsidenter har påvirket Holmes
…hvorfor Disneys Mesterdetektiven Basilmus hedder sådan