A fixed point in a changing age.

This was fun! I think I expected a bit more from it, but overall it was an entertaining, informative look at the phenomenon of Sherlock Holmes.

First, what didn’t work for me. Dundas bases this entire book on trying to find out the answers to a central question, why has Sherlock Holmes endured, reviving and reviving over 130 years? Well, the problem here is that there isn’t really an answer to that question! There are 5,000 possible answers. It’s not something anyone will ever *know*. And the more he tried to stick to that premise, the flimsier it felt. This book works best when Dundas is relaying the history of Sherlock Holmes and how he came to be, and the cultural history surrounding him. The whole hullabaloo. When he tried to descend into literary detection or analysis or whatever, it really didn’t for me. Thankfully, it’s really only the first and last chapters that attempt.

Second, for pretty large portions of the book, Dundas retells in great detail, plots of the the Holmes novels and stories. And he doesn’t just do parts, but the whole things from front to back. I found this excessive, and annoying. I figured I might get spoiled a little from this book, but only here or there. But I didn’t sign up for retellings of someone else’s stories. Also, don’t spoil me, bro! There’s no need for that! I understand the impulse behind it, I do. He wanted to luxuriate in the atmosphere, and he uses the stories as a structure for the book (walking us through the Holmes timeline so to speak). Except, there was no need to retell them quite so extensively.

But aside from those two issues, really, I liked it. He tends to get a little personal and mine his own childhood (he started in on his Holmes bona fides early), and I’m sure a lot of the stuff he covers is well known to people who’ve been studying Conan Doyle for a while, but for someone less versed in it like myself, his research was impressive, and though he doesn’t go deep into much, he does go broad and covers a bunch of stuff. I particularly liked hearing about all the pop culture stuff, like how different contemporary readers and viewers reacted at the time to new stuff, and all the behind the scenes stuff, and the super fascinating stuff about Sherlock Holmes fan societies. And he even talks for a pretty long time about fanfic! And the dirty stuff, too! He admits he doesn’t get it, but that makes it even more impressive that he gave it a real explanation and even interviewed a prominent author.

Would recommend tentatively to Sherlock Holmes fans of all shapes and sizes, if you can deal with the aforementioned problems.

[3.5 stars, rounded up]