I am rereading Sherlock Holmes. I read Conan Doyle for the first time when I was a child and I read and reread everything he wrote even his weird stuff!
What strikes me this time is Sherlock’s character. I am just reading ‘The Sign of the Four’ where a character describes him as a ‘young man’. Sherlock laughs, he giggles, he makes jokes, he teases Watson… he has been betrayed by Hollywood and other films. Yes he is serious, yes he is dedicated, yes he is actually a bit odd… but he is not the weird misfit that he is made out to be, the misogynist verging on Asperger’s. he just seems an exciting hero!
Lois Elsden 
So glad to read this piece…I read Sherlock many moons back..but my impression was exactly as described…the recent Sherlock surge in Hollywood definitely doesn’t do justice to this ‘quirky’ intellectual character!
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We are always on the same page. I am in the middle of a writing project centering on the Doyle characters. Holmes is a complex fellow for sure.
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Wow! Coincidences rule!
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Elementary, my dear!
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Hi Lois, nice to see that you’re into Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. I love them!
Klausbernd (Kbvollmarblog) has also written about the same topic and he even sent Holmes to Sigmund Freud in London, a great post about writing and smoking.
Hope you’re fine!
Greetings from Dublin
Dina
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Thank you Dina! And greetings to you too!
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I read all fifty something stories and four novel by age 14. Then I devoured Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter of Mars) , H G Wells then James Fennimore Cooper.
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Me too, me too! I thought I was the only living person to have read Burroughs! I also read Lesley Charteris – ‘The Saint’, ‘Bulldog Drummond’ by Sapper, which seems sooooo dated, and of course the Fu Manchu stories… all by the time I was 14 – I then moved on to ‘Catch 22’!
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Does that mean you don’t go along with the Benedict Cumberbatch portrayal? He and Martin Freeman have now defined Holmes and Watson for me. Can’t imagine anyone else playing them.
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I actually think its somewhat unfair when people refer to SH as misogynistic. People don’t realise that that discriminatory attitude towards women was accepted and normal during those times. I actually think Sherlock was a real gentlemen and he knew how to treat women (Well, except that one time he proposed to a servant girl to get information, ahem). My ultimate fictional crush 😉 *swoons*
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You’re so right, Nisha! I agree completely, I’m just reading ‘The Sign of the Four’ and the way Watson and Holmes talk about Miss Morstan shows nothing but respect for her character and intelligence!
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They do the same for Irene Adler, and the ladies in Solitary Cyclist and Copper Beeches too! 🙂
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What a great idea. I’ve just downloaded the complete works from Amazon, having read your post, to read on my Kindle – all of 77p! I haven’t read them since my early teens and I really enjoyed them then. So many thanks for the reminder.
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I’m sure you’ll have great fun rereading them! They are actually better than I remembered them being!
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