With its fairly large print, Bruce Wexler’s THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES may appear “elementary,” but it’s a big book (in width if not depth) whose pages that fans of literature’s detective icon will delight in turning.
Separated into a handful of heavily illustrated chapters, the volume opens with a brief biography of Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Much of it will be old hat to anyone who’s ever read about his life, save for the occasional offhanded nugget (such as the flop play he co-wrote with PETER PAN‘s J.M. Barrie), but as with the entirety of the contents, it’s really what surrounds the text that counts.
And by that, I mostly mean vintage covers of COLLIER’S magazine sporting Dorr Steele’s illustrations, and Sidney Paget’s prized drawings from THE STRAND. Yes, the latter are often reprinted in various collections of the Holmes stories, but to see them in full-color instead of the same-old black-and-white is a treat.
Following the Doyle info, Wexler’s work starts focusing on Sherlock’s life in print, whether serialized in the aforementioned magazines or rounded up in books, on both sides of the Atlantic. To give readers a more informed perspective of the series’ Victorian setting, subsequent chapters spotlight the London look (including several shots inside the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221-B Baker St., where I really want to visit), the medical and forensic sciences at play at the time (with an unsettling peek into Dr. Watson’s bags, full of terrifying surgeon’s tools), police equipment and the Whitechapel scourge of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper.
Period photos and illustrations dot each page, which makes the later chapters on film and TV adapations and various memorabilia — from British commemorative stamps to chess sets and cigarette cards — so much fun to look at. (Note that one of the movie poster images still bears the watermarked URL of the site from which it was taken.) Wexler’s book won’t set you back many bucks, so if you’re one who’s read the Holmes canon more than once, logical deduction assumes you’ll enjoy this diversion. —Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Klinger offers ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES bookplates
- GRAPHIC CLASSICS to issue new ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE edition
- Holmes on the Range
- The World of Jules Verne
- The Art of Detection
