Book recommendations?

[mightymads]

Could anyone recommend books exploring Holmes and Watson’s world, maybe with research of their backstories or details mentioned in the Canon?

Recently I found Holmes and Watson by June Thomson on archive.org. The description was promising: “Speculative only when precise data is wanting, Thomson examines in striking detail the personalities of Watson and Holmes, traces the development of their partnership in crime detection, and addresses such long disputed issues as the possible homosexual implications of their relationship...”

In actuality, speculation was rather abundant, especially about Holmes. I liked the part about Watson’s military career where there was some data about the Army Medical School at Netley, Watson’s probable route to Kandahar, and exact dates of the voyage of SS Orontes which existed in real life and in the Canon brought Watson back to England.

As for “the possible homosexual implications” being addressed, it was a brief dismissal in the beginning of the book without any attempt of exploration whatsoever.

So if there are books which can be found in open access (if possible) providing insights on the time period or analysing the text of the Canon regarding Holmes’s and Watson’s upbringing, etc, could you give links?

Comments

[language_escapes]

I'm very sorry to say that I don't know of any open access materials, and some of these aren't recs so much as "this is a thing that exists", but here goes:

Michael Harrison wrote several books in the... 70s, I think? about Sherlock Holmes and the world he inhabited. These include "In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes", "The London of Sherlock Holmes", "I, Sherlock Holmes" (which purports to be Holmes' memoirs, take that as you will) and "The World of Sherlock Holmes". I would generally say that the first two are better, because they tend to stick to trying to pin down some geographical locations and such, while the other two are more, uh. Well, Holmesiana from the 70s tends to be a bit, um, fantastical. And random. And lacking in any evidence that makes any sense. So. They are interesting to me because of how they capture some of the mindset of Holmesiana at the time, but can also be a bit... irritating.

There's Baring-Gould's biography of Holmes, "Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street". He also did an annotated copy of canon, but if you're going with an annotated copy, I would say you should explore Leslie Klinger's version; THAT is excellent, and has some speculation, and doesn't generally set my teeth on edge.

Kieran McMullen has a pastiche series about Watson pre-Holmes, and Robert Ryan has a series about Watson post-canon (I can recommend the latter, but haven't read any of the former).

Michael and Mollie Hardwick also wrote some books that would fall under this, but I haven't read any of them at all. There's "Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes", "The Sherlock Holmes Companion", and "The Private Life of Dr. Watson." These were all published in the 80s, I believe.

If you are looking for queer content, however, you won't find much that was formally published. In recent years there have been short story collections and novels and the like, but very few of them are set during the Victorian era, and none of them, as far as I'm aware, are more research based or memoir-y. All pastiches that I know.

[mightymads]

Thank you so much!

[sanguinity]

For queer content, Strangers: Homesexual Love in the 19th Century is nicely researched, and has a chapter about Holmes and Watson.

[mightymads]

Thank you! I saw it mentioned on tumblr and will check it out :)

[iwantthatcoat]

I saw the same review and bought a copy—only to have your exact same experience. ;(

[mightymads]

Yes, buying books is risky so I’m on the hunt for those which are in open access. The part about Watson was very interesting, though.

Welcome to the community :) If you’d like to discuss anything, etc, please feel free to post! It seems like DW is not very active...