Media and Adaptation Books

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Media and Adaptation Studies brings together books devoted to the adaptation, transformation, and afterlife of Arthur Conan Doyle's works in cinema, television, theatre, radio, popular culture, and other media. These studies examine how Conan Doyle's characters and stories have been reinterpreted beyond the printed page, from early screen versions of Sherlock Holmes to modern multimedia adaptations.

The page includes studies of Conan Doyle on screen, Sherlock Holmes in film and television, stage adaptations, and broader works on the cultural and media afterlives of Conan Doyle's fiction. The books are listed in reverse chronological order.

Books that primarily serve as filmographies, illustrated guides, or catalogues of screen adaptations are listed separately under Reference Books.


Media and Adaptation Studies

Sherlock Holmes from Screen to Stage: Post-Millennial Adaptations in British Theatre
By Benjamin Poore
Palgrave Macmillan
2017
————————————
Sherlock Holmes from Screen to Stage studies British stage adaptations of Sherlock Holmes after 2000. Benjamin Poore examines how modern theatre responds to recent screen versions such as Sherlock, Elementary, Mr Holmes, and the Guy Ritchie films, and how theatrical Holmes adaptations use play, performance, metatheatre, and audience engagement.
Buy on Amazon




Sherlock Holmes in Context
Edited by Sam Naidu
Palgrave Macmillan
2017
————————————
Sherlock Holmes in Context is an interdisciplinary collection of essays placing Sherlock Holmes and his adaptations in contemporary cultural context. The volume covers television, film, literature, theatre, popular culture, fan communities, and modern reinterpretations of Holmes, with particular attention to the renewed twenty-first-century visibility of Conan Doyle's detective.
Buy on Amazon




Playing Sherlock Holmes
By Michael Pointer
Andrews UK
2017
44 pages
————————————
A study of the actors who have portrayed Sherlock Holmes on stage, screen, radio, and television from the Victorian era to the present day. Michael Pointer examines the evolution of Holmes performances, discusses many of the most notable interpreters of the detective, and explores how changing portrayals have shaped the public image of Sherlock Holmes over more than a century of adaptations.
Buy on Amazon




Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle: Multi-Media Afterlives
Edited by Sabine Vanacker & Catherine Wynne
Palgrave Macmillan
2013
————————————
Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle: Multi-Media Afterlives examines the modern afterlives of both Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle across different media. The essays discuss advertising, film, videogames, feminist revisions, neo-Victorian fiction, Conan Doyle as a fictional character, and other forms of cultural adaptation and reinvention.
Buy on Amazon




Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Cinema: A Critical Study of the Film Adaptations
By Scott Allen Nollen; foreword by Nicholas Meyer
McFarland & Co.
1996
————————————
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Cinema is a critical study of film adaptations of Conan Doyle's works. Scott Allen Nollen examines screen versions of Sherlock Holmes and other Conan Doyle creations, including film treatments of The Lost World, and places them within the wider history of Conan Doyle on screen.
Buy on Amazon




The Sherlock Holmes File
By Michael Pointer
David & Charles
1976
168 pages
————————————
A richly illustrated study of Sherlock Holmes as a cultural phenomenon, covering Arthur Conan Doyle's detective through books, illustrations, stage, screen, radio, television, advertising, collectibles and Sherlockian enthusiasm. Michael Pointer documents the public image and popular afterlife of Sherlock Holmes beyond the original stories.
Buy on Amazon




The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes
By Michael Pointer
David & Charles
1975
224 pages
————————————
A comprehensive study of Sherlock Holmes in the public sphere, tracing the history of the great detective beyond the original stories. Michael Pointer examines stage adaptations, films, radio productions, advertisements, merchandising, and the growth of Sherlockian societies, documenting how Holmes became an international cultural phenomenon. Illustrated throughout, the book is an important reference work for the history of Sherlock Holmes adaptations and popular reception.
Buy on Amazon