Review:A Sherlock Holmes Handbook/Doug Elliott
This review of the book "A Sherlock Holmes Handbook", by Christopher Redmond was written by Doug Elliott and published in the Canadian Holmes (Vol. 17 No. 2, Winter 1993).
Doug Elliott enthusiastically reviews Christopher Redmond's A Sherlock Holmes Handbook as an elegant, readable, and wide-ranging guide that serves both as an excellent introduction to the Holmes world and as an indispensable working reference for seasoned Sherlockians.
Review
Doug Elliot, MBt., a former Meyers and the author of The Curious Incident of the Missing Link: Arthur Conan Doyle and Piltdown Man, took Christopher Redmond's new book with him on a recent vacation.
Behind me as I write is a smallish bookshelf that now overflows with my Doyle/Holmes collection. It is not a large one by any stretch-I was never tempted by the dreams of the completist-but it does tend to challenge the traditional boundaries. There is the usual Annotated, assorted paperback and illustrated editions of The Canon, a smattering of Doyle biographies and a few volumes of writings on the writings. Here and there can be found descriptions of Victorian life (my favourite is Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead). The shelves are fairly thick with Doyle non-Canonical works: The Refugees, The Lost World, Micah Clarke, for example, and a slim volume of poetry. Off to one side are the Solar Pons paperbacks, their spines well creased and flaked. A red-covered edition of Gaboriau's works, a cheap set of Poe's tales and The Mystery of the Hansom Cab help put the detective fiction phenomenon into historical perspective. No, not complete, but it has one particular virtue. It is a working library; the books really do get opened and read. My second favourite place to work on matters Conanical, next to the Metropolitan Toronto Library's wonderfully Victorian ACD collection, is my own basement room-my "playroom" as Dianne calls it.
Taking pride of place in my playroom library are the reference works. Jack Tracy's Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, a well-thumbed Baedeker's Great Britain of 1897, a battered de Waal, The Films of Sherlock Holmes, The London of Sherlock Holmes, The World of Sherlock Holmes, The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes, The Pictorial History of Sherlock Holmes, The Quest for Sherlock Holmes, The Television Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes by Gas-Lamp, Sherlock Holmes in London, Sherlock Holmes in America, Sherlock Holmes Among the Pirates, Sherlock Holmes and his Creator. And so on. Somewhere in these pages lies precisely the fact, the conjecture, the anecdote, the illustration that I need. Ah, yes, there it is! Gems, all.
And now here is a new one, modestly titled A Sherlock Holmes Handbook, by longtime Bootmaker and longer-time BSI Christopher Redmond. Redmond's researching and writing abilities have been amply demonstrated in two previous works, In Bed with Sherlock Holmes (1984), and Welcome to America, Mr. Sherlock Holmes (1987). He will be well known to many Bootmakers from his Canadian Holmes editorial efforts from 1979 to 1991, the period when the magazine grew from a modest newsletter to an acknowledged international literary journal.
How can I possibly review a 'reference' book?" I grumbled to myself as I stuffed the Handbook into my suitcase at the outset of a two-week vacation. "Surely I can't read every word!" But I did. Each chapter holds concise, self-contained little essays that elegantly smmnarize their subjects and point the reader to more detailed reference work. It is indeed possible, in fact it is delightful, to read A Sherlock Holmes Handbook from cover to cover.
Redmond eschews a detailed analysis of each Canonical tale; in only twenty pages he reviews the stories in publication order, touching briefly on what makes each one special. Following this, in a section called "Characters and Adventures", he sketches Holmes, Watson and the main recurring characters and addresses short essays to the heroic and sexual overtones in the Canon. Here the book begins to diverge from the traditional reference works.
There follow chapters on the publishing history of the Holmes stories, Doyle's life and non-Sherlockian works, the cultural background of late Victorian times, and an outline of crime and the Jaw in fact and fiction. The author surveys Holmes's appearances outside the Canon in print, radio, television, theatre, film and other modern media. There is a chapter on Sherlockian organizations and activities, including special mention of prominent individuals, material that, though it roots the book forever in 1993, is not be found anywhere else. The Handbook closes with a summary of the ever spreading influence of the Master beyond the confines of his extended family of followers, into academia and popular culture. The broad scope of subject matter makes the book unique. The coverage is just deep enough to whet the appetite-the operative word here is handbook; Redmond knows just when to stop.
Not merely an encyclopedic assemblage, the material is sensibly organized and very well presented. Redmond writes with a clear, straightforward style and a light touch that informs without condescending and always entertains.
Thanks to a comprehensive index, it is easy to use the book as a reference, whether you are curious about the editor the Baker Street Journal in 1976, Stephen Leacock's 1911 Holmes parody, or Gladstone's position on "The Irish Question".
So in this one compact volume, Christopher Redmond has created a readable introduction to the world of Sherlock Holmes, a reliable settler of arguments and an excellent starting point for many a scholarly essay. Of all the reference works, this is the one that should be tucked into the luggage of every traveling Sherlockian. It is already nestled into my own working library at a convenient-to-reach spot.
Redmond's publishers, Simon & Pierre, have done a fine job of production, breaking with the orange-and-brown style of his earlier two volumes to jacket this one in handsome grey and gold that features a monochrome cameo of Frank Wiles's portrait of the Master. And herein lies a problem.
The book is simply too handsome to use. I traveled in constant fear of marking, scratching or gouging it during all my packing and unpacking. My battered Encyclopedia Sherlockiana looks as if it had gone ten rounds with Steve Dixie, but its paperback format seems to encourage frequent and cavalier handling. The more elegant hard cover Handbook says, "With respect, if you please!"
Redmond's audience would seem to be those who have read and enjoyed the stories of Holmes and Watson and are eager for more. Regrettably, there is no more, but there is so much gold in and around the original sixty stories that, as Sherlockians have discovered, a lifetime is scarcely enough time to mine it all. For new readers searching for the first vein, as well as for experienced delvers, A Sherlock Holmes Handbook is the perfect guide.
A Sherlock Holmes Handbook by Christopher Redmond. 251pp. Toronto: Simon & Pierre. $29.99.
- Article courtesy The Bootmakers of Toronto.
