Author | Nick Rennison |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Mystery novels |
Publisher | Atlantic Monthly Press |
Publication date | November 10, 2005 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
ISBN | 0-87113-947-2 (first edition, hardback) |
Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Nick Rennison, originally published in 2005.
In the novel, Rennison postulates that Sherlock Holmes was involved in various historical events, including the Jack the Ripper case, the Crippen murder case, and World War I. [1]
So, really, the book is three strands woven together. There's the material from the Conan Doyle stories, there's the real history of the 19th century, and if those two failed to provide something then I was in a position where I could simply make it up.
— Nick Rennison, Interview with ICONS England [2]
Rennison has stated that the novel was initially the idea of his editor, Angus MacKinnon. [2]
The Telegraph positively reviewed the book saying "One need not be a Sherlock Holmes obsessive to appreciate this peculiar enterprise. Described as erudite though pointless by one critic, Rennison's book is a marvel of ingenuity." [3] Publishers Weekly said "He falls a little short in explaining Holmes's devotion of time and resources to espionage rather than deduction, but overall his attempt ranks with previous similar speculations by Michael Harrison and William S. Baring-Gould." [4] The Los Angeles Times said "Rennison does a marvelous job of overlaying his own extensive research on clues from Doyle's tales of Watson and Holmes, deciphering much for this complex, engaging portrait." [5]
Some reviews were more critical with The New York Times saying "Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography is a chance for Rennison to show off his knowledge of Holmes minutiae and his research on the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. But it’s a good deal less entertaining than the best of those pastiches, like Nicholas Meyer’s Seven-Per-Cent Solution " [1] The Spectator was also critical saying the book "moves fully into the area of wild supposition, and falls flat...Flaccid writing such as ‘Holmes’s love of the theatre was stimulated by the toy theatre bought for him by his grandmother when he was still a small boy’ only makes things worse. This might have been a witty enough short essay, but between hard covers it comes across as a dinner-party game which got out of hand." [6]
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and criminal mastermind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy for the author's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. He was created primarily as a device by which Doyle could kill Holmes and end the hero's stories. Professor Moriarty first appears in the short story "The Adventure of the Final Problem", first published in The Strand Magazine in December 1893. He also plays a role in the final Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear, but without a direct appearance. Holmes mentions Moriarty in five other stories: "The Adventure of the Empty House", "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", and "His Last Bow".
"The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom, and McClure's in the United States, under the title "The Adventure of the Final Problem" in December 1893. It appears in book form as part of the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson, and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view.
The Canary Trainer: From the Memoirs of John H. Watson is a 1993 Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. Like The Seven Percent Solution and The West End Horror, The Canary Trainer was published as a "lost manuscript" of the late Dr. John H. Watson. In "The Adventure of Black Peter", an original Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story from 1904, Watson mentions that his companion recently arrested "Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer, which removed a plague-spot from the East-End of London." This Wilson is not related to the eponymous character of Meyer's novel. Meyer's "trainer" is Erik, the principal figure of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera. It is from this unchronicled tale that The Notorious Canary Trainers take their name.
Sherlockiana encompasses various categories of materials and content related to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle. The word "Sherlockiana" has been used for literary studies and scholarship concerning Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes pastiches in print and other media such as films, and memorabilia associated with Sherlock Holmes. Sherlockiana may be "anything about, inspired by, or tangentially concerning" Sherlock Holmes.
The Italian Secretary is mystery fiction by Caleb Carr featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. This literary pastiche had the approval of the Doyle estate having originally been commissioned as a short story for the collection Ghosts of Baker Street which then expanded into a novel.
Sherlock Holmes has long been a popular character for pastiche, Holmes-related work by authors and creators other than Arthur Conan Doyle. Their works can be grouped into four broad categories:
The Sherlockian game is the pastime of attempting to resolve anomalies and clarify implied details about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from the 56 short stories and four novels that make up the Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle. It treats Holmes and Watson as real people and uses aspects of the canonical stories combined with the history of the era of the tales' settings to construct fanciful biographies of the pair.
Sherlock Holmes is a character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Leslie S. Klinger is an American attorney and writer. He is a noted literary editor and annotator of classic genre fiction, including the Sherlock Holmes stories and the novels Dracula, Frankenstein, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
Sherlock Holmes fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The fans are known as Sherlockians or Holmesians. Many fans of Sherlock Holmes participate in societies around the world, and engage in a variety of activities such as discussion, tourism, and collecting.
Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective is a 1962 novel by William S. Baring-Gould. The book purports to be a biography of Sherlock Holmes. It is considered to be the "definitive" biography of Sherlock Holmes.
The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes is an anthology of Sherlock Holmes pastiche short stories by Lyndsay Faye. All but two of the stories have been previously published with 10 of the 15 stories were originally published in The Strand Magazine in slightly different form. The stories are divided chronologically into four sections: pre-Baker Street, the early adventures of Holmes and Watson, adventures during the "great hiatus", and the retirement years. Many of the stories are based on references in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes such as "Colonel Warburton’s Madness", a reference made in "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb".
Mycroft Holmes is a mystery novel by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse. It involves Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character of Mycroft Holmes, the older brother of Sherlock Holmes, solving a mystery early in his career as a government official. It is Abdul-Jabbar's first adult novel.
The Revenge of the Hound is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Michael Hardwick, originally published in 1987. It is Hardwick's second Holmes novel after 1979's The Prisoner of the Devil.
The Prisoner of the Devil is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Michael Hardwick, originally published in 1979.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a book by Vincent Starrett originally published in 1933. It is considered the first book on Sherlock Holmes scholarship, as well as a cornerstone of the study of Sherlockiana. It has been credited with jumpstarting the creation of Sherlockian Societies. It has been used as an inspiration and a reference for "biographies" of Sherlock Holmes such as Nick Rennison's 2005 Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography.