Andrew Lycett

Biography of the creator of Sherlock Holmes is full of facts, but never manages to provide a compelling narrative or get much below the surface of Doyle. Much is made of his spiritualism, as it should be, but the author reports far too much without any critical analysis, such as instances of objects flying around and so on. This makes for a book long on repeating research and quotes from many many documents that had only recently become available, but severely short on providing the type of analysis and critical judgment we expect from a really good biography. Not without value, but this is the type of book that you get tired of every 10 pages, so it takes ages to finish it.… (más)

I'm a huge Wilkie Collins fan, so perhaps I'd prefer a hagiography. I felt like this work was rather colorless, given the humor and talent possessed by its subject. I got the feeling the writer did not appreciate Collins position as an innovator in mystery and thought of him as more of a second fiddle to Dickens. He gave pages to his later works and their shortcomings, but really failed to communicate just what a ruckus woman in white and moonstone caused when they came out. He was pleased to have some detail about the two household Collins maintained, but really just engaged in a lot of speculation about them. That may be all that is possible, but it failed to satisfy me… (más)

The Worlds of Sherlock Holmes by Andrew Lycett examines the character from the perspective of his times, which of course was Doyle's times as well.

To put it in terms similar to Lycett's, this looks at how Holmes is a reflection of that period, but a reflection specifically through the eyes (pen?) of Doyle. That isn't to say that Holmes is a stand-in for Doyle, but that there is simply no singular perspective on any period of history, so understanding the person through which we are given our glimpse is essential. This isn't, however, a biography of Doyle but rather focuses on the major strands of thought and belief of the time.

This is an excellent companion for someone working their way through the stories and would be ideal for someone considering revisiting them. In fact, this has made me want to reread some of them. It also sheds some interesting light on TV and film representations. The reader can consider what liberties were taken to make the character more likely to be embraced by viewers at various times.

As a bit of an aside, I think this could be a useful read for a writer who is thinking about creating a character that would reflect our current times. How did Doyle create a character who could both embody much of the time yet also question, explicitly or implicitly, some of the ideals? This book doesn't necessarily answer that question, but it does offer some examples that a writer could apply to their own work.

I would definitely recommend this to those in the, as Lycett calls it, Sherlockian world. Even a casual reader (or viewer) of the Holmes stories will enjoy seeing how the character is a product of not just a fertile mind but of the time as well.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)

Definitely the most comprehensive biography of James Bond’s creator to date, but at times it’s overwhelmed by extraneous detail that makes a confusing read. It has a surprisingly downbeat tone as Lycett debunks some Fleming myths while making only passing reference to others that I would have like to have seen explored in more detail. However it does provide an often disturbing insight into Fleming as a “deeply complex, unhappy, self-consuming person” who turned his internal turmoil to birth perhaps the most gripping creation of high-adventure and high-living in popular fiction.… (más)