I Am Inclined To Think: Musings On Sherlock Holmes And Arthur Conan Doyle

by Barbara Roden

Did Jack the Ripper inspire a gruesome touch in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories? Was Inspector Lestrade an idiot (and is Dr Watson really as intelligent as some Sherlockians like to make him out to be? Did Holmes really dislike and distrust women? Are the similarities between 'The Red-Headed League' and 'The Three Garridebs' more than mere coincidence? And are Sherlockians in danger of not seeing the forest for the trees in their tireless analysis of the minutiae of the canon? These questions and more are posed (and answered) in this collection of nine articles about Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, and that wondrous world where it is always 1895.Barbara Roden's first Sherlockian article was published in 1988, and since then she has contributed dozens of articles to such publications as Canadian Holmes, The Baker Street Journal, The Ritual, The Musgrave Papers, The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, the New Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Holmes Detective Magazine. In 1988 she helped to found the westernmost Holmes Society in Canada, The Stormy Petrels of British Columbia, and in 1990 was named a Master Bootmaker by the Bootmakers of Toronto. She is one-half of the Sherlockian publisher Calabash Press, and writes a regular column for Canadian Holmes, for which she was awarded the Derrick Murdoch Memorial Award in 2002.

60 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2004

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Canon and Thereafter!

Barbara Roden is one of the finest Sherlockians whom I have read. This collection contains some of her most well-researched as well as lively pieces that talk about not just the canon, but also the Rathbone films and subsequent filmography that has continued to shape the Holmes-related landscape.
I had read the earlier Paperback version brought out by Calabash Press. This expanded version is equally delightful and thoughtful.
Unfortunately, these musings don't throw any light upon the world of pastiches. As a result, the reading felt somewhat dry.
Nevertheless, from the perspective of any admirer of Holmes, this is an essential read.
Recommended.