A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes

by Nigel Cawthorne

Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, Sherlock Holmes appears in 4 novels and 56 short stories. Although Holmes was not the first literary detective, he continues to have a perennial allure as the ultimate sleuth. Cawthorne introduces the general reader to Holmes and his creator Arthur Conan Doyle.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mystery, Reference, Biography, History

290 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good primer on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and on everything in the world of Sherlock Holmes. It also has synopses of the four Sherlock novels and 56 short stories.

[Harri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would be a pretty good reference book for the Sherlock Holmes stories and characters, except that it is filled with typos and grammatical errors. Needed a good editor/proofreader.

[Kimi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 5/10

I am a huge fan of pretty much anything Sherlock Holmes, so when I saw this book come into work, I just had to buy it. Promising an insight into Sherlock Holmes, and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as an overview of all the stories and characters, I couldn’t resist.

It begins with a short-ish auto-biography of Conan Doyle, I honestly think this was the best part of the book. I found out a few gems I didn’t already (like how Sir ACD spent a few years at a school just down the road from where I live), and I was looking forward to the rest of the book.

However, the book soon took a turn for the worst. The later on in the book you go, the more spelling, grammatical, and naming errors you come across. The whole book soon begins to read like a first-year university student’s dissertation, completed at 7am on deadline day.

A good book to have as reference, I suppose, but not recommended for recreational reading!

[Rrlgrrl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes on this book, but was rather disappointed. There were numerous typos, which makes me wonder what the copy editor was doing. The book also read like a book report or Cliff Notes. Each Sherlock Holmes story was summarized. I was hoping for more of an indepth analysis of the stories and their origin/backgrounds. I would have gotten more out of the annotated versions of the stories. I also did not like the chapters devoted to the characters. The write up was basically taken from the stories themselves rather than any archival information, as I had expected. Basically, my impression was that the author merely took careful notes of reading each story and then wrote up his notes into this book. It is certainly not a "must-have" for ACD and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. It would be better to just read the original stories with annotations.

[Mark My Words · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, what can I say? I don't know if this has been purposely done to give Holmesians something to do, but this is the most poorly proofread book I have read recently. From Chapter Four onwards there seemed to be a grammatical error every two or three pages. The content is quite interesting however. Spoiler alert: if you don't want a mini version of all of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures related to you, stop now!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really do love Sherlock Holmes, so getting to study Author Conan Doyle's background and how that Master Detective came to be was really interesting. It started of slow, but that is just because it dealt with Mr. Doyle's biography. The best part was their description of Holmes himself - they used only what Mr. Doyle described in his stories, but having all the facts in one place made it a lot easier to picture. Beware of spoilers though! This book also gives an overview of every Sherlock Holmes case - I skipped maybe 3 chapters so I wouldn't spoil the stories that I haven't read yet. It also describes many of the other famous characters - from Watson, to Moriarty to Lestrade. On the whole, I believe that it was good and very enjoyable read.

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected, this book includes a brief biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, extensive summaries of every Sherlock Holmes short story and novel, and chapters on the main characters in the series. What it does not include are: a concluding chapter (the book just ended after describing some of the villains in the stories), a chapter on movie and television adaptations based on Sherlock Holmes (which I would have liked to read), and a chapter on the plethora of Sherlock Holmes stories written by other people (surely something that deserved to be addressed!).

[Mansi Wad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sherlock Holmes' books are my favorite. I started reading this book when I completed all the Sherlock Holems books, and trust me, this has made my understanding of Sherlock Holmes so much better. It is just like a mini encyclopedia of everything related to Sherlock Holmes, and the best part is when you are actually able to connect the facts with the stories and everything just starts to make sense. The feeling of "knowing" everything is just so empowering!

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it hadn't been for the numerous typos I'd have given it a higher rating.
In short, it's a great who's-who land who-did-what of the Holmesian canon; not to mention the summaries of the all the short stories and novel length cases. The index is easily consultable, and there are a few sources in the bibliography I think I'll read myself one day.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually didn't finish this. Only because it felt like a huge waste of my time. It basically summarizes the stories and characters, but even then, it's rifled with spelling and grammatical errors. I suppose if I need to look someone up, it would be helpful, though oftentimes the information isn't even correct. I doubt I'll pick this up again. At least it was in the bargain section at B&N.

[Molly Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A big chunk was just summaries of the stories, which is of little consequence, I (and I assume most people who'll read this) have read the books already. Also, it's full of typos and spelling mistakes. Still a little interesting though.

[Rick Patterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather engaging jaunt through the canon of Sherlock Holmes, this does little more than summarize the stories after providing a solid biographical sketch of Conan Doyle. It is marred by some very careless editing (or lack thereof) which provide some occasionally jarring moments.

[TC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, but horrendous editing - riddled with typos!

[Eve Lumerto · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a compact and entertaining book.