Sherlock Holmes Is Like: Sixty Comparisons for an Incomparable Character

Book excerpt: What do Superman, Gertrude Stein, the Beatles, Lord Shiva, the Wizard of Oz, and Hermione Granger have in common? They share essential characteristics with iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, explored in Sherlock Holmes is Like: Sixty Comparisons for an Incomparable Character. In his introduction, editor Christopher Redmond says “The essays in this collection are not an analysis of what Sherlock Holmes is like (brilliant, unsociable, hawk-nosed) but rather case studies of whom he can be said to be like. Their sixty suggestions range across centuries and continents, and include figures from belief and legend as well as from contemporary fiction and film. Some are household names, while others will be unknown to nearly all readers. In each case, while the author has been encouraged to provide an introduction to the character in question, the ultimate purpose of the comparison is to shed light on some aspect of the character of Sherlock Holmes, whose complexities are far from exhausted more than 130 years after he was introduced to a curious readership.”