Fans of Sherlock Holmes, Victorian England, and history in general will all find interesting tidbits to carry away.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle references many everyday Victorian activities and aspects that are lost on the twenty-first century reader. These short essays provide modern readers a better understanding of Victorian England and greater insight into the world of Sherlock Holmes. His cases take on richer meaning when the reader grasps the subtilties of such details as the blue ribbon mentioned in “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” the doss houses Shinwell Johnson knew about, or how one contracted brain fever.
Originally published in Sherlockian newsletters across the world, these short essays carry the reader back to London, 1895 and the world of the most famous consulting detective. Topics covered include:
Horse racing
The Victorian Wedding
Boxing
The Temperance Movement
Fencing
London Smog
Brain Fever
Circuses
The Port of Dundee
Doss Houses
Vampires
Bradshaw’s Companion
Bicycles and the New Woman
Clergymen
Public Houses
Microscopes and Magnifying Glasses
Governesses
Ciphers and Codes
Eton
Cambridge and Oxford
The Art of Disguise
Typewriters
Brief History of Tea
Return, once again, to Victorian England and the residents of 221B Baker Street.
“We have…always found [Dr. Sherwood-Fabre’s] essays to be both entertaining and informative as well as very well researched.”
--Joel Senter, editor The Sherlockian E-Times
