# Sherlock Holmes. Where to start? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2009, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119 "2009-05-20T23:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/41 "2009-05-22T19:25:32Z")
My favorite Holmes pastiche is _Sherlock Homes’ War Of The Worlds_. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/42 "2009-05-22T19:50:37Z")
Come to think of it I am surprised Holmes wasn’t in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. After googling a bit I found this [review](http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com/loeg.html)on a Holmes site; apparently he does crop up in a flashback and as the author says the whole story is very “Sherlockian”. Another vote for the TV series which is probably better than the books for a lot of the later,weaker stories. In addition to Brett, Edward Hardwicke makes a wonderful Watson though unfortunately only for part of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/43 "2009-05-22T21:10:14Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > My favorite Holmes pastiche is _Sherlock Homes’ War Of The Worlds_. With guest appearance by Professor George Edward Challenger! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/44 "2009-05-22T23:20:13Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > With guest appearance by Professor George Edward Challenger! 😃 Oooohh yyyeeaaaahhhh! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/45 "2009-05-22T23:55:58Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Because there doesn’t look like there’s been a specific answer to **mnemosyne** ’s query: > > She’s dead. As alluded to upthread, in “The Adventure of the Empty House,” the first story set after Holmes’ “death,” Watson notes that Holmes has learned of “[his] own sad bereavement,” and offers “a piece of work for us both to-night,” which is “the best antidote to sorrow.” And that’s just about the last we hear of Mary. > > –Cliffy > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Read my responses in the linked thread for why this simple statement isn’t necessary true, although I believe it is. Having read both threads, I’ll settle for **Cliffy’s** answer, though I recognize that there’s a whole lot that doesn’t make sense about Watson and his wife(s). I had missed those phrases in the “Empty House”, or, rather, thought that Holmes may have heard about just how broken hearted Watson was about him being Moriartied in the previous story! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/46 "2009-05-23T11:18:38Z")
There’s a simple reason why the business of Watson and his wife or wives doesn’t make sense. Doyle never cared the slightest bit about continuity or whether the explanations for the crimes made any sense. It’s the fans who decided that the series is so wonderful that they have tried to make the series be consistent. That’s what Sherlock Holmes pseudoscholarship is about, trying to make everything in the series fit together. It’s what is known as fan wankery today. Go ahead and have fun with it, but don’t think too much about what Doyle really meant, because the answer is that Doyle didn’t really mean to have everything fit together in a consistent fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119/47 "2009-05-23T15:34:40Z")
I’m afraid you’re right. I used to get the BSI’s _Baker Street Journal_ and the amount of fanwankery there is simply breathtaking. The same texts are pored over and over, and the same battles are fought over and over. I still love the Holmes stories, but have lost all interest in trying to make them a seamless web of absolute consistency. It just can’t be done, and any fun there might have been in trying has long since been pounded away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sherlock-holmes-where-to-start/497119.md?page=2)