Books like A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes by Nigel Cawthorne

>**The location is a room in Baker Street, somewhere on the edge of eternity.** >It is a room endlessly the same, yet it has changed shape and perspective a hundred different times in a hundred films made by a myriad of film companies. Outside on the fogbound streets, one hears the clatter of horse-drawn carriages along with modern motor cars, and the footfalls of Victorian villains and Nazi spies. Sherlock Holmes lives in this room, his features changing with the visages of some of the foremost actors of the twentieth century, yet always essentially the same. >The greatest detective of literature has become the super-sleuth of the screen: more films have been devoted to his career than any other cinematic hero. He is the most popular screen detective of all time. >This book is a chronicle of Sherlock Holmes's screen career. It is a study in atmosphere. For the reason Sherlock Holmes, film detective, has endured so well may be the trappings, both Victorian and later, which have surrounded him and his friend Dr. Watson across six screen decades. >Many great actors have played Holmes on the screen and in these pages you'll meet them all. John Barrymore, Clive Brook, Arthur Wontner, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, and Nicol Williamson are only a few of the interpreters of the great detective. You will also meet the troubled baronets and other frightened clients, the Scotland Yard men and master criminals, the regents and the riffraff which peopled the world of the great detective--that twilight, gas-lit, sinister world that is forever Sherlock's London. >This book contains some of the best mystery motion pictures ever made. It is carefully researched and illustrated with hundreds of rare photographs. It is *the* history of Holmes on screen.

> A triumph of dedicated detective work, set against the romantic nostalgic splendor of Victorian England, *The World of Sherlock Holmes* reveals a wealth of unsuspected facts about the master sleuth. What was the scandal involving Queen Victoria's son and grandson? Why did Holmes visit the United States, and what did he do for Vanderbilt? Why did he remain silent about the identity of Jack the Ripper? What was the secret of the Vatican cameos? Why did the kings of Denmark, Sweden and Holland, the Sultan of Turkey, the Czar of Russia and the President of the United States confer on Sherlock Holmes their countries' highest decorations? >Mr. Harrison also sheds new light on Holmes' youth, including the unusual nature of his university career, his brilliant achievements at the top level of Victorian diplomacy and his close and curious relations with the Britsh crown.

A companion volume that pairs Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes tales—from “A Study in Scarlet” to “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”—with a collection of contemporary critical essays exploring the mysteries’ literary and cultural significance.