I’ve read the first two Sherlock Holmes novels now, and perhaps it’s just me, but I’m not getting along with them particularly well. The long backstory digressions are off-putting and don’t really add a necessary drive to the narrative of the crime solution. But the cultural snobbery and outright racism was especially difficult to take in this one.
Yes, one can argue that the character who is so blatantly racist isn’t necessarily speaking for Arthur Conan Doyle, but on the other hand, the narrative does nothing to distance itself from those views either. The British colonial rule in India, the stereotyped and racist views of Africans … it’s all too much.
I’ve already ordered his collections (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) in a joint collection. When it arrives, I’ll give it a quick look and if it’s more of the same, I’m probably finished with Doyle.
I’m all for a brilliant, logical, scientific detective solving crimes and making Scotland Yard look foolish. But Doyle’s boorishness … not so much. I hope I’m wrong and this isn’t typical of the rest of the works.
Yes, one can argue that the character who is so blatantly racist isn’t necessarily speaking for Arthur Conan Doyle, but on the other hand, the narrative does nothing to distance itself from those views either. The British colonial rule in India, the stereotyped and racist views of Africans … it’s all too much.
I’ve already ordered his collections (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) in a joint collection. When it arrives, I’ll give it a quick look and if it’s more of the same, I’m probably finished with Doyle.
I’m all for a brilliant, logical, scientific detective solving crimes and making Scotland Yard look foolish. But Doyle’s boorishness … not so much. I hope I’m wrong and this isn’t typical of the rest of the works.
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