...the best account of Baker Street mania ever written ... what Bostrom has accomplished supremely well is to relate, as his subtitle proclaims, 'the story of the men and women who created an icon.' In effect, he shows us how Sherlock Holmes enchanted the world ... more than a treat, it’s a smorgasbord ... be aware that Bostrom’s narrative style verges on the melodramatic: Each chapter is a short vignette, often ending with a cliffhanger. This can take getting used to, but remember that Holmes himself could never resist a theatrical flourish.
...a timely overview of the great detective’s actual genesis and multiple transformations as a mass cultural icon. As translated from the Swedish by Michael Gallagher, it is a riveting tale involving brilliant artists, cunning criminals, eccentric characters and illuminating moments of tragedy and triumph ... Mr. Boström has expertly unearthed entertaining instances of the sleuth’s diverse appearances in all media, throughout the world ... Running like a tangled skein through this wonderfully entertaining history are the attempts by Conan Doyle and his heirs to control Holmes’s dissemination through copyright law.
The attraction here is watching the publishing world catch on to what readers have always known: these are not detective stories but 'stories about a detective' ... The canon of critical and biographical material on Holmes and Doyle is massive, of course, but even so, this latest entry makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how a bloodhound called Sherlock took over the world.
...[a] terrific book ... Boström matches his detailing of the production vagaries of these shows with sharp insights into the work of everybody involved – the actors, the producers, the directors, and the ever-present but always-shifting chorus of Holmes fans watching every rendition of the character ... There have of course been countless books written on the Sherlock Holmes phenomenon since the days more than a century ago when lines of clamoring fans formed outside the Strand offices in London. But despite that tremendous backlog of titles, in From Holmes to Sherlock Matthias Boström has written a necessary addition to any Baker Street library.
Boström’s weaving of the Holmes story into the larger one of popular culture and the mass-entertainment industry is the best part of this very good book. For fans of literature, film history, and Conan Doyle alike, a fine complement to the best works of Sherlock-iana.
The book occasionally bogs down in their legal skirmishing, but always gets back on track as it explores the world’s continuing fascination with fiction’s leading detective hero. The informal, accessible style of Gallagher’s translation makes for an easy, if lengthy, read.
