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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Unpopular Opinions of Dorothy L. Sayers

Do people still read Dorothy L. Sayers these days? Well, they should.

Best known as the creator of the aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, she was also a first-class essayist, critic, anthologist, dramatist, translator of Dante, theologian . . . and Sherlockian.

Her brilliant mind is on full display in Unpopular Opinions, a book of  21 essays that I am pleased to have in my library. The essays fall into three categories: theological, political, and critical. I love that trinity!

One of the political essays is the rather famous "Are Women Human?" I find it achingly poignant even today.

Of the five essays in the "critical" section, one is called "Aristotle on Detective Fiction" and the other four concern Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Their titles are:
  • "Holmes' College Career"
  • "Dr. Watson's Christian Name"
  • "Dr. Watson, Widower"
  • "The Dates in The Red Headed League."
The second of these contains her most lasting contribution to Sherlockian lore. In considering why Mrs. Watson addresses her husband as "James" rather than his given name of "John" in "The Man with the Twisted Lip," Sayers concludes that his middle name was Hamish. James, argues, was a pet name derived from that.

"Hamish is, of course, the Scottish form of James," she informs us. "The doctor's full name was John Hamish Watson." Almost no one questions that today.

In a blurb on the back of the book, Christopher Morley calls Sayers' Holmes and Watson essays "good comedy and reasoning with a bouquet." 

What's your favorite unpopular opinion?

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