Temple Bar; A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers Volume 2; V. 134 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...him. But he was what neither Gaboriau nor Collins could claim to be, a poet and a man of abstract thought. Such a conception as that of "The Purloined Letter" is imaginatively beyond the reach of any other writer of the kind. And Dupin is more than a great detective, he is a great rationalistic philosopher, the incarnation of the logical and scientific conception of life. A criticism of modern detective fiction would obviously be inadequate without some appreciation of the great Sherlock Holmes cycle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is at least entitled to claim the honour of being the only novelist since Dickens, one of whose creations has become a popular proverb. It is easy to test this. Mr. Rudyard Kipling is generally considered a popular writer. Mulvaney is probably Mr. Kipling's most popular creation. But let anyone say in an assembly of twenty average men chosen at random from the street--" That man is quite a Mulvaney." Perhaps two men will understand the reference; perhaps one; quite possibly none But let him say "That man is quite a Sherlock Holmes." The recognition will be instantaneous and unanimous. A man who had not heard of Holmes would be more singular than a man who could not sign his own name. Sir Arthur is the only writer of our time who has done this, and he has never done it twice. He has done more ambitious work than the Sherlock Holmes tales, but none of it has passed into the language. And they fully deserved their popularity. They were excellent stories, admirably conceived, and in the great majority of cases admirably executed. But their charm was not wholly or even mainly the charm of the pure detective story. One or two, like "Silver Blaize," for instance, were admirable even from the technical point of view, but for...