Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Perhaps its cheating a bit to pick the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as an example of fiction to film/screen adaption. Fans will know that the Sherlock Holmes stories are actually a collection of 56 short stories and four novellas. And these stories have been adapted repeatedly, with varying degrees of faithfulness to the original works.
Why?
While a detective story may have been novel at the time of first publication and perfect for a serialized story format, we now have a plethora of characters, crime procedurals, and murder mysteries to model after, so why Sherlock Holmes?
Because...
...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating week to week between cocaine and ambition...
(A Scandal in Bohemia, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In truth, it is Sherlock Holmes who has been adapted from fiction to film countless times (or 254 times according to the Guinness Book of World Records, 2012). Sometimes his stories follow him, and sometimes he is brought kicking and screaming into the modern world. Yet, he remains in almost every incarnation, a selfish, arrogant, driven person committed to his own passions and uncaring of the feelings of others (outside of Watson and a select few). But we love him, flaws and all.
My favorite TV adaption is Sherlock:
This adaption gives us a wickedly smart, decidedly unlikable main character, a strong Watson who softens our view of Sherlock through their bromance, and a host of wacky side characters.
Mrs. Hudson being a boss.
I find the first couple of seasons to be very true to the spirit of Sherlock I remember from my reading. He is flawed, brilliant, and if there is hope for him maybe, just maybe, there is hope for the rest of us. Out of all the versions I've seen this Sherlock evokes the most frustration and sympathy.
Other adaptions lean into the drug habit, re-imagine Sherlock as a mouse or an android.
Or, even a badass.
Love, love this clinical breakdown of an all out beatdown.
But they're all Sherlock Holmes because that's who were here to see (read). :)
Do you have a favorite Sherlock Holmes adaption? Or, a character you love to see regardless of setting or story line? Share in the comments below.
13 comments:
I enjoyed reading a bunch of these stories when I was younger..
Time for a revisit!
Great first post
Hopping in from the A-Z community,
Dream
https://thedreamgirlwrites.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/anguish/
I didn't read Sherlock Holmes or watch many adaptations. I do like some of the books about girls who are like him in solving mysteries.
I grew up reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so always watched the adaptations to see how they captured the character. I agree that Sherlock is awesome. I think each actor has pulled a part of the original Sherlock into the stage lights. Glad you chose him to start off the month.
This month my story is in Ukraine - 2022. I wrote the original story while I lived in Ukraine (2007). Happy April!
The Letter A
My favorite portrayers of Sherlock Holmes are Ronald Howard (in the TV series from the '50's), Basil Rathbone (from the films in the '40's) and Jeremy Brett (in the PBS series a few years back). How close they are to the spirit of the books, I'm not sure, though Brett seems to have captured him well.
I'm definitely a Sherlock fan too. Such clever fun! Nice start to A to Z.
Great choice! I didn´t know how many film adaptations were, thanks for the fun fact! I love to read Sherlock´s mysteries when I was a kid and I found some of his stories on my grandpa´s bookshelf.
This month I´m doing short versed stories. https://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/a-is-for-amnesia/
What an interesting take on the popular Sherlock Holmes character! Looking forward to your upcoming posts of the A to Z challenge!
I have to admit, I'm a bit of a Basil Rathbone fan, even though some of the films are very silly and Watson is a bit too bumbling at times. I am really enjoying how they have coloured up some of them recently. I do like the modern versions as well though, I really enjoyed the first season or so of Sherlock and I thought the RDJ movies were a great romp. Never did get round to watching Elementary though.
Best wishes
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings: YouTube - What They Don't Tell You (and free fiction)
I enjoyed reading the Sherlock Holmes stories, but never got invested in any of the movies/series. But yeah, he's pretty iconic.
Deeply Shallow: The Tale of the Hostage Prince
Loved Sherlock as well. I named our dog Benny for Benedict Cumberbatch! Looking forward to reading the rest of your series.
Janet’s Smiles
Oh yes! Enola Holmes was fun and I love Miss Scarlet and the Duke if you haven't checked it out.
I've mostly read the Sherlock Holmes stories, including one novella ("Hound of the Baskervilles"). The only screen adaptions I've seen, at least recently enough to remember, were two "Hound of the Baskervilles" movies, one from the 1930s starring Basil Rathbone and the other starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. As much as I like Cushing and Lee's movies, i think my favourite of the two is the Rathbone one. It seemed to be a little more faithful to the novella.
Btw, I did reviews of both films at my blog (two separate posts) if anyone's interested.
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