The Public, the Press, and Celebrities in The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Authors

  • Thomas Vranken University of Melbourne

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21825/aj.v4i2.1441

Keywords:

Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, Celebrity, Authorship, Authority

Abstract

Arthur Conan Doyle and his consulting detective had been famous for more than ten years when Doyle came to write The Return of Sherlock Holmes. In the following essay, I argue that this experience of fame shaped the composition of the third series of Holmes stories, in which the detective is resurrected a decade after going over the Reichenbach Falls. The essay approaches celebrity as a competitive interaction in which the public, the press, and the celebrity vie for control. It is argued that the stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes work to empower the various celebrities that they portray – including not just Holmes but also well-known aristocrats, statesmen, scholars, and female ‘beauties’ – and to disempower their rival co-participants in the celebrity dynamic: the public and the press.

Author Biography

Thomas Vranken, University of Melbourne

Thomas Vranken is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His dissertation is on the initial magazine publication of Huckleberry Finn, Dorian Gray, and The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

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Published

2015-12-01

How to Cite

Vranken, T. (2015). The Public, the Press, and Celebrities in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. uthorship, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.21825/aj.v4i2.1441

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Section

Articles