Not an admirer of Sherlock? Thought Holmes was a prick and showoff, and arrogant to top it all? And loyal companion and punching bag, John H Watson was unduly snubbed? Well, this might just be the book for you. Partha Basu almost reverses the canon, with Holmes as the bumbling detective and instead putting Watson as a paragon of indiscretion ? and a character with layers of his own. The stories are added to, or explained if you will, with hitherto hidden information, making way for fresh readings to them. Women instead find a place in this retelling of some of the most interesting stories, including A Scandal in Bohemia and A Serpentine Affair.Along the way, Basu updates the stories with new narrators and characters, including an Indian ? while keeping the atmosphere and language remarkably close to the original tales. Suman Tarafdar tries to understand why one of the most popular collections needed a retelling.
Why a return to the canon of Sherlock Holmes? And why did the character of Dr Watson interest you more, such that you have revised the way of looking at Holmes for many?
Everything happened in my mind before I wrote that first sentence. Fact is, I?ve been fascinated by this sense of things not being what they are hugely made out to be, this ?other side? of things; which could be a place to visit, a book, an event, a film, which everyone has gone insane over, and, of course, people. And when the man under the scanner is iconic, like Sherlock Holmes is, the plot, as they say, thickens. So, staying with the fiction, I felt it would be a challenge to create this ?other side?. Simply put, what if some of Holmes? celebrated successes didn?t happen the way we?ve been told? I found this grist for the writer?s mill.
How do you think this will be received by Holmes? fans?
Many Holmes fans, after reading the compliments the book receivedfrom the famed Sherlock Holmes Society of London, have written in pointing out that there are 49 stories still left in the canon!
The original author, Arthur Conan Doyle, too was bored of Holmes. What do you think makes him not likable?
I?m not bored with Holmes, nor allergic to him. Sherlock Holmes shall be immortal, in spite of all that has or is written about him. This has been so for about one hundred years.
Emma too plays an important role in this book. You also redress the men-women balance from the Holmes stories. Was it intentional to bring in or highlight the role the women had in the stories?
Absolutely intentional. These were Victorian times and women were supposed to be seen, not heard. I agree that it has changed now, though not a lot where it matters. Also I wanted to counterpoint Holmes? blatant chauvinism. Watson was different, but who was interested in what Watson thought?
Which are your favourite and least favourite moments from the original stories? The stories that you chose to add ? why just those?
The stories I used are the most popular amongst Holmesians. My personal favourites are the long story, The Hound of the Baskervilles and amongst short stories, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. Both brilliant, as are many of the others, though.
Are the young in India, and elsewhere, still able to get the magic of the stories, given that the technology especially has changed such a lot, and this is a very tech-savvy generation?
If you look at what the youngsters are reading today, you?ll find that the most popular genres are fantasies, like Eragon and so on, not necessarily the hi-tech stuff that we loved in the Arthur C Clarke kind of a book when we were young.
And Potter of course, who isn?t hi-tech either. So if it?s the magic of the Boy Wizard,why not the high adventure of Sherlock Holmes? Believe me, there is a huge young market out there.