Screening Sherlock - (Multiplexities) by James Chapman (Hardcover)

About the Book

A cultural history of Sherlock Holmes adaptations in film and television from early cinema to the present.

Book Synopsis

Screening Sherlock is the first book-length academic study of the film and television career of the most famous detective in fiction. Chapman explores the contexts, adaptation strategies and critical reception of Sherlock Holmes (and Dr Watson) on film and television in Britain and the United States. The book includes case studies of such famous Holmes impersonators as William Gillette, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as charting a path through many lesser-known productions. From early cinema to the Hollywood studio system, and from heritage drama to contemporary postmodern television, Screening Sherlock is an indispensible work for all aficionados of Arthur Conan Doyle's consulting detective of Baker Street.

From the Back Cover

Screening Sherlock is the first scholarly history of the many film and television adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Great Detective.

Cultural historian James Chapman maps the screen career of fiction's most celebrated sleuth from the silent era to the contemporary period. He explores the diverse adaptation strategies of the film and television industries in Britain and the United States and shows how screen Holmes has ranged from fidelity to the source texts to postmodern pastiche and parody. All the 'classic' Holmes impersonators are included - from William Gillette and Basil Rathbone to Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch - along with many lesser-known adaptations. Screening Sherlock shows how the history of Holmes on film and television has been shaped by changing cultural and ideological contexts - from the Allied propaganda cinema of the Second World War to the 'heritage' dramas of British television and the commercial demands of the modern Hollywood blockbuster.

Based on exhaustive viewing and drawing extensively upon primary sources, including the original stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapman argues that to study Holmes on screen is also to study the institutional and cultural histories of film and television.

About the Author

James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester