With all the pictures of Sherlockian bookcases posted in The Stranger’s Room on Facebook and the many bookcases we see behind Sherlockians on Zooms, is it any wonder a person, such as myself, would become curious about what Sherlock Holmes considered important enough to shelve on his bookcase?
Watson first introduces his readers to the complexity of his roommate’s character in A Study in Scarlet. Literary references abound throughout the Canon although, at first, Watson in this story notes Sherlock’s knowledge of literature is “nil.” (After he compiles his infamous list of Sherlock’s strengths and weaknesses, he throws this list into the fire, a good place for it.)
On March 4th of 1879, Watson picked up a magazine and read an article titled “The Book of Life.” In the summation of the article, its author states that a person trained in observation, deduction, and analysis would find conclusions “as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid.” Watson scoffs and Sherlock reveals himself not only as the author but as the world’s first consulting detective. Thus begins a journey through which Sherlock proves time and time again that the views outlined in the article are true. Said magazine is no doubt slipped onto the bookcase, perhaps beside a copy of Elements by Euclid.
Trying to wrap his head around this consulting detective business, Watson brings up Edgar Allen Poe’s detective Dupin and Gaboriau's Lecoq, apparently two of his favorites. Sherlock dismisses both of these characters, much to Watson’s chagrin. Both Sherlock and Watson seem quite familiar with these detectives. Poe wrote his Dupin stories between 1841 and 1843, so not surprising. Although Gaboriau wrote Monsieur Lecoq in 1869, it wasn’t translated into English until 1879. We might surmise that Holmes could read French due to later revelations about his French ancestry. Did Watson read French? Watson doesn’t expand on this possibility. However, when Holmes receives a letter of admiration from the French detective Francois le Villard, in The Sign of Four, he tosses it to Watson. Watson looks it over and says that Villard speaks “as a pupil to his master.” I am all for giving Watson credit for being able to read French. Where he picked up this ability, it’s difficult to know.
Sherlock’s attitude to both detectives lead one to believe their books would not be on his bookshelf unless Watson slips them on later, perhaps next to his book of Clark Russell’s sea stories. Sherlock’s familiarity with Poe is also evident in a non-Canonical movie, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, when Sherlock places the bomb sight in two volumes of Charles Dickens works. He notes that the best place to hide something is in plain sight, Dupin’s thought in “The Purloined Letter.” Sherlock expresses some dismay at having hollowed out the books but remarks that he “always thought a knowledge of the classics would come in handy.”
Of course, being a best-seller doesn’t mean a book is a classic. Perhaps Charles Dickens wasn’t an instant classic and didn’t find a place in Sherlock's bookcase until some years later. Trilby by George du Maurrier was an astounding best seller in 1894 due to its controversial subject matter, but Sherlock would probably not have been a fan. Watson may have read it because its basic theme does echo in “The Illustrious Client.” Included in Sherlock’s classics, I believe, would have been some of William Shakespeare's works, probably the history plays, and the Authorized Version (King James Bible).
Reference books would have occupied a significant amount of space: The Times Atlas (1895), Bacon’s Commercial and Library Atlas, John Bartholomew maps, and The Royal Atlas of England and Wales (1895) are definite possibilities.. In “A Scandal in Bohemia” Holmes takes down “a heavy brown volume,” the Continental Gazetteer, to check some facts. Most probably some dictionaries of poisons and books devoted to chemistry found space there.
I would not be surprised to also find the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell since he refers to Watson as his own Boswell.
We may surmise that Sherlock could read French, but we can be sure he was conversant with Latin when he concludes Watson's A Study in Scarlet with an appropriate quote from The Satires of Horace: “The public hisses at me but I applaud myself when I am in my own house I contemplate the coins in my chest.” Taking this as a clue, I think other Roman authors appeared on his bookshelves and probably Plato and other Greek classics as well.
Close at hand on the bookshelves, Sherlock probably kept his journals, his crime indexes, and time tables for trains at the various stations. Space would have been found for all his monographs as well.
When Holmes retired to Sussex, he evidently brought boxes of books with him. Perhaps he left the heavy reference books behind but he apparently included a variety of others. This turned out to be a good thing when he found his copy of Out of Doors by J. G. Wood and was able to make sense of “the lion’s mane.” He tells Inspector Bardle and Mr. Murdoch, “I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.” Holmes gives the book to Inspector Bardle, assured that this knowledge will stay with him.
At the end of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (the 1960 movie not the book) there are three books missing from George Wells’ bookcase. Speculations about which three books he would have taken abound. Similar discussions about Sherlock’s bookcase might delve into what an “omnivorous” reader, as Holmes describes himself, would shelve there. Watson never seems to depict Holmes puffing away on his pipe as he reads. So, my Sherlockian friends, what do you think filled the bookcase of Sherlock Holmes?
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