Peschel - The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes

Genius. Braggart. Scientist. Fraud. Writers have portrayed Sherlock Holmes as all that and more in their quest to amuse readers. The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes brings together all of the major stories, reviews, briefs and illustrations that appeared in the legendary British humor magazine during Sir Arthur Conan Doyles lifetime. Annotated and presented in chronological order, this scrapbook charts the rise of Conan Doyle as a writer and public figure and the meteoric popularity of the worlds greatest consulting detective.

The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes contains:

All of the 17 stories in R.C. Lehmanns The Adventures of Picklock Holes.

P.G. Wodehouses Sherlockian parodies Dudley Jones, Bore-Hunter and The Prodigal.

Briefs and article excerpts that praise and poke fun at Conan Doyles work and beliefs.

Five complete Holmes parodies including two that havent been seen for a century.

Cartoons by Punch artists E.T. Reed, Bernard Partridge and others.

Reviews of Conan Doyles books, including two of the Sherlock Holmes play starring William Gillette.

Notes on the historical background of the articles and writers, essays on Lehmann, Wodehouse and Punch, plus a new short story featuring Mark Twain and John H. Watson!

More than a collection of humorous stories, The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes shows how Sherlock Holmes shaped the culture, and how the culture shaped our view of Sherlock Holmes. The 223B Casebook Series from Peschel Press reprints the Sherlock Holmes parodies and pastiches published during Arthur Conan Doyles lifetime. In addition to being fun to read, the books show how contemporary writers reacted to Conan Doyles life and works, and how they reshaped Holmes for their own uses. The result is valuable insight into the history behind the mystery of the great detectives popularity and endurance.

Edited by Bill Peschel

Peschel Press ~ Hershey, Pa.

This book is a result of hubris. Originally, I intended to publish only the 17 Picklock Holes stories, annotated, along with an essay about R.C. Rudie Lehmann and Punch magazine.

But as I started searching through the back issues, I found that Punch did more than treat the Great Detective like a hand puppet for the amusement of its readers. It reviewed Conan Doyles books and used his creation as a yardstick to measure his fictional rivals. It praised his patriotic turns and laughed immodestly when he said that fairies existed. It seems as if Punch treated Conan Doyle like a fictional character, and Sherlock Holmes as if he was real.

Much like the rest of us.

Then I came across two P.G. Wodehouse parodies, written when he had narrowly escaped from a ruinous career in finance at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank on Lombard Street. A lifelong affection for Holmes and Conan Doyle did not keep him from borrowing his friends creation for his own purposes. Maybe, I thought, I could throw them in as well. Then I read his song about Holmes and an article about William Gillette boxing with New Yorks upper crust at a party. Lets add them to the mix as well. Plum interviewing Conan Doyle? Great, even if it was for another long-defunct magazine.

That inspired the fatal idea: Did Punch do anything else with Holmes and Conan Doyle? By this time, I was hooked. I learned that Conan Doyle debuted in Punch, not because of Holmes, but for a short story about a romance gone wrong. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four was ignored, but not a patriotic poem he wrote opposing the sale of Admiral Horatio Nelsons flagship to the Germans.

Then Punch met The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and it was love at first sight. Satire needs popular icons; simplified versions of people and institutions with most of their flesh boiled away, but still strong enough to be instantly recognizable and bear the weight of the jokes. Holmes amazing deductive ability, forbidding demeanor, cocksureness and toys (the pipe! the Stradivarius! the deerstalker!) made him adaptable to any need a writer might have. Holmes could play the hero, straight man, and fool. Best of all, being immortal, hed never wear out.

Leaving Conan Doyle upstaged by his creation, a role he would play, bitterly at times, for the rest of his life. Hi-ho, as Kurt Vonnegut said.

Punchs relationship with Conan Doyle varied between admiration and gentle satire. Many on the staff remembered his illustrator uncle, Richard. The magazine had used his cover illustration for decades, so they would already be inclined to treat Conan Doyle kindly.

It helped that he was a good writer. With a few exceptions, Punchs reviewers loved his books. Also, Conan Doyle, like Punch, was loyal to the Empire. During the Boer War, he risked his health to oversee a field hospital in South Africa and made enemies in the hidebound military for advocating reforms based on the lessons learned in the war. He used his pen to defend Britain against her enemies for which he would receive a knighthood.

He also rarely engaged in public activities that could provide useful fodder for satire. When he was irritated by the self-promoting antics of popular novelist Hall Caine, Conan Doyle sent an anonymous letter of complaint to a newspaper, but he told the editor to give Caine his name should he want to know who wrote it.

It was Conan Doyles advocacy for spiritualism in 1917 that changed Punchs attitude. His embrace of the faked Cottingley Fairies photos made him look foolish. Finally, the writers had something new to hang their punch lines on, and they took full advantage of it.

So when you dip into this book expecting a series of Sherlockian parodies, youll find more. Youll see Conan Doyle as he appeared through Punchs skewed lens. Youll see the ways Sherlock Holmes was portrayed, from the butt of jokes to the embodiment of all that was good in the Empire. Plus, youll discover a glimpse of Imperial Britain at its height, confident in itself and its future.

And a few laughs, too.

The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes reprints most of the articles, stories, cartoons, briefs, and columns that mentioned Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in chronological order. Not every appearance was noted. Some brief mentions were omitted, as were the reviews of mystery novels that simply compared the detectives abilities to Holmes, nearly always unfavorably to the work in question.

The English spelling of most words were retained. Some minor editing was made for the sake of clarity. Some captions were replaced with typeset versions to make them readable.

Articles appear under their own titles if available. Some appeared without a title in one of two columns: Our Booking-Office for book reviews and Charivaria that consisted of short items. Titles were supplied where necessary. Conan Doyle is referred to as ACD in the introductions. Publication dates and further information about titles can be found in the at the end of the book.

Finally, a word of thanks goes out to these people without whom this book would have remained a dream: Andre Gailani of Punch Ltd. for efficiently arranging for permission to publish excerpts from that wonderful (and lamented) magazine; Scott Harkless, my research assistant on the 223B Casebook project; Denise Phillips of the Hershey Public Library for obtaining needed books; and Teresa Peschel, my editor and wise advisor.

Bill Peschel

Hershey, Pa.

A Physiologists Wife

Punch did not review A Study in Scarlet upon its appearance in Beetons Christmas Annual in 1887 or in book form in July 1888. It also ignored The Sign of the Four when it appeared in February 1890. Instead, it was a short story about an eminent researchers love affair gone ironically wrong that drew a mention in Our Booking-Office. At the end of lengthy praise for George Sims mystery The Case of George Candlemas, the reviewer