Detective Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle’s position and memory were problematised by the fans of Sherlock Holmes very early. Arguably, however, two parallel processes were taking place: on the one hand, he was being expeditiously decentred and overshadowed by his most famous creation; but on the other, they became an inseparable cultural hybrid. When Sherlock Holmes became a popular character of his own series of tales, it was not uncommon for his creator to be asked about the Great Detective’s approach towards the Jack the Ripper investigation; nevertheless, although very much aware of the case and having his own theory about the perpetrator, Doyle did not incorporate the answer into the canon. Engaged in a number of other historic investigations, was he capable of solving this particular one? How has his apparent lack of engagement with the case been reflected and reinterpreted in popular culture? These and similar questions have been somewhere in the background from the outset of my discussion of the versus narratives, and this chapter looks to unpacking Doyle’s presence in the context of the Holmes culture-text, cultural memory, and neo-Victorian biofiction. Being a coda, it also suggests further avenues for the study of the expanding versus narratives network.