ABSTRACT

Sherlock Holmes: one could not find a better illustration of the power of the human mind. The sparks of ratiocination allied to a thorough awareness of anthropological and cultural worlds, Holmes can always divine the essence of things. This stylized character is multiplied at the very moment that he assumes a singularity for us within fiction; we must deal with more than one Holmes. There has never been any lack of Sherlocks, each recognizable by the ‘natural’ excess of his detecting brilliance. Thus, we begin to see the mythological content of this consulting detective; neither a professional whose knowledge is properly social and institutional, nor an asocial loner whose know-how is atavistically locked inside the self, Holmes represents the benevolent bourgeoisie—with his servants, his biographer, his proletarian helpers, his payment per case—all clothed in meritocratic garb. His status is supposedly earned through performance, for example, through his magical readings of dust and detail and deportment, but such tricks merely affirm his nature. Social class is displaced by genius, a transition that should be awkward but is nonetheless smoothed over by dramatic richness.