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 The Museum of London show on Sherlock Holmes, which opens on
Oct. 17 after two years of preparation, acknowledges the
conundrum with its title, "The Man Who Never Lived and Will
Never Die".
Visitors enter the show through doors masquerading as
bookshelves in a physical embodiment of the engaging blend of
reality and fiction that characterizes British author Arthur
Conan Doyle's tales of the world-famous detective.
The displays include everything from the specially designed
Belstaff coat worn by Benedict Cumberbatch in the recent BBC
series to original manuscripts written in Conan Doyle's careful
cursive.
The author, who aspired to be an eye doctor before turning to
literature, can be seen in a 1930 clip of what is believed to be
his only filmed interview.
In contrast, his creation has hogged the limelight for over a
century. The show's curators say Holmes is the most-filmed
character of all time, starring in over 200 adaptations. The
earliest film on display is a French version from 1912.
"The only two characters I found that came close were Dracula
and Frankenstein," curator Alex Werner said.
The museum traces the evolution of Holmes, from the arrival of
the famous deerstalker hat in Sidney Paget's illustrations for
the short stories that appeared in the Strand Magazine, to the
curved pipe in the theater performances of William Gillette as
Holmes.
Gillette was so intent on impersonating Holmes to the hilt that
he even injected himself with liquid cocaine on stage as part of
his 1900 portrayal of the opium-loving detective.
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The exhibition also devotes a sizeable chunk of space to Victorian
London - dubbed by Werner the "third character" in the books after
Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson.
The museum has collated London-focused works, including Monet's
painting "Pont de Londres", railway maps and an immense engraving of
the city drawn in 1884 from a hot-air balloon by artists working in
shifts, showing Westminster and St Paul's jostling alongside vast,
black industrial chimneys.
"It is funny how London infuses the work of Conan Doyle," said
acclaimed author Anthony Horowitz, who is set to release a second
Sherlock-based novel entitled "Moriarty," after the detective's
famous nemesis.
"It's an extraordinary moment in London's history, with the growlers
and the cobblestones and the gas lamps and the fogs."
The Victorian detective originally appeared in 56 short stories and
four novella, including the famous "Hound of the Baskervilles".
But Conan Doyle's creation continues to inspire, from the BBC's
acclaimed update to a "kick-ass" Hollywood franchise to Horowitz's
more traditional take, meaning that audiences' century-old hunt for
the detective is far from over.
"My sense is that in a hundred years' time he'll still be around,"
Werner said. "He may be sent off into space or something, but he'll
still be here."
(Reporting by Freya Berry; editing by Michael Roddy and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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