Sherlock Holmes - Were the Books Better?

Posted on 2006/02/16 13:17:26 (February 2006).

[Wednesday 15th February]
Chie made dinner - a sort of stir fry with black bean sauce. It was very nice, but I think I wolfed it down a little too fast and again I had a stomach ache afterwards. Watched one of the feature length episodes of Sherlock Holmes - The Last Vampyre, and then afterwards re-read the short story it was based on to see how it compared. I have almost watched all of the Jeremy Brett TV series in my DVD box set now - I think just one episode left to watch.

Regulars of the 'Maison may remember a rant a while back I had about people always saying "The book was better!". Having read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories over the last few months, and more recently watched (almost) all of the TV adaptations it seems a good point at which to revisit this argument briefly.

I guess in terms of Sherlock Holmes I can see both sides of the coin. Whilst there were episodes in the TV series that were a little disappointing, there were also short stories which weren't so outstanding in the book, but really shone out on TV. Plus I think the first medium you experience, as well as the first medium created, often has an unfair advantage over the second version. I did found myself a little annoyed when the TV series chose to deviate significantly from the original text - somehow it made it feel less "real".

Post a comment