I am not sure how I feel about this

[impulsereader]

They are issuing copies of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories with covers which are from Sherlock.

ETA - OMG - Martin Freeman wrote an intro for one of them...my consternation grows apace.

Comments

[221b-hound.livejournal.com]

I understand your concern with dear MF writing an intro... and yet, anything that will lead people back to canon can only be a good thing, surely? The original stories remain vibrant, fun and eminently readable. The reason Sherlock Holmes can still resonate today is that 100-odd years ago, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about two very human, very sharp and oddly very modern men being amazing, intelligent, rational and yet having adventures! The Tony Stark of their time. (Or maybe I'm pushing it there...)

My hubby met someone recently who had started reading the original stories, inspired by the BBC Sherlock. He'd never read them before and didn't actually know about The Final Problem until the Reichenbach episode, and he knew nothing about The Empty House. Hubby found he was being careful about what he said about the later short stories because he didn't want to give spoilers for books written A CENTURY AGO! :)

We feel excited for our friend, getting to read the stories for the first time! We remember how exciting it was to read them for the first time too!

Anyway, Freeman may turn out to be articulate. It might not be terrible...

Oh god, do you realise that I'm now tempted to buy those editions. Even though I don't need them. Even though I have several illustrated hardcover editions, some paperbacks and most of them as ebooks.

See what you do to me, Martin Freeman??!!

[northernwalker]

I guess if it gets people to read the original it's good? However, I wonder how many people will assume those ar novelizations of the show.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I guess that is one way to make money off of books people can otherwise get for free! :)

[f-m-r-l.livejournal.com]

I can see the covers leading to a great number of disappointed purchasers. The front cover of the one I looked at shows nothing that would immediately distinguish it as a story over a hundred years old and with markedly different plots and characterization than those seen in the BBC series.

Exploring different places in space, time, and thought can be one of the best parts of being a reader as far as I'm concerned. But some people like to be surrounded only by the familiar, possibly because they just want to focus on characterization and the like and differences distract them, possibly because they read for a comfortably familiar retreat. (And I'm certainly not going to say "Oh, you're not a real reader if you don't read like I do or don't enjoy the same things I do.") Those people are going to feel cheated.