The Literary Detective
| by: John Sutherland, Published by: O.U.P The near-indecent success of the three John Sutherland 'investigation' books compiled in this volume (1996's Is Heathcliff a Murderer being the first and most famous) can be traced back to two central problems for the modern reader of classic fiction. The first is that reading is, unlike watching films or the television, a solitary experience. All the thoughts, questions and even indignation that the author provokes occur in the head (when in a public library, particularly) and despite the very probable wish to scream out to anyone in earshot that you have solved Sherlock Holmes's mystery before he has or realised the fatal flaw in Conan Doyle's design, you are utterly alone. The second problem is more simple still: academic readings of books are often tiresomely drawn out, obsessed with a single issue, tenuous and to all but the cognoscenti exceptionally tiresome. So, you finish a book and there is no more to know unless you wish to descend into the world of the academic. It is quite possible to forget the whole thing and learn nothing. Jane Eyre or Great Expectations merely attract dust on a shelf somewhere. This is where Sutherland comes in, armed with a feather duster and a refreshingly enthusiastic attitude. Certainly, as Professor of English Literature at University College London, he is an academic himself but, as he explains in his introduction to this new edition: "These books are not the fruit of deep or new research but more in the nature of a relaxed conversation" They are the more stimulating for the resultant lack of pretension or discipline. It is like the experience of chatting with a professor of literature after a few ales and finding yourselves discussing the colour of Victor Frankenstein's tie - but with footnotes. Not only does Sutherland fascinate with his keen eye for detail (or rather a keen leg for tripping up a long dead author) but he also amuses throughout. The titles sum up the tone as well as the content: Clarissa's invisible taxi, and Heathcliff's toothbrush and so on. In fact you can't help being interested in the questions Sutherland is asking, even those about books you haven't got around to reading yet. Therein lies the genius of the whole enterprise. He makes you want to go and read more classics so you can see what he has to say about them. You have to admire the man, but still I see him in the background asking rhetorically: "How can you trip up a long dead author?" John Sutherland is published by the Oxford University Press. You can buy John Sutherland's books through Bibliomania, and they make a great present. Just click on the Shop icon and type John Sutherland into the search box. |
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