Reviewing “A Journal of the Plague Year” by Daniel Defoe

 

This has been a rough year. I have hardly read any good books. And not for lack of trying.* If I have often thought of and felt books to be my friends, I have been cruelly betrayed many times these past several months. Old, trusted “go-to” authors have inflicted bitter disappointments such as Agatha Christie’s The Clocks and H. Rider Haggard’s The Yellow God. Even ancient writings like The Nibelungenlied made me less inclined to cradle the volume in my arms (as I am wont to do) than throw it across the room (as usually would be unthinkable!).

I have been searching for solace in reading, and haven’t found a safe haven. It’s a feeling hard to describe, but not usually quite so difficult to find. The feeling of comfort when one lays open a few pages of paper and looks at them, and somehow is transported out of one’s life and enters the existence of someone else.

But as Escapism has consistently eluded me this year, I decided that perhaps I was approaching the problem in the wrong way. I was trying to avoid reality. But books are more than an escape; they delve into reality so that we can understand our lives in a new, different, better way.  So I reversed my course completely, and read A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. 

Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction

It seems almost natural today for Sherlock Holmes to be linked to science fiction. Holmes is such a real character, yet somehow he is real in any sort of iteration. There are many, many adaptations of books that I have merely to glance at, and my reaction is instantly: “No. Oh…no. That is no so-and-so.” I am hard to please with my adaptations.

Yet, as I said, Holmes seems to be an exception. (Watson? Not so much….) I have seen probably a dozen or more actors or various “incarnations” of the character, from Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch, The Great Mouse Detective to Sherlock Gnomes. Of course, some portrayals are better than others. Most interpretations of the character emphasize certain Holmesian characteristics unevenly; for instance, in the movies with Robert Downey, Jr., they highlight Holmes’ pugilistic talents (I remember hearing people complain, “Sherlock Holmes doesn’t fight!”).

The fact remains that Holmes isn’t not most of these interpretations. He’s a combination of all of them.