He accepts a pay check just like every other private eye in
the genre, except for some occasions and for the same reason
that any trench-coated PI of the classic era would. Need
outweighing the necessity of payment. Again it boils down to
time and culture. You're not going to have a lower class
Victorian opening up a detective agency. Nor is Holmes
obviously upper middle class. He lives in modest rooms that
if anything evidence a modest financial reserve. His
brother's position is one of acquired position through
superior ability, not necessarily or obviously a position of
nepotism or birthright. There's plenty of examples of Holmes
working the streets, dressing the part, walking the walk and
talking the talk. As far as waiting for his clients to come
to him, I recall Anthony Neil Smith of Plots With Guns
lamenting recently on the volume of PI stories beginning in
the PI's office ... so I'd hardly hold it against Holmes
doing the same. As far as playing the violin, it isn't that
far away from that to Marlow's chess set.
... besides what is that coat he wears other than an earlier
version of the latter day trench coat.
-- Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
2nd Annual Country Noir Issue ...
http://www.adau.net/judas_ezine/
... submit by 4 May 2002
-----Original Message----- From: Jess Nevins Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 8:39 PM
Loath though I am to enter this ultimately futile debate...Holmes isn't hardboiled, if only because of class. He's relatively comfortable and works because he wants to, not because he has to. He's fairly obviously of upper middle class, if not upper class, even if he's not a member of Society.
A more hard-boiled Victorian detective would be John Bennett's Tom Fox (from REVELATIONS OF A DETECTIVE, 1860), a cop who actually worked the streets rather than lounging about his apartment using drugs, playing the violin, and waiting for his clients to come to him.
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