At a recent conference hosted by the Baker Street Breakfast Club, scholars and devotees of Sherlock Holmes presented papers on imitations and variations of the famous sleuth in the detective fiction genre and beyond. As a hero of popular culture and an established literary figure, Sherlock Holmes has become the benchmark by which new detectives and mysteries are judged.

The essays in Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero offer insights on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's treatment of urbanization, the advent of the information age, and the work ethic; they also illuminate how later literature compares with the original Sherlock Holmes books thematically and stylistically.

From the original model for Sherlock Holmes to the character's portrayal on film, from analysis of the role of masculine power in the texts to analysis of the female rivals of Holmes, this book traces the ever-increasing variety of perspectives on Holmes and the way the original character has been adapted and re-envisioned.