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Solar Pons #1
The Exploits of Solar Pons
Collects two other books into one volume.
Contents:
* The Adventures of Solar Pons
* The Chronicles of Solar Pons
Cover Illustration: Timothy Jacques
Contents:
* The Adventures of Solar Pons
* The Chronicles of Solar Pons
Cover Illustration: Timothy Jacques
216 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1945
73 people are currently reading
358 people want to read
About the author
August Derleth
869 books286 followersAugust William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, and for his own contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Cosmic Horror genre, as well as his founding of the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK), Derleth was a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography
A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]
A 1938 Guggenheim Fellow, Derleth considered his most serious work to be the ambitious Sac Prairie Saga, a series of fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and non-fiction naturalist works designed to memorialize life in the Wisconsin he knew. Derleth can also be considered a pioneering naturalist and conservationist in his writing
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augus...]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 22, 2022
This is the first of Derleth's six books of Sherlock Holmes pastiches that feature Solar Pons and his intrepid biographer Dr. Lyndon Hardy. Most of the stories were written in the late 1920s, and some were published in pulp magazines The Dragnet and Detective Trails, but they weren't collected in book form until 1945. Pinnacle reissued the whole series with considerable success in the mid-1970s, a few years after his death. (This edition, annoyingly, has no table of contents.) Derleth didn't see Pons as a Holmes caricature, but as a well-intentioned impersonator, a detective for the next generation. They're very clever stories with ingenious crimes and solutions, as well as good-natured homages to The Great Detective. For Doyle fans, the game is still afoot.
December 29, 2022
Like all collections of short stories, some tales are better than others. Well done Holmes tribute by the great August Derleth, founde of Arkham House Publishing.
March 5, 2016
I'm not sure how the writer of tepid Lovecraft pastiches can be the same person who also created these excellent Holmes-inspired mysteries, but this is exactly the case. I could not have been more surprised. I enjoyed these stories so much that I actually had a hard time putting down this book to go and do other things such as sleep, work, etc.
Derleth himself said, "Solar Pons is Sherlock Holmes," and the resemblance is obvious. The characters are identical. My only question is why he bothered to change the name. All of the Baker Street usuals are included: there is a Watson substitute (Dr. Lyndon Parker) a Lestrade proxy (Inspector Jamison), and a dependable housekeeper (Mrs. Johnson). We even see a version of Moriarity (Baron Kroll).
The mysteries themselves are inventive and definitely NOT paint-by-number Holmes. I was taken by surprise by the conclusion of almost all of them.
Highly recommended for lovers of mysteries, and especially for all Holmes fans.
Derleth himself said, "Solar Pons is Sherlock Holmes," and the resemblance is obvious. The characters are identical. My only question is why he bothered to change the name. All of the Baker Street usuals are included: there is a Watson substitute (Dr. Lyndon Parker) a Lestrade proxy (Inspector Jamison), and a dependable housekeeper (Mrs. Johnson). We even see a version of Moriarity (Baron Kroll).
The mysteries themselves are inventive and definitely NOT paint-by-number Holmes. I was taken by surprise by the conclusion of almost all of them.
Highly recommended for lovers of mysteries, and especially for all Holmes fans.
May 30, 2019
This collection of stories occupy a rather unique position in the eyes of lovers of Sherlock Holmes. On one hand, Solar Pons and his stories are unabashed successors of the Canon. They are gentle, breezy, mostly snobbish, and rather derivative of Doyle's works in all sense. On the other hand, Derleth's own vision of UK between the wars makes them much more interesting. Plus, he adds more dynamic female characters in tune with the changing times. As a result, the stories read almost like an updated version of the Canon.
This edition begins with the well-written and candid introductory forewards by David Marcum and Derrick Belanger. Then we have the introduction penned by Vincent Starrett for the first edition. Then comes the unedited and author-intended versions of the following stories:
1. The Adventure of the Frightened Baronet
2. The Adventure of the Late Mr. Faversham
3. The Adventure of the Black Narcissus
4. The Adventure of the Norcross Riddle
5. The Adventure of the Retired Novelist
6. The Adventure of the Three Red Dwarfs
7. The Adventure of the Sotheby Salesman
8. The Adventure of the Purloined Periapt
9. The Adventure of the Limping Man
10. The Adventure of the Seven Passengers
11. The Adventure of the Lost Holiday
12. The Adventure of the Man With the Broken Face
I enjoyed this collection, and would like to pursue the adventures of Mr. Solar Pons with active interest. I suggest, you do the same.
Recommended.
This edition begins with the well-written and candid introductory forewards by David Marcum and Derrick Belanger. Then we have the introduction penned by Vincent Starrett for the first edition. Then comes the unedited and author-intended versions of the following stories:
1. The Adventure of the Frightened Baronet
2. The Adventure of the Late Mr. Faversham
3. The Adventure of the Black Narcissus
4. The Adventure of the Norcross Riddle
5. The Adventure of the Retired Novelist
6. The Adventure of the Three Red Dwarfs
7. The Adventure of the Sotheby Salesman
8. The Adventure of the Purloined Periapt
9. The Adventure of the Limping Man
10. The Adventure of the Seven Passengers
11. The Adventure of the Lost Holiday
12. The Adventure of the Man With the Broken Face
I enjoyed this collection, and would like to pursue the adventures of Mr. Solar Pons with active interest. I suggest, you do the same.
Recommended.
July 20, 2020
First collection of Solar Pons stories, possibly the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche. He solves mysteries with deduction, and even has an arch villain.
Great for the Sherlock Holmes fan.
Great for the Sherlock Holmes fan.
May 15, 2023
Until I read this volume, I was never sure what to think about Solar Pons, August Derleth's "Schrodinger's Pastiche" of Sherlock Holmes[1]. On the surface, it seemed a more extreme case than even Derleth's pseudo-collaborations with Lovecraft[2]. Nearly every aspect of Solar Pons is Sherlock Holmes with the names merely changed and only slightly (the most jarring example has to be Bancroft Pons as a stand-in for Mycroft Holmes). You hear the story about how a younger Derleth wanted to fill in the gaps left by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's retraction from writing Holmes, and it adds even more weight to the fanboy theory, but it does not necessarily explain the fans that Pons has or the fact that other authors, namely Basil Copper, have gone on to write their own Pontine stories. This left me with a massive curiosity about Solar Pons. Surely there had to be more to it than merely writing sub-par Holmes tales with names changed enough to avoid [some] copyright infringements. This curiosity was heavily stymied, however, by the simple practical fact that it was not easy to acquire Solar Pons without buying older, expensive copies. Stymied and yet enlarged, as it were.
I recently stumbled upon the fact that Belanger Press had been releasing them into new editions (including, praise be, ebooks) and, at nearly the same time, the fact that PS Publishing has brought back the Basil Copper stories (again in ebooks as well as hardcopies). This means, all at once, over the period of a couple years, the entire Derlethian and Copperian canon of Solar Pons is available for relatively cheap after decades of being a series of rare books hard to track down. I could finally read more than just a few snippets of Solar Pons and tear open Schrodinger's box to find out if the cat was alive or dead[3].
My feelings, having read this volume, are a lot more forgiving and less prone to take it as a joke. That is to say, the "joke" is there but intended. It is clear that Derleth wrote these to be very-nearly-Sherlock-Holmes stories and was also well aware of the issues with taking his post-Doylean semi-Holmes all the way to Baker Street. Rather than bury it in five layers of subterfuge (as other writers have done), he chose to go gaudy with it. Solar Pons is perhaps the most ridiculous phonetic almost-pun one can make on the name Sherlock Holmes outside of just a straight anagram (he could have went with Kcolrehs Semloh, for instance). Bancroft Holmes? Praed Street? The Praed Street Irregulars? Indeed. Reading this, I feel that Derleth was being honest in his young fandom, and wore the silliness of the nearly-name like a mark of pride.
I mean, look at the title of the book (a title explained in the introduction to the book itself). Look at the stories that claims Solar Pons is the "Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street". This isn't coding, this is simply admitting what this is: Derleth loving Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting more so badly he wrote them himself.
How are the stories? They are fair. To very nearly the last one they lack the genre-defining skill that the best Sherlock Holmes stories had (though not all of Doyle's stories were quite so genre-defining). Some of Derleth's stories are quite good. "The Adventure of the Man with a Broken Face" has a nice near-horror vibe to most of it (see also "Frightened Baronet" and "Limping Man"), and has some good elements of swashbuckling adventure in the background (largely unseen in the adventure itself). "The Adventure of the Purloined Periapt" has some fun puzzling games to play. Others are less good, but pleasing enough. That would be the majority. You have "The Adventure of the Three Red Dwarfs" with something of a Boston Marriage, only between two men, meeting a tragic end and it still manages to bring in a bit of humanity. Only perhaps the two stories involving the Baron Kroll—Pons' substitute for Moriarty—are actively lacking and mostly in the way that the mystery ends up with pointless espionage and confrontations that do little to further anything, much less their own plots.
What makes this a volume of stories that fits alongside Holmes, rather than a throw-away volume of fan-fic, is the fact that Derleth is simply a different writer than Doyle. Solar Pons is a more relaxed version of Holmes. His methods are friendlier. He's a bit more likely to take a chance on protecting young love (and does so in several of these tales). He feels less like an outsider and more like a person that you would actually like to hang around. Derleth's mysteries tend to fall into two categories: a) those where the clues given are sufficient for the reader to solve more than half the mystery, if not all of it, before it is revealed and b) those where the mystery requires leaps of not-supplied information. The latter is a rarity (the first story written, "The Black Narcissus", fits that mold). For many, you can readily play along better than you can with most Holmes stories. This flavors the whole thing in more of a cozy light, something more like a relaxing beach read (one just happening to contain several murders).
Other elements are more mixed, perhaps. For one, Derleth had never seen London when he wrote these (apparently just using reference books and openly aping descriptions by other writers). This means some of his language choices (like his use of "second floor") being a bit off in the mouths of London natives. And he is prone to repeating certain locations and descriptions in a way that underscores his lack of first-hand knowledge[4]. The stories are moved forward in time to the early 20th century, though given out of chronological order and being inconsistent with some of their technological descriptions, which sometimes makes it feel like a more contemporary (to Derleth's time) Holmes and other times like a strange mismatch. Solar Pons exists in the same world as Holmes and so others harken back to that detective a few times (I actually found this element sort of neat), but for all of that the characterization of Pons and Dr. Parker ironically ultimately rest on the reader knowing Holmes and Dr. Watson and filling in some gaps (despite the aforementioned differences in character). This last bit allows Derleth to cheat a little in developing his characters, despite his "Holmes" being a different Holmes, and this occasionally gives the volume a slightly disjointed feel.
Still, I am glad I was able to read this and glad I managed to have a more open-mind while reading it than younger me would have had. It was enjoyable, albeit overall a slighter entry into the genre than the master it copies. I can at least see, now, why there are fans and why people might like to play with such a sandbox. Like Derleth, they are in on the joke, one that is nevertheless meant to be taken a bit seriously.
======
1: in that is, and is not, bootleg fan-fiction at the same time.
2: where Derleth, after Lovecraft's death, took some [occasionally slight] notes and wrote out entire stories in the Lovecraftian vein and publishers, through the years, have attempted to make it sound more proper Loveraft than it truly is.
3: though, it must be said, I had already read a couple of stories from The Chronicles of Solar Pons, which the library I work for has, and did not like them. This is in part due to the fact that when I came across them, I was in something of an anti-Derleth mode (mostly see #2, above). I have since become less pig-headed in my literary ways having read more fiction from the time period and being made more aware of the vagaries of publishing of the time and everything that entails.
4: one wonders if this is partially why Derleth suggested a young Ramsey Campbell stick to writing the locations that he, Campbell, knew...or maybe Derleth was just more aware of how strange locale descriptions can be in the hands of a person that had never been there once the roles were reversed. The same Derleth who wrote a poorly mapped fictional London and thought it was fine could easily have been a bit pissy seeing his own United States treated the same by a Brit.
I recently stumbled upon the fact that Belanger Press had been releasing them into new editions (including, praise be, ebooks) and, at nearly the same time, the fact that PS Publishing has brought back the Basil Copper stories (again in ebooks as well as hardcopies). This means, all at once, over the period of a couple years, the entire Derlethian and Copperian canon of Solar Pons is available for relatively cheap after decades of being a series of rare books hard to track down. I could finally read more than just a few snippets of Solar Pons and tear open Schrodinger's box to find out if the cat was alive or dead[3].
My feelings, having read this volume, are a lot more forgiving and less prone to take it as a joke. That is to say, the "joke" is there but intended. It is clear that Derleth wrote these to be very-nearly-Sherlock-Holmes stories and was also well aware of the issues with taking his post-Doylean semi-Holmes all the way to Baker Street. Rather than bury it in five layers of subterfuge (as other writers have done), he chose to go gaudy with it. Solar Pons is perhaps the most ridiculous phonetic almost-pun one can make on the name Sherlock Holmes outside of just a straight anagram (he could have went with Kcolrehs Semloh, for instance). Bancroft Holmes? Praed Street? The Praed Street Irregulars? Indeed. Reading this, I feel that Derleth was being honest in his young fandom, and wore the silliness of the nearly-name like a mark of pride.
I mean, look at the title of the book (a title explained in the introduction to the book itself). Look at the stories that claims Solar Pons is the "Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street". This isn't coding, this is simply admitting what this is: Derleth loving Sherlock Holmes stories and wanting more so badly he wrote them himself.
How are the stories? They are fair. To very nearly the last one they lack the genre-defining skill that the best Sherlock Holmes stories had (though not all of Doyle's stories were quite so genre-defining). Some of Derleth's stories are quite good. "The Adventure of the Man with a Broken Face" has a nice near-horror vibe to most of it (see also "Frightened Baronet" and "Limping Man"), and has some good elements of swashbuckling adventure in the background (largely unseen in the adventure itself). "The Adventure of the Purloined Periapt" has some fun puzzling games to play. Others are less good, but pleasing enough. That would be the majority. You have "The Adventure of the Three Red Dwarfs" with something of a Boston Marriage, only between two men, meeting a tragic end and it still manages to bring in a bit of humanity. Only perhaps the two stories involving the Baron Kroll—Pons' substitute for Moriarty—are actively lacking and mostly in the way that the mystery ends up with pointless espionage and confrontations that do little to further anything, much less their own plots.
What makes this a volume of stories that fits alongside Holmes, rather than a throw-away volume of fan-fic, is the fact that Derleth is simply a different writer than Doyle. Solar Pons is a more relaxed version of Holmes. His methods are friendlier. He's a bit more likely to take a chance on protecting young love (and does so in several of these tales). He feels less like an outsider and more like a person that you would actually like to hang around. Derleth's mysteries tend to fall into two categories: a) those where the clues given are sufficient for the reader to solve more than half the mystery, if not all of it, before it is revealed and b) those where the mystery requires leaps of not-supplied information. The latter is a rarity (the first story written, "The Black Narcissus", fits that mold). For many, you can readily play along better than you can with most Holmes stories. This flavors the whole thing in more of a cozy light, something more like a relaxing beach read (one just happening to contain several murders).
Other elements are more mixed, perhaps. For one, Derleth had never seen London when he wrote these (apparently just using reference books and openly aping descriptions by other writers). This means some of his language choices (like his use of "second floor") being a bit off in the mouths of London natives. And he is prone to repeating certain locations and descriptions in a way that underscores his lack of first-hand knowledge[4]. The stories are moved forward in time to the early 20th century, though given out of chronological order and being inconsistent with some of their technological descriptions, which sometimes makes it feel like a more contemporary (to Derleth's time) Holmes and other times like a strange mismatch. Solar Pons exists in the same world as Holmes and so others harken back to that detective a few times (I actually found this element sort of neat), but for all of that the characterization of Pons and Dr. Parker ironically ultimately rest on the reader knowing Holmes and Dr. Watson and filling in some gaps (despite the aforementioned differences in character). This last bit allows Derleth to cheat a little in developing his characters, despite his "Holmes" being a different Holmes, and this occasionally gives the volume a slightly disjointed feel.
Still, I am glad I was able to read this and glad I managed to have a more open-mind while reading it than younger me would have had. It was enjoyable, albeit overall a slighter entry into the genre than the master it copies. I can at least see, now, why there are fans and why people might like to play with such a sandbox. Like Derleth, they are in on the joke, one that is nevertheless meant to be taken a bit seriously.
======
1: in that is, and is not, bootleg fan-fiction at the same time.
2: where Derleth, after Lovecraft's death, took some [occasionally slight] notes and wrote out entire stories in the Lovecraftian vein and publishers, through the years, have attempted to make it sound more proper Loveraft than it truly is.
3: though, it must be said, I had already read a couple of stories from The Chronicles of Solar Pons, which the library I work for has, and did not like them. This is in part due to the fact that when I came across them, I was in something of an anti-Derleth mode (mostly see #2, above). I have since become less pig-headed in my literary ways having read more fiction from the time period and being made more aware of the vagaries of publishing of the time and everything that entails.
4: one wonders if this is partially why Derleth suggested a young Ramsey Campbell stick to writing the locations that he, Campbell, knew...or maybe Derleth was just more aware of how strange locale descriptions can be in the hands of a person that had never been there once the roles were reversed. The same Derleth who wrote a poorly mapped fictional London and thought it was fine could easily have been a bit pissy seeing his own United States treated the same by a Brit.
March 6, 2014
Just the one story from this: The adventure of the Callous Colonel - excellent stuff, and will read more from these sheerluck pastiches.
High 3*
ETA - AUGUST Derleth also fits my personal seasonal challenge rather well
*two thumbs up*
High 3*
ETA - AUGUST Derleth also fits my personal seasonal challenge rather well
*two thumbs up*
November 11, 2024
"آگوست درلث به داستانهای شرلوک هلمز علاقهمند بود؛ ازهمینرو در نوزدهسالگی در سال 1928 به سر آرتور کانن دویل نامهای نوشت و با ابراز علاقهمندی به شخصیت شرلوک هلمز از کانن دویل خواست که به او اجازه دهد داستانهای تازهای با حضور شرلوک هلمز به رشتهی تحریر درآورد. او همچنین برای کانن دویل توضیح داد که درصورت موافقت او، در داستانهایش به سبک نگارش نویسنده متعهد بماند و از ویژگیهای قهرمان داستان چیزی نکاهد. اما کانن دویل این درخواست را نپذیرفت. همین موضوع محرکی شد تا این نویسندهی جوان داستانی با قهرمانی شبیه شرلوک هلمز خلق کند. حاصل این تلاش خلق قهرمانی به نام سولار پونس شد. کتاب شرلوک هلمز خیابان پراد از دوازده داستان تشکیل شده است که همگی با محوریت نقش سولار پونس پیش میروند. این قهرمان داستان همچون هلمز بسیار خدمتگزار و شیفتهی کار و حل معماهای پلیسی است."
February 5, 2017
First published in a this volume in 1945, the Adventures of Solar Pons is a collection of 12 short stories originally published in pulp fiction form from around 1929 onwards. The stories are a connected series, inspired by Sherlock Holmes and with enough similarities to cause some legal issues. The stories themselves are, in my opinion, and based on the evidence of the 12 collected here, is that they are inferior to the Conan Doyle originals, insomuch that the mystery element is often so transparently obvious that it stretches credibility too far to believe that a client or the police would seek the help of a 'super-sleuth'. Some of the stories have a quasi-supernatural plot, and whilst this is not surprising considering Derleths credentials in this genre, the result is like a bad Scooby-Doo cartoon. One story, 'The Adventure of the Late Mr. Faversham', bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1990 Sherlock Holmes pastiche 'The case of the Vanishing Head-Waiter' by June Thomson - ironic perhaps? All in all, not brilliant unless, like me, you are really keen on pulp fiction from the 1920/30s.
September 20, 2023
If Sherlock Holmes is heroin then Solar Pons is methadone, just enough to keep the reader
going until the real thing comes along, but addictive in its own right. These stories are more a welcome attempt at a continuation of the Conan Doyle series than an imitation. Not quite up to the master, some excellent some quite pale, but enjoyable and entertaining nonetheless. [3½★]
going until the real thing comes along, but addictive in its own right. These stories are more a welcome attempt at a continuation of the Conan Doyle series than an imitation. Not quite up to the master, some excellent some quite pale, but enjoyable and entertaining nonetheless. [3½★]
May 10, 2022
If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes short stories, you will enjoy this Solar Pons collection. You could literally do a find & replace swapping the names in this with the names we all know from Conan Doyle, and it would be a Sherlock Holmes collection.
August 21, 2020
Solar Pons (did he grab tiles out of a Scrabble bag to make up that name. I did that once and ended up with Gux Wuzaby). Still there are other weird sounding names in the book so he is not alone.
The stories and characters are borrowed from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books. I found them quite interesting on the whole but they are definitely not as good as the real thing.
Pons and his doctor companion, who despite being the narrator contributes little, investigate various police baffling crimes. He’s a speedy detective and usually clears things up in a day, it is very unusual if he has to spend a night away. He likes to get in his ‘Elementary my dear...’ bit in each story and he wears an Inverness (I had to look that up, it’s the coat with a short top cape that Holmes often wore).
As you read you go Oh that’s from the Hound of the Baskervilles and that’s from The Second Stain and that’s from.....etc etc. An odd few Americanisms creep in but not too many.
As I say it was not a bad read but it doesn’t match that which it hopes to emulate.
The stories and characters are borrowed from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books. I found them quite interesting on the whole but they are definitely not as good as the real thing.
Pons and his doctor companion, who despite being the narrator contributes little, investigate various police baffling crimes. He’s a speedy detective and usually clears things up in a day, it is very unusual if he has to spend a night away. He likes to get in his ‘Elementary my dear...’ bit in each story and he wears an Inverness (I had to look that up, it’s the coat with a short top cape that Holmes often wore).
As you read you go Oh that’s from the Hound of the Baskervilles and that’s from The Second Stain and that’s from.....etc etc. An odd few Americanisms creep in but not too many.
As I say it was not a bad read but it doesn’t match that which it hopes to emulate.
May 21, 2023
Well, unlike August Derleth's Lovecraft pastiches, I was able to read it to the end. Overall, I liked it but there were stories that dragged in the middle or where the mystery seemed a bit trite for a Holmesian story. The stories also seemed to find and adhere to a formula fairly early on but I didn't really mind that all that much. I'm all for pulp Holmesian stories and these for the most part fit the bill. However, they lack any real atmosphere (as does any of his writing that I've happened upon) and the characters were interchangeable, there are no real memorable characters of note here even the Broken Faced Man! So, would I recommend this one to someone seeking a little lighter Holmesian fair, sure, it's not stellar but it is pretty close to the real thing. I did get jolted more than once expecting to read Watson rather than Parker.
December 20, 2022
Solar Pons pole veel Sherlock Holmes 2.0, aga 1.5 mõõdu annab vabalt välja. Derlethi esimesed lood on hulga asjalikumad kui Conan Doyle’i enda omad surnust ülestõusnud Holmesist. Solar Pons on hoopis värvikam asjamees kui Holmes ning erinevalt Holmesist saab temaga sageli nalja. Doyle ise luges end ju ajalooliste romaanide autoriks, Holmes (eriti too Reichenbachi kose järgne variant) oli üksnes money-making machine.
Derleth oli samuti piisavalt nupukas, et paigutada oma tegelane Sherlockiga sarnasesse kohta ja ajastusse. Mitmed meie sajandi katsetused klassikat moderniseerida (eriti too BBC 2010. a seriaal) jätavad kogu haibist hoolimata paremal juhul abitu mulje.
Derleth oli samuti piisavalt nupukas, et paigutada oma tegelane Sherlockiga sarnasesse kohta ja ajastusse. Mitmed meie sajandi katsetused klassikat moderniseerida (eriti too BBC 2010. a seriaal) jätavad kogu haibist hoolimata paremal juhul abitu mulje.
April 3, 2024
The story behind all this is a well-known one, but here goes. In 1928, August Derlith wrote Arthur Conan Doyle to ask if there would be any more Sherlock Holmes stories. He was told "no." He wrote again to ask if *he* could write Sherlock Holmes stories, and was again told "no." So he created Solar Pons, who is Sherlock Holmes with a few minor tweaks. And he titled his first collection of stories, not merely "The Adventures of Solar Pons" as Goodreads would have it, but "In re: Sherlock Holmes - The Adventures of Solar Pons." So if this review references Doyle now and again, well, there's a reason for it.
(The Doyle estate tried to suppress this book; August Derleth defied them, and they backed down. Years later, after Derleth became Lovecraft's literary executor, he would use that position in exactly the same way that the Doyle brothers did, to suppress the Mythos fiction of C. Hall Thompson.)
Derleth's Solar Pons stories are at least better than his Mythos stories, but that's a low bar. Here are a few of the sins of The Adventures of Solar Pons.
1. The mysteries aren't exactly fair play, but they tend to be extraordinarily obvious; granting that every mystery book is someone's first mystery book, I can barely imagine the doe-eyed innocent who could read "The Adventure of the Lost Holiday" without grasping the clue of the broken glass, instantly dismissing the red herring suspect, and lighting on the actual culprit. In the "Norcross Riddle," who could the mysterious "psychiatric patient" be, except the person it ends up being? And so on. Lestrade and co. come in for a kicking in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but I think if we're fair, most readers will admit they couldn't do any better. The detectives in these stories are just dumb, and the Watson is dumber still.
2. Arthur Conan Doyle understood that, if his detective was going to be clinical and frequently unfeeling, his supporting cast (and sometimes Watson) would have to bear the emotional weight of the stories. I know it's popular to criticize it for other reasons, but for me, the Adventure of the Beryl Coronet survives Doyle seemingly not understanding how much a pounds is worth because the story is built around the strained relationship between the banker and his son. I'm glad Holmes discovered the truth and allowed them to reconcile. August Derleth did not understand this. A flatter group of characters it would be hard to name.
3. Similarly, Doyle was good at creating genuinely strange situations that pique the reader's interest. Comparing Derleth's "The Retired Novelist" with Doyle's "Red-headed League" is instructive. Ultimately, they both hinge around a criminal wanting to get someone out of a building for a period of time, and concocting a scheme to make that happen, but the situation in the Doyle story is so bizarre (a fake charitable organization "for the propagation and spread of red-heads" that will pay a man a weekly fee for the nominal work of coming to their office and copying encyclopedias) that it instantly grabs the reader, while also obscuring a little what the villain's actual goal is. While the situation in the Derleth story (dude gets sent a fake letter, then later witnesses a fake accident and gets hustled off to act as a witness) is both banal and crushingly obvious; referring again to my first complaint, imagine a reader who sees Pons recognize the name of the house's previous owner, sees the current owner being lured out, and does not immediately guess the whole story. And if you claim that Derleth's version is more realistic ... is realism a goal of these stories?
4. These stories are constantly, and inexcusably sloppy in ways that (to be fair) don't tend to relate to the central mystery, but always make me pause and go "huh?" A suspect says he has no idea that the murder victim had come back, but a few sentences later tells Pons that he heard a noise, but dismissed it because he'd assumed the victim had come back. That's not a clue, he's not going to be caught in a lie, it seems to have simply not occurred to Derleth that there was anything contradictory about those statements. Pons correctly deduces that a police inspector is coming to him about a murder because he wouldn't come to Pons about a suicide ... only for us to learn that the inspector believes the dead man killed himself. This sort of thing, constantly.
Four strikes, and August Derleth is more than out, but are there any stories here that I liked? There are two, more-or-less. Not a good hit rate, but let's end on as positive note as we can.
"The Adventure of the Sotheby Salesman" has all the flaws I complained about (in re: my first complaint, everyone keeps stressing that nobody would have a reason to murder the victim, and also he was shot in the dark when he struck a match, so the killer couldn't actually see who he was killing, and this police officer, who's allegedly "promisingly acute," spends the whole story just. not. getting. it.) but it has a sense of pathos and human interest that sets it slightly above the rest.
"The Adventure of the Limping Man" is a failure as a traditional mystery story (Pons is entirely useless in it, the denouement would have been identical if he'd never shown up), but I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. The invalid uncle who's demanding that his orphaned niece marry against her will, the sinister limping man who's following her, the ghost of the niece's father who seems to be walking her house at night ... give me that sort of thing, and I will forgive many sins.
(The Doyle estate tried to suppress this book; August Derleth defied them, and they backed down. Years later, after Derleth became Lovecraft's literary executor, he would use that position in exactly the same way that the Doyle brothers did, to suppress the Mythos fiction of C. Hall Thompson.)
Derleth's Solar Pons stories are at least better than his Mythos stories, but that's a low bar. Here are a few of the sins of The Adventures of Solar Pons.
1. The mysteries aren't exactly fair play, but they tend to be extraordinarily obvious; granting that every mystery book is someone's first mystery book, I can barely imagine the doe-eyed innocent who could read "The Adventure of the Lost Holiday" without grasping the clue of the broken glass, instantly dismissing the red herring suspect, and lighting on the actual culprit. In the "Norcross Riddle," who could the mysterious "psychiatric patient" be, except the person it ends up being? And so on. Lestrade and co. come in for a kicking in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but I think if we're fair, most readers will admit they couldn't do any better. The detectives in these stories are just dumb, and the Watson is dumber still.
2. Arthur Conan Doyle understood that, if his detective was going to be clinical and frequently unfeeling, his supporting cast (and sometimes Watson) would have to bear the emotional weight of the stories. I know it's popular to criticize it for other reasons, but for me, the Adventure of the Beryl Coronet survives Doyle seemingly not understanding how much a pounds is worth because the story is built around the strained relationship between the banker and his son. I'm glad Holmes discovered the truth and allowed them to reconcile. August Derleth did not understand this. A flatter group of characters it would be hard to name.
3. Similarly, Doyle was good at creating genuinely strange situations that pique the reader's interest. Comparing Derleth's "The Retired Novelist" with Doyle's "Red-headed League" is instructive. Ultimately, they both hinge around a criminal wanting to get someone out of a building for a period of time, and concocting a scheme to make that happen, but the situation in the Doyle story is so bizarre (a fake charitable organization "for the propagation and spread of red-heads" that will pay a man a weekly fee for the nominal work of coming to their office and copying encyclopedias) that it instantly grabs the reader, while also obscuring a little what the villain's actual goal is. While the situation in the Derleth story (dude gets sent a fake letter, then later witnesses a fake accident and gets hustled off to act as a witness) is both banal and crushingly obvious; referring again to my first complaint, imagine a reader who sees Pons recognize the name of the house's previous owner, sees the current owner being lured out, and does not immediately guess the whole story. And if you claim that Derleth's version is more realistic ... is realism a goal of these stories?
4. These stories are constantly, and inexcusably sloppy in ways that (to be fair) don't tend to relate to the central mystery, but always make me pause and go "huh?" A suspect says he has no idea that the murder victim had come back, but a few sentences later tells Pons that he heard a noise, but dismissed it because he'd assumed the victim had come back. That's not a clue, he's not going to be caught in a lie, it seems to have simply not occurred to Derleth that there was anything contradictory about those statements. Pons correctly deduces that a police inspector is coming to him about a murder because he wouldn't come to Pons about a suicide ... only for us to learn that the inspector believes the dead man killed himself. This sort of thing, constantly.
Four strikes, and August Derleth is more than out, but are there any stories here that I liked? There are two, more-or-less. Not a good hit rate, but let's end on as positive note as we can.
"The Adventure of the Sotheby Salesman" has all the flaws I complained about (in re: my first complaint, everyone keeps stressing that nobody would have a reason to murder the victim, and also he was shot in the dark when he struck a match, so the killer couldn't actually see who he was killing, and this police officer, who's allegedly "promisingly acute," spends the whole story just. not. getting. it.) but it has a sense of pathos and human interest that sets it slightly above the rest.
"The Adventure of the Limping Man" is a failure as a traditional mystery story (Pons is entirely useless in it, the denouement would have been identical if he'd never shown up), but I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. The invalid uncle who's demanding that his orphaned niece marry against her will, the sinister limping man who's following her, the ghost of the niece's father who seems to be walking her house at night ... give me that sort of thing, and I will forgive many sins.
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August 6, 2025من وقتی پشت جلد را خواندم برایم قضیه خیلی جالب شد. معمولاً سراغ داستانهایی که شخصیتهای مشهوری دارند اما خود نویسنده آنها را نمینویسد نمیرفتم اما این روزها اواع فرق کرده و دوست دارم بخوانم. در واقع انگار داشتم یک «فن فیکشن» میخواندم با اینکه کارآگاه ما فرق داشت. عنوان کتاب برای من کمی در ذوق میزد چون دوست داشتم اشارۀ مستقیمتری به خود پونس داشته باشد و سایۀ شرلوک هلمز خیلی زیاد روی عنوان بود. البته شاید هم اگر این عنوان را نداشت اصلاً سراغش نمیرفتم.
داستانها کوتاه و خیلی شبیه شرلوک هلمز هستند. روایت از زبان کس دیگری است که پروندههای جالب پونس را که مشهور به «شرلوک هلمز خیابان پراد» است تعریف میکند. باید یک نگاه دوباره به قصههای اصلی بکنم اما اینجا گاهوبیگاه کارآگاه اصلاً هوشی به خرج نمیداد بلکه فقط از حافظهاش استفاده میکرد. انگار یک گوگل ذهنی داشت که از روی اسامی و تاریخ یکهو یک چیزی را از کلاهش بیرون میآورد و پرونده را حل میکرد. یک جاهایی هم خیلی یکهویی همه چیز حل میشد و البته بخشی از این گرهگشایی یکهویی به شکل روایت داستان برمیگشت و نه خود قصه. البته که برخی هم خیلی جالب بودند اما برای نظر بهتر باید دوباره قصههای کوتاه هلمز را بخوانم.
اینکه نویسندهای سراغ چنین کاری در آن زمان رفته و تلاش کرده ادای دینی به شخصیتی که دوست داشته بکند برای من خیلی جالب بود. بدون هیچ خجالتی سعی کرده به اصل وفادار باشد و به مرور زمان هم جایگاه خودش را به دست آورده و هم این ادای دین برای خوانندۀ پیگیرتر خیلی جالب است. پونس کمی خوشبینتر و مبادی آدابتر است و چهرهای زمینیتر دارد. انگار ناخودآگاه رومخی بودنهای شرلوک را حذف کرده و راستش را بخواهید واقعاً این کارآگاه که روی مخ نیست و آدم را نمیکوبد بیشتر دوست داشتم و حس بهتری باهاش داشتم. خواندنش از آن تجربههای جالبی است که در دنیای ادبیات رخ میدهد.
طرح جلد هم کار ابراهیم حقیقی است که مثل اکثر کارهایش نمیدانم چرا هیچ چیز جذابی ندارد و واقعاً در ذوق میزد. نمیفهمم چرا هنوز به او سفارش پوستر و طرح جلد میدهند وقتی به سادهترین شکل ممکن فقط چندتا تصویر را سر هم میکند و تبدیل به طرح کتاب میشود.
داستانها کوتاه و خیلی شبیه شرلوک هلمز هستند. روایت از زبان کس دیگری است که پروندههای جالب پونس را که مشهور به «شرلوک هلمز خیابان پراد» است تعریف میکند. باید یک نگاه دوباره به قصههای اصلی بکنم اما اینجا گاهوبیگاه کارآگاه اصلاً هوشی به خرج نمیداد بلکه فقط از حافظهاش استفاده میکرد. انگار یک گوگل ذهنی داشت که از روی اسامی و تاریخ یکهو یک چیزی را از کلاهش بیرون میآورد و پرونده را حل میکرد. یک جاهایی هم خیلی یکهویی همه چیز حل میشد و البته بخشی از این گرهگشایی یکهویی به شکل روایت داستان برمیگشت و نه خود قصه. البته که برخی هم خیلی جالب بودند اما برای نظر بهتر باید دوباره قصههای کوتاه هلمز را بخوانم.
اینکه نویسندهای سراغ چنین کاری در آن زمان رفته و تلاش کرده ادای دینی به شخصیتی که دوست داشته بکند برای من خیلی جالب بود. بدون هیچ خجالتی سعی کرده به اصل وفادار باشد و به مرور زمان هم جایگاه خودش را به دست آورده و هم این ادای دین برای خوانندۀ پیگیرتر خیلی جالب است. پونس کمی خوشبینتر و مبادی آدابتر است و چهرهای زمینیتر دارد. انگار ناخودآگاه رومخی بودنهای شرلوک را حذف کرده و راستش را بخواهید واقعاً این کارآگاه که روی مخ نیست و آدم را نمیکوبد بیشتر دوست داشتم و حس بهتری باهاش داشتم. خواندنش از آن تجربههای جالبی است که در دنیای ادبیات رخ میدهد.
طرح جلد هم کار ابراهیم حقیقی است که مثل اکثر کارهایش نمیدانم چرا هیچ چیز جذابی ندارد و واقعاً در ذوق میزد. نمیفهمم چرا هنوز به او سفارش پوستر و طرح جلد میدهند وقتی به سادهترین شکل ممکن فقط چندتا تصویر را سر هم میکند و تبدیل به طرح کتاب میشود.
January 8, 2025
Solar Pons? Imagine my surprise when recently reading a Sherlock Holmes WWI story collection and discovering that there exists another London based consulting detective that uses the art of deduction and the assistance of a loyal medical doctor to solve mysteries and tangle with criminal masterminds. It’s easy to think that it should absolutely not work. I admit I laughed at the idea that a fan of Sherlock Holmes, disappointed there would be no more stories simply decided to make up his own. How can simply changing the names to avoid copyright issues and mimicking the style of Conan Doyle not come off as silly or feel like parody? In this age of fan fiction that may have been the fate of Solar Pons, but instead he fell into relative obscurity, with the internet and ebooks reviving his lost adventures decades later. What’s amazing is how good the stories are. In any other form Pons would feel like a cheap ripoff but in my head I can rationalize that the world of Pons and Dr Parker can exist as a continuation of Holmes and Watson despite their glaring similarities. These mysteries are lovingly crafted by someone who understood the Doyle canon and what makes it so engaging for readers. Indeed it’s mentioned here that part of the appeal is the meta nature of this world. Pons knows he’s not Sherlock Holmes, and he knows that we know it. There’s a charm about it that has made me a fan.
May 24, 2025
Enchanted by the world of Sherlock Holmes and reportedly denied permission by author Arthur Conan Doyle to contribute to the official canon, August Derleth went ahead and created his own pastiche in the person of Solar Pons of Praed Street. As evidenced by the title of this volume, he makes no evasion about the provenance of his character. Rather, he celebrates it, which transforms this series from the contemptible sacrilege it might be seen as to an affectionate homage. This particular collection of mysteries demonstrates that Doyle’s stories have more than an evocative setting going for them. Derleth falls short of Doyle’s flare for drama and mystery. Some of the clues in his tales are painfully amateurish and obvious. Nevertheless, this series endured for years and even inspired one Basil Copper to carry on after Derleth, making for 17 volumes altogether. I intend to keep going to see whether things pick up.
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October 16, 2021
August Derleth was a great fan of Sherlock Holmes. At one point he wrote Doyle asking if there would be more Sherlock stories and also if Derleth could write more stories. Despite a negative response Derleth hit upon the plan of just renaming all the characters and setting it in a time after Sherlock's retirement.
The stories are short and easy to read. For the most part they are a fine tribute to the aspects of the characters Doyle created. However, I think as mysteries they were at times obvious. Also Derleth often makes a practice of pocketing the clues only to be revealed at the end when the detective reveals how it was solved to his doctor companion. Knowing Derleth's connection to the Lovecraft mythos I was hoping that any of the stories would incorporate something of the supernatural. However, all the stories were pretty much grounded in reality.
The stories are short and easy to read. For the most part they are a fine tribute to the aspects of the characters Doyle created. However, I think as mysteries they were at times obvious. Also Derleth often makes a practice of pocketing the clues only to be revealed at the end when the detective reveals how it was solved to his doctor companion. Knowing Derleth's connection to the Lovecraft mythos I was hoping that any of the stories would incorporate something of the supernatural. However, all the stories were pretty much grounded in reality.
March 2, 2025
Almost, but not quite.
Solar Pons, even though he is a different character living a generation later, is obviously a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, while Dr. Parker, the narrator, is the Watson equivalent.
In this first collection of Solar Pons stories, August Derleth makes a good effort to mirror Arthur Conan Doyle's style in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The mannerisms of the character are well imitated, although the negative side of Holmes (using drugs and such) is not explored.
Many of the stories are a bit lackluster compared with the originals, either because the mystery is too obvious or not very interesting, or because the story is obviously inspired by one of the stories of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
The result left me with mixed feelings. I enjoyed reading it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it's a reasonable but not quite as good copy.
Solar Pons, even though he is a different character living a generation later, is obviously a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes, while Dr. Parker, the narrator, is the Watson equivalent.
In this first collection of Solar Pons stories, August Derleth makes a good effort to mirror Arthur Conan Doyle's style in the Sherlock Holmes stories. The mannerisms of the character are well imitated, although the negative side of Holmes (using drugs and such) is not explored.
Many of the stories are a bit lackluster compared with the originals, either because the mystery is too obvious or not very interesting, or because the story is obviously inspired by one of the stories of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
The result left me with mixed feelings. I enjoyed reading it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it's a reasonable but not quite as good copy.
May 3, 2019
When teenage Derleth asked Arthur Conan Doyle if he could continue the Holmes stories and was denied, he created Solar Pons, an obvious knock-off of Holmes. Pons is more insufferable than Holmes in this first compilation, chiding his Boswell's (Dr. Parkers) denseness and reaching his conclusions much sooner than Holmes would, often before doing any sleuthing. It was fun to read aloud with my husband and try to guess the solution, especially if you know the Holmes canon, that is only sometimes obvious,. These stories are very true to Doyle’s style with creative plots and character, though Americanisms slip in, not surprising given the young age at which he wrote these. I look forward to seeing if Pons methods get more involved and if the plots become less Holmesian as the author ages.
September 27, 2018
Sherlockian tales
If you're a sucker for pastiches, this is for you. It's apparent that Derleth wrote these stories for fun. There are some typos but they won't ruin the reading pleasure. The printing of these stories are put there as sort of historical documents when researching August Derleth. He's not a bad writer contrary to written opinions on that matter.
If you're a sucker for pastiches, this is for you. It's apparent that Derleth wrote these stories for fun. There are some typos but they won't ruin the reading pleasure. The printing of these stories are put there as sort of historical documents when researching August Derleth. He's not a bad writer contrary to written opinions on that matter.
September 24, 2019
Pons and Parker to the rescue
Solid Pons and the good Doctor Parker not only come to the rescue of their clients but to the rescue of the readers of the time ... Holmes and Watson had retired and readers were at a loss but Derleth came to the rescue with theses great tales of Pons and Parker so criminals still beware ... All good stores ...
Solid Pons and the good Doctor Parker not only come to the rescue of their clients but to the rescue of the readers of the time ... Holmes and Watson had retired and readers were at a loss but Derleth came to the rescue with theses great tales of Pons and Parker so criminals still beware ... All good stores ...
April 10, 2020
Very good, though some stories were of course better than others. Oddly enough, I was able to figure out "whodunit" in every one pretty much right from the start. Could never do that with the Sherlock Holmes canon. Will definitely read the other books in this series, I think they're all on Kindle Unlimited (Canada).
March 18, 2023
Highly entertaining additions to the Holmes canon in the form of Solar Pons and his chronicler, Dr. Lionel Parker. Very little separates these from Holmes stories, and while they are not as memorable as Conan Doyle at his best, I was surprised how much fun they were and how much they caught the atmosphere and tropes of the originals.
November 15, 2024
Solid pastiche of Doyle. Especially noteworthy is that Derleth, as an Amercian youth when he began writing these in the 1920s, had no firsthand knowledge of London. In the age before the internet, all he had to go on was books, maps, and his imagination. If you love Sherlock Holmes, you will probably like these as well, but they are no substitute for reading the original.
May 13, 2020
This is a collection of very well done Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Pons uses logic to solve the cases and Dr Parker is the Watson standin. They're mostly set in the 1920's, but otherwise follow the Holmes playbook.
June 2, 2025
I just finished reading the first edition of the first Solar Pons book from Mycroft & Moran. This seems to have went down in price compared to a few years ago and I snagged a copy from Mark Zeising. The original twelve stories. As always, a pleasure.
December 1, 2018
Good Holmes inspired short stories. I’ve read that his later stories get better. I will certainly try some more.
January 6, 2020
An entertaining Holmesian hommage but could Derleth really not have come up with a better name for his protagonist?
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