Sherlock Holmes and Contagion: from Victorians to Neo-Victorians

Abstract

Scientists, epidemiologists, and researchers who in their studies of Coronavirus have focused on identifying its origin have often likened their work to Sherlock Holmes’s investigations. Building on this premise, Arthur Conan Doyle's short story “The Adventure of the Dying Detective” represents a declination of what we might call the 'contagion paradigm'. This paradigm is also replicated in several neo-Victorian texts that directly or indirectly borrow elements from Holmes's adventures: from David Stuart Davies's Sherlock Holmes: The Shadow of the Rat to Tom Holland's Supping with Panthers and George Mann's The Affinity Bridge.