The Seven Per Cent Solution

Rating:
Summary: Not so elementary...
Review: The canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of a set of short stories and novels penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- fifty-six short stories and four novels. However, this is a rather small corpus for such a large character, and even within the lifetime of the Conan Doyle, others turned their attention to working through different Holmes/Watson stories, filling in odd gaps in their lives, and sometimes greatly embellishing the legends. Holmes and Watson have travelled to outer space, through time, and have even had their genders switched in such tales.

One of the recurrent themes in the continuing lore of Sherlock Holmes has been the attempt to locate him more concretely in 'the real world', seeing the stories actually as fictionalised accounts of a very real person. This novel, 'The Seven-Percent Solution', penned by Nicholas Meyer (under the direction, as the novel's credits state, of John H. Watson, MD) is very much in that tradition. Like most of the Holmes tales in the canon, this one is largely recounted from the perspective of Watson. It serves as a corrective, a confession, and a reconciling of timelines -- where was Holmes during his 'missing' time after fighting Moriarty? Who was Moriarty, in reality?

Here we have Holmes chasing Moriarty to the continent, just as Watson recounted in the tale 'The Final Problem', perhaps the most famous and most controversial of Holmes tales, of that time or ours. However, Moriarty is a different figure here -- not the Napoleon of crime, but rather a shadowy figure from Holmes' past. Watson, being a medical man, watched Holmes deteriorate under the influence of cocaine, a seven-percent solution no less. Watson realised that this addiction was masking some other problem from Holmes' past, and the fixation on Moriarty was an outgrowth of this. Being aware of current medical literature, he became acquainted with the new works of Sigmund Freud, and engaged Moriarty to lead Holmes in a chase, not to the perilous falls, but rather to Freud's chambers in Vienna.

Let the psychoanalysis begin.

Meyer, under Watson's direction, recounts the struggle Holmes had at overcoming his drug addiction and facing up to a reality that was very painful for him to bear -- solving the mysteries of the world for others was child's play compared to solving his own interior mysteries. We as readers get an interesting snapshot of late Victorian life in Vienna. We also get treated to yet another mystery, one that could not be recounted in the official canon, wrapped up in Holmes' own treatment as it was. Of course, in the end, the mysteries are solved, internal and external, but Holmes needs a holiday -- he spends years away from London, and of course Watson provides the cover.

Meyer's rendering of the text in a Watsonian style is commendable. He has drawn on the wealth of Sherlock Holmes material outside the canon for inspiration, as well as drew on the ample references within the canon to support his tale. Made into a feature film, this tale is perhaps the most successful of the non-Conan Doyle apocrypha. Any fan of Holmes will love it.

Rating:
Summary: Not so elementary...
Review: The canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of a set of short stories and novels penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- fifty-six short stories and four novels. However, this is a rather small corpus for such a large character, and even within the lifetime of the Conan Doyle, others turned their attention to working through different Holmes/Watson stories, filling in odd gaps in their lives, and sometimes greatly embellishing the legends. Holmes and Watson have travelled to outer space, through time, and have even had their genders switched in such tales.

One of the recurrent themes in the continuing lore of Sherlock Holmes has been the attempt to locate him more concretely in 'the real world', seeing the stories actually as fictionalised accounts of a very real person. This novel, 'The Seven-Percent Solution', penned by Nicholas Meyer (under the direction, as the novel's credits state, of John H. Watson, MD) is very much in that tradition. Like most of the Holmes tales in the canon, this one is largely recounted from the perspective of Watson. It serves as a corrective, a confession, and a reconciling of timelines -- where was Holmes during his 'missing' time after fighting Moriarty? Who was Moriarty, in reality?

Here we have Holmes chasing Moriarty to the continent, just as Watson recounted in the tale 'The Final Problem', perhaps the most famous and most controversial of Holmes tales, of that time or ours. However, Moriarty is a different figure here -- not the Napoleon of crime, but rather a shadowy figure from Holmes' past. Watson, being a medical man, watched Holmes deteriorate under the influence of cocaine, a seven-percent solution no less. Watson realised that this addiction was masking some other problem from Holmes' past, and the fixation on Moriarty was an outgrowth of this. Being aware of current medical literature, he became acquainted with the new works of Sigmund Freud, and engaged Moriarty to lead Holmes in a chase, not to the perilous falls, but rather to Freud's chambers in Vienna.

Let the psychoanalysis begin.

Meyer, under Watson's direction, recounts the struggle Holmes had at overcoming his drug addiction and facing up to a reality that was very painful for him to bear -- solving the mysteries of the world for others was child's play compared to solving his own interior mysteries. We as readers get an interesting snapshot of late Victorian life in Vienna. We also get treated to yet another mystery, one that could not be recounted in the official canon, wrapped up in Holmes' own treatment as it was. Of course, in the end, the mysteries are solved, internal and external, but Holmes needs a holiday -- he spends years away from London, and of course Watson provides the cover.

Meyer's rendering of the text in a Watsonian style is commendable. He has drawn on the wealth of Sherlock Holmes material outside the canon for inspiration, as well as drew on the ample references within the canon to support his tale. Made into a feature film, this tale is perhaps the most successful of the non-Conan Doyle apocrypha. Any fan of Holmes will love it.

Rating:
Summary: It's wrong to detract from the original legacy.
Review: The Seven per-cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer could have been a great addition to the extended legacy of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, Meyer makes several errors and plot turns that take his book from a potentially interesting concept to an almost blasphemous book of lies.

Meyer deals masterfully with Holmes's cocaine addiction by taking him through detox in the home of Sigmund Freud. During his reovery, he and Watson stumble into a mystery which ends with a stunning ly written train chase and fight.

Unfortunaely Meyer deflates the legendary Professor Moriarty and in the process rewrites the History of Sherlock's death and disappearance.

Rating:
Summary: It's wrong to detract from the original legacy.
Review: The Seven per-cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer could have been a great addition to the extended legacy of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, Meyer makes several errors and plot turns that take his book from a potentially interesting concept to an almost blasphemous book of lies.

Meyer deals masterfully with Holmes's cocaine addiction by taking him through detox in the home of Sigmund Freud. During his reovery, he and Watson stumble into a mystery which ends with a stunning ly written train chase and fight.

Unfortunaely Meyer deflates the legendary Professor Moriarty and in the process rewrites the History of Sherlock's death and disappearance.

Rating:
Summary: Elementary, my dear Freud
Review: What happens when the world's greatest detective and the world's greatest psychoanalyst team up to solve a case neither one of them can solve alone? There's fun galore in "The Seven-Percent Solution", Nicholas Meyer's artful takeoff on literature's most famous detective creation, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. We know from Conan Doyle that Holmes had a cocaine habit; as Meyer's book opens, we see Holmes in a cocaine-fueled fit of paranoid delusions that the evil Moriarty is after him again. Dr. Watson consults with big brother Mycroft Holmes, who confides to him that Moriarty used to be their math tutor, no more, no less, and is concerned that little brother Sherlock's cocaine addiction is spinning out of control. Between them, they find a way to finesse Holmes into going to Europe to be treated by Sigmund Freud, who has been doing remarkable work with cocaine addicts, but first they have to convince Holmes that they are on the track of the nefarious Moriarty. After a hilarious chase led by a slightly wonky bloodhound with a special taste for vanilla extract, Holmes and Watson end up at Freud's front door, and Holmes enters seven agonizing days of enforced cold turkey.

Holmes emerges clean, sober, and distanced from everything, and part of his cure to jerk him back into reality involves bringing him into the case of a young woman Freud is treating for symptoms of hysteria. A quick survey of the patient is enough for Holmes to realize that some dicey doings are afoot, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg being a plot to involve all of Europe into a continent-wide conflagration. But just as Freud is impressed with Holmes' crime-solving abilities, Holmes is impressed with Freud's ability to read the perpetrator's mind, and he gives Freud what is meant as the ultimate compliment: "You have taken my methods, observation and inference, and applied them to the inside of a human head." (Actually, Holmes's methods were observation and deduction, but who wants to cavil here?) Holmes, Watson and Freud work together to solve the problem, and the payoff is Freud's request to hypnotize Holmes in order to be able to see into his head. What's inside there is a revelation, and as Meyer explains Holmes to us, we understand his solitary life, his avoidance of women, his loathing of Moriarty and why he chose his singular profession to begin with. Meyer's book is great fun and fairly accurately follows the narrative style of Dr. Watson. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery; Conan Doyle would have loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Elementary, my dear Freud
Review: What happens when the world's greatest detective and the world's greatest psychoanalyst team up to solve a case neither one of them can solve alone? There's fun galore in "The Seven-Percent Solution", Nicholas Meyer's artful takeoff on literature's most famous detective creation, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. We know from Conan Doyle that Holmes had a cocaine habit; as Meyer's book opens, we see Holmes in a cocaine-fueled fit of paranoid delusions that the evil Moriarty is after him again. Dr. Watson consults with big brother Mycroft Holmes, who confides to him that Moriarty used to be their math tutor, no more, no less, and is concerned that little brother Sherlock's cocaine addiction is spinning out of control. Between them, they find a way to finesse Holmes into going to Europe to be treated by Sigmund Freud, who has been doing remarkable work with cocaine addicts, but first they have to convince Holmes that they are on the track of the nefarious Moriarty. After a hilarious chase led by a slightly wonky bloodhound with a special taste for vanilla extract, Holmes and Watson end up at Freud's front door, and Holmes enters seven agonizing days of enforced cold turkey.

Holmes emerges clean, sober, and distanced from everything, and part of his cure to jerk him back into reality involves bringing him into the case of a young woman Freud is treating for symptoms of hysteria. A quick survey of the patient is enough for Holmes to realize that some dicey doings are afoot, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg being a plot to involve all of Europe into a continent-wide conflagration. But just as Freud is impressed with Holmes' crime-solving abilities, Holmes is impressed with Freud's ability to read the perpetrator's mind, and he gives Freud what is meant as the ultimate compliment: "You have taken my methods, observation and inference, and applied them to the inside of a human head." (Actually, Holmes's methods were observation and deduction, but who wants to cavil here?) Holmes, Watson and Freud work together to solve the problem, and the payoff is Freud's request to hypnotize Holmes in order to be able to see into his head. What's inside there is a revelation, and as Meyer explains Holmes to us, we understand his solitary life, his avoidance of women, his loathing of Moriarty and why he chose his singular profession to begin with. Meyer's book is great fun and fairly accurately follows the narrative style of Dr. Watson. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery; Conan Doyle would have loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Elementary, my dear Freud
Review: What happens when the world's greatest detective and the world's greatest psychoanalyst team up to solve a case neither one of them can solve alone? There's fun galore in "The Seven-Percent Solution", Nicholas Meyer's artful takeoff on literature's most famous detective creation, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. We know from Conan Doyle that Holmes had a cocaine habit; as Meyer's book opens, we see Holmes in a cocaine-fueled fit of paranoid delusions that the evil Moriarty is after him again. Dr. Watson consults with big brother Mycroft Holmes, who confides to him that Moriarty used to be their math tutor, no more, no less, and is concerned that little brother Sherlock's cocaine addiction is spinning out of control. Between them, they find a way to finesse Holmes into going to Europe to be treated by Sigmund Freud, who has been doing remarkable work with cocaine addicts, but first they have to convince Holmes that they are on the track of the nefarious Moriarty. After a hilarious chase led by a slightly wonky bloodhound with a special taste for vanilla extract, Holmes and Watson end up at Freud's front door, and Holmes enters seven agonizing days of enforced cold turkey.

Holmes emerges clean, sober, and distanced from everything, and part of his cure to jerk him back into reality involves bringing him into the case of a young woman Freud is treating for symptoms of hysteria. A quick survey of the patient is enough for Holmes to realize that some dicey doings are afoot, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg being a plot to involve all of Europe into a continent-wide conflagration. But just as Freud is impressed with Holmes' crime-solving abilities, Holmes is impressed with Freud's ability to read the perpetrator's mind, and he gives Freud what is meant as the ultimate compliment: "You have taken my methods, observation and inference, and applied them to the inside of a human head." (Actually, Holmes's methods were observation and deduction, but who wants to cavil here?) Holmes, Watson and Freud work together to solve the problem, and the payoff is Freud's request to hypnotize Holmes in order to be able to see into his head. What's inside there is a revelation, and as Meyer explains Holmes to us, we understand his solitary life, his avoidance of women, his loathing of Moriarty and why he chose his singular profession to begin with. Meyer's book is great fun and fairly accurately follows the narrative style of Dr. Watson. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery; Conan Doyle would have loved it.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable to almost the end
Review: What if Sherlock Holmes really existed? If he did, then in all likelihood his addiction to drugs would have one day overcome him. Enter Sigmund Freud who has had some success in treating such conditions.

In "Seven Percent Solution" by Nicholas Meyer, Dr. Watson tricks Holmes into visiting Freud, as Holmes' addiction has not only weakened his friend physically but seems to be effecting his mental condition as well. Meyer's does a splendid job in creating a convincible scenario where Holmes and Freud both confront and soon congratulate one another. Of course a mystery soon sprouts forth and Holmes and Freud team up to solve it.

The real mystery, of course, is Holmes. Through Freud we get a better understand of Holmes and his obsession with mysteries, Hint: it has to do with his mother. The book makes this all work and it's an enjoyable read; however, it is not an easy fit with the rest of the Holmes books written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It's main fault is that it erases one of Doyle's best characters by means of psychoanalysis. So if you're a Sherlock nut, this book may offend you in the end...but it's a good read nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: A fine blend of fiction and fact
Review: Written with an amazing story teller perspective, this book tells us about where Sherlock Holmes had been hiding for five years of his life : in the glamoured city of Vienna and in the hands of Dr. Sigmund Freud, in search for a cure to cocaine addiction. But ultimately, his treatment turns into a mad search to understand the meaning of Professor Moriarty, his archenemy and perhaps a product of his fantastic imagination and childhood memories. If anyone is looking for a great piece of reading entertainement which pairs golden pieces of Sherlockian investigation with Freudian psychonalysis - this is a treat !