NAKED IS THE BEST DISGUISE: The Death and Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes

A straight-faced eschatological view of Sherlock Holmes as none other than Jesus, with Dr. Watson as John the Apostle and Professor Moriarty as the Antichrist ""king-devil' Friedrich Nietzsche. Not only does Holmes describe Moriarty as ""my intellectual equal,"" he also shares Nietzsche's failing for drugs (Nietzsche dropped chloral hydrate, Holmes cocaine and morphine). But after Holmes and Moriarty tumble to their ""deaths"" in the Swiss waterfall, Sherlock is resurrected three years later, rising clean and never again mentions dope. Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism is widely known. That the very first Holmes story is bedabbled with allegory will shock the Baker Street regulars. Others will notice that allegory does not improve Doyle's writing. Rosenberg is especially good at tracing Doyle's plagiarisms from Browning, Mary Shelley and others.