Disney had a Sherlock Holmes cartoon, too: [link]

Tarzan does have more current presence than a lot of stories from the Victorian period. And, like Holmes and Dracula, it's another story of a charismatic man with powers beyond that of the mainstream Victorian Englishman. I'm not sure we can include it with the Victorian lit, as the first Tarzan story was published in 1912. But it does look at a late-British Empire society through the eyes of someone who's both an outsider (due to where he was born) as well as a member (heir to Greystoke).

Holmes is a member of his society through birth and habit, but perhaps a bit of an outsider due to being the most unsociable man ever born (according to Watson). And Dracula is all outsider, foreign on every level. They all provide different views of the Empire, which they examine as they try to to fit in (Tarzan), solve its crime (Holmes), or infiltrate it (Dracula).

Aaaand this is all getting a bit astray from Sherlock. Sorry.

Actually, it does make me wonder. Now that the UK is fairly post-Emperial, does that make a difference with the Sherlock stories?

Tarzan does have more current presence than a lot of stories from the Victorian period

That's not the hardest bar to clear. I still maintain it's significantly less than Holmes or Dracula, and I haven't seen any information yet that challenges my PoV.

You know, having just watched it, wow, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes appears to have influenced this take on Adler greatly during the second half of the episode.

And only vaguely to the topic (as in, only related because I was trying to figure out who Robert Stephens reminds me of--Paul McGann, for the record) as well as a cereal bowl here,

DAMN, Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith made one seriously good-looking kid. [link]

One of the more interesting readings, by the way, that I've seen of the final scene and Mycroft's conversation with John in the cafe, is that part of the reason he's so certain she's actually dead is that he had a hand in putting her into that situation.

That was my impression, too. I can't believe that Mycroft would just shrug and let her run off.

I also can't believe that if Mycroft meant to have her killed, he wouldn't have wanted some proof of death; if she'd escaped from Mycroft's death sentence, he'd have known about it. The only way I can believe that (a) she lived and he told John she didn't, and (b) Sherlock had any realistic chance of getting in a position to save her, is if Mycroft was behind it all.

There had to have been easier ways to convince the world she was dead, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.

Oh, and to the terrorism point, we're watching a show where the title character was willing to give up state secrets for his flatmate, where the flatmate killed for the title character when they'd barely met, and where the brother of the title character does all sorts of cheerfully dubious things for king and country, and where no one has hands that are especially clean.

Right, but mostly not offered as some sort of modern equivalent of canon. This Holmes is not Doyle's nor our the other characters, and we love that fact. Irene is no exception. She is not Doyle's Irene and does not impact us the same way Doyle's Irene impacted Victorian readers. Her being linked to terrorists is not even a rough equivalent to the original being a adventuress. The Victorian attitude towards adventuresses was much more ambivalent than the modern attitude towards terrorists. Do we even disagree on this?

I think at this point we are talking past each other and you are focusing on something that has nothing to do with my primary point, which had little to nothing to do with terrorists and very much to do with pro dommes in relation to adventuresses.

Actually, it does make me wonder. Now that the UK is fairly post-Emperial, does that make a difference with the Sherlock stories?

I vote "yes", although I think it's inextricably linked with a lot of other cultural stuff, and that's part of why the Orientalism felt like such a throw-back. It doesn't fit anymore.

I'm also not sure that it's so much "post-imperial" now as "post-9-11" (I don't know what else to call it, but, I mean, look how the series starts.) Bombings are at the least (mostly) a post-Imperial concern, but I would say even more so since the London Subway Bombings.

You know, having just watched it, wow, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes appears to have influenced this take on Adler greatly during the second half of the episode.

I think I saw it at one point, but, now that I Better Know A Canon (This week on Better Know a Canon: Sherlock Holmes), I want to see it again, especially given its influence on Sherlock.

I think I saw it at one point, but, now that I Better Know A Canon (This week on Better Know a Canon: Sherlock Holmes), I want to see it again, especially given its influence on Sherlock.

Well worth it.