John Sutherland

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John Sutherland (born 1938) is an English lecturer, emeritus professor, newspaper columnist and author.

Now Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London, John Sutherland began his academic career after graduating from the University of Leicester as an assistant lecturer in Edinburgh in 1964. ^[1]He specialises in Victorian fiction, 20th century literature, and the history of publishing.

Apart from writing a regular column in the Guardian newspaper, Sutherland has published seventeen (as of 2004) books and (as of 2005) is editing the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Popular Fiction. The series of books which starts with Was Heathcliff a murderer? has brought him a wide readership. The books in the series are collections of essays. Each essay takes a piece of classic fiction, almost always from the Victorian period. Carefully going over every word of the text, Sutherland highlights apparent inconsistencies, anachronisms and oversights, and explains references which the modern reader is likely to overlook. In some cases he demonstrates the likelihood that the author simply forgot a minor detail. In others, apparent slips on the part of the author are presented as evidence that something is going on beyond the surface of the book which is not explicitly described (such as his explanation for why Sherlock Holmes should mis-address Miss Stoner as Miss Roylott in The Adventure of the Speckled Band).

In 2005, he was involved in Dot Mobile's project to translate summaries and quotes of classic literature into text messaging shorthand. In the same year he was also Chair of Judges for the Booker Prize.

In August of 2006, an article by Sutherland critical of a YouTube user, "geriatric1927"^[2] resulted in a rash of videos on that site critising Sutherland. ^[3]

[edit] Partial bibliography

Is Heathcliff a murderer? Puzzles in nineteenth-century fiction, ISBN 0-19-282516-X 1996, OUP
Can Janes Eyre be happy? More puzzles in classic fiction, ISBN 0-19-283309-X, 1997, OUP
Who betrays Elizabeth Bennet? Further puzzles in classic fiction 1999, OUP
(With Cedric Watts) Henry V, war criminal? & other Shakespeare puzzles, ISBN 0-19-283879-2, 2000 OUP