Naked is the Best Disguise

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Naked is the Best Disguise: The Death and Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes (ISBN 0-14-004030-7) is a book by Samuel Rosenberg speculating on the hidden meanings in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and examining the influence of his writings on other works, especially James Joyce's Ulysses. Published in 1974, this book relates the Sherlock Holmes stories in surprising ways to Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Dionysus, Christ, Catullus, John Bunyan, Robert Browning, Boccaccio, Napoleon, Racine, Frankenstein, Flaubert, George Sand, Socrates, Poe, General Charles George Gordon, Melville, Joyce's Ulysses, T.S. Eliot, and many others.

The title comes from lines in William Congreve's The Double Dealer, 1694.

No mask like open truth to cover lies,

As to go naked is the best disguise.

This alludes to Samuel Rosenberg's premise that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle openly left clues, throughout his works, revealing his innermost hidden thoughts. (The same title was used for a 1984 book by Lauri Lewin about strip clubs.)

Rosenberg's book was received with disdain by Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts and scholars in the 1970s, but a more balanced view recognizes some worthwhile perceptions about Doyle's life and writing, hidden among its exaggerations, leaps of logic and exuberant language. It can, at least, be recognized as the first book of literary criticism about Doyle to appear in print, although many, most of them more sober, have followed.

[edit] Joyce's Ulysses

The author notes a similarity between a section of Doyle's A Study in Scarlet and Joyce's Ulysses.

Doyle - Hope sees Drebber from a hansom. Joyce - Bloom sees Dedalus from a hansom.

Doyle - Hope tracks Drebber through streets. Joyce - Bloom tracks Dedalus through streets.

Doyle - Drebber gets drunker. Joyce - Dedalus gets drunker.

Doyle - Drebber is beaten for insulting a girl. Joyce - Dedalus is beaten for insulting a girl.

Doyle - Hope takes Drebber to empty house. He lights a candle. Joyce - Bloom takes Dedalus to a house he fears is empty. He lights a candle.

[edit] The Doyle syndrome

This repetitive narrative sequence reveals some deep characteristics of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The pattern is associated with illicit love and contains such sequential story elements as:

• Detective goes to scene of crime,
• He conducts a vigil,
• Reference is made to written words that refer to illicit love,
• Reference is made to severe punishment and the deaths of many people,
• Arrival of violent person,
• Reference is made to reversal of sexes,
• Physical combat.

As a result of this repeated pattern, Sherlock Holmes preserves Victorian morality.