Novelist Henry James
seems like an unlikely partner to fictional detective
Sherlock
Holmes. Dan
Simmons pairs them in his novel The
Fifth Heart. James provides Holmes with access to the inner circle of
American politics,
where Holmes investigates the death of Clover Adams,
wife of historian
Henry Adams.
Together, they thwart an attempt to assassinate President Grover
Cleveland at the opening of the Chicago
Columbian Exhibition.
In some ways, Simmons draws from the weakest of genre writing, such as
the fortunate happenstance of James and Holmes meeting on the bank of the Seine, where the
story begins. Simmons writing in this style is not weak, though. He also writes
in more literary
style, though not a densely written as James’ novels, and uses the likes of
upper-class dinner parties to explore social customs and mores.
One of the ways Simmons creates a deep sense of the setting is by
constantly dropping names. Many of the characters in the book, or their real
counterparts, were famous or well-connected in their day and actually knew each
other, such as Adams, the Hays, James, and Samuel
Clemens. They also knew, or knew about, a lot of other famous or
well-connected people, so the discussion of all these names seems natural. I
started jotting down the names, and I recorded more than 100 (some are listed
below). Some were fictional (like Hercule
Poirot), but many were real people.
On the whole, the novel is a good adventure
full of interesting characters. Simmons goes a little deep into philosophy in a
consideration of what it means to be a real person, or the potential reality of
fictional people (Holmes suspects he may be fictional). The book can be enjoyed
without sweating that point.
In a sense, all the characters in the book are fictional, even if they
are based on real people. The Holmes of this novel describes the symptoms that
indicate he may be fiction, such as the fog he experiences between adventures,
and the James of this novel experiences the same thing. Of course, many of us
experience arriving home from work and having almost no recollection of
driving, so some fogginess may be a natural part of memories and the
way we form them (or don’t form them).
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Irene Adler [fictional]
Mycroft
Holmes [fictional character]
Sherlock
Holmes [fictional character]
Sebastian Moran
[fictional character]
James Nolan
Moriarty [fictional character]
Hercule
Poirot [fictional character]
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