Quote from: milktea on May 25, 2013, 07:51:26 AM
One question: would it be a totally ungay thing for two men in their thirties to live together in 19th c London?
I doubt any sexual element would occur to anyone.
The lives these people lives were very different from now. Both would have been through boarding schools, probably public, both would have served in the forces and they most certainly have servants. We know of the housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson. It is impossible to imagine that she alone could have run that house. Equally, since we know Watson was an officer and I'm pretty certain Holmes was as well, neither would have been familiar with menial work.
So, like others of their social class in that day, they would have been rather conventional by their standards.
It does raise the question of the absence of sexual expression, other than Watson's brief marriage. But while late 19th century novels were quite open about cocaine and opium use, sex seems to have been treated rather in the way a bowel movement would.
It's also perhaps worth pointing out that, in common with several other prominent authors of that period, these novels were originally published, a chapter at a time, in magazines.
In that respect, it might be better classed as intended to guide public attitudes, rather than record. Most popular fiction in most societies is intended for this. Portraying somehting unusual and very rare as being common place.
