My Name Is Asher Lev is a novel by Chaim Potok dealing with the tension between tradition and individualism, religion and art. Asher Lev is a boy born into a Hasidic Jewish Family. Asher's father does not approve of his talent for painting and his interest in paintings of nudes and crucifixions. Eventually Asher becomes an apprentice of the artist Jacob Kahn, finds success and gains the approval of his family. However, after painting his masterpiece, a crucifixion depicting his mother's suffering, he is forced to leave.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes follow the titular detective and his partner, surgeon and amateur investigator Dr. John Watson, as they solve crimes and plumb the nature of human thought in Victorian London. Holmes is an aesthete and a logician, a student of deductive reasoning who sometimes grows frustrated with the illogical world around him, retreating into art or fixation on a case. Watson is his foil, a collected and charming man who grounds his friend and partner in the real world.