Detective Story

"...This is, in a way, the point of the classical detective story that has had more changes and alterations since the days of Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins than almost any other form of literature: underneath all that it is a very conservative form of art. By "conservative" I do not mean that it upholds some conservative or, even, feudal view of society, which is what some critics have accused it of doing, but that it insists on certain immoveable principles..."

Continue...At SAU

Which famous sleuth is pictured above? Anyone?

Update: Robert the LlamaButcher and Mrs. P are correct, the gentleman above is Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, younger brother of the Duke of Denver, creation of Dorothy L. Sayers.