Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle referring to himself as a consulting detective in the stories
Homs is known for his proficiency with observation forensic science and logical
reasoning that borders on the fantastic which he employs when investigating
cases for a wide variety of clients including Scotland Yard first appearing
in print in 1887 sa study in scarlet the characters popularity became widespread
with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine beginning with a
scandal in Bohemia in 1891 additional tales appeared from then until 1927
eventually totaling four novels and 56 short stories all but one now set in the
Victorian or Edwardian eras between about 1880 and 1914 most are narrated by
the character of Holmes's friend and biographer dr. Watson who usually
accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters
with him at the address of 221 B Baker Street London where many of the stories
begin though not the first fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is arguably
the best-known with Guinness World Records listing him as the most
portrayed movie character in history Holmes's popularity and fame are such
that many have believed him to be not a fictional character but a real
individual numerous literary and fan societies have been founded that pretend
to operate on this principle widely considered a British cultural
icon the character and stories have had a profound and lasting effect on mystery
writing in popular culture as a whole with the original tales as well as
thousands written by authors other than Conan Doyle being adapted into stage in
radio plays television films video games and other media for over 100 years
Edgar Allen Poe's single coupon is generally acknowledged as the first
detective in fiction and sir as the prototype for many that were
created later including Holmes Conan Doyle once wrote each of Poe's detective
stories is a route from which a whole literature has developed where was the
detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it
similarly the stories of Emile Gabor iou's Monsieur Le Coq were extremely
popular at the time Conan Doyle began writing homes and home speech and
behavior sometimes follow that of la cop both do pond and Lacock are referenced
at the beginning of a Study in Scarlet Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes
was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell a surgeon at the Royal
Infirmary of Edinburgh whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a
clock like Holmes Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute
observations however he later wrote to Conan Doyle you are yourself Sherlock
Holmes and well you know it 10 certainly Little John share of medical
jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh medical school is also cited
as an inspiration for Holmes little John who was also police surgeon
and medical officer of health in Edinburgh provided Conan Doyle with a
link between medical investigation and the detection of crime other
inspirations have been considered one is thought to be francis tankey Smith a
policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Lester's first private
detective citation needed another might be Maximilian Heller by French author
Henrico vane it is not known if Conan Doyle read Maximilian Heller but he was
fluent in French and in this 1871 novel sixteen years before the first adventure
of sherlock holmes Henrico vane imagined a depressed antisocial polymath
cat-loving and opium smoking Paris based detective details about Sherlock Holmes
life are scarce in Conan Doyle's stories nevertheless mentions of his early life
and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective an
estimate of Holmes's age in his last boat places his year of birth at 1850
for the story set in August 1914 describes him as sixty years of age his
parents are not mentioned in the stories although Holmes mentions that his
ancestors were country Squires in the adventure of the Greek
interpreter he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French
artist Vernay without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph Karl or Horace
Verney Holmes's brother Mycroft seven years his senior is a government
official Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human
database for all aspects of government policy he lacks Sherlock's interest in
physical investigation however preferring to spend his time at the
Diogenes Club Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an
undergraduate his earliest cases which he pursued as an amateur came from
fellow university students a meeting with the classmates father led him to
adopt detection as a profession and he spent several years after university as
a consultant before financial difficulties led him to accept John H
Watson as a fellow lodger the to take lodgings of 221 B Baker Street London
and apartment at the upper north end of the street up seventeen steps life with
Watson Holmes worked as a detective for 23 years with physician John Watson
assisting him for 17 they were roommates before Watson's 1888 marriage and again
after his wife's death their residence is maintained by their landlady mrs.
Hudson most of the stories are framed narratives written from Watson's point
of view as summaries of the detectives most interest in cases Holmes frequently
calls Watson's writing sensational and populist suggesting that it fails to
accurately and objectively report the science of his craft detection is or
ought to be an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and
unemotional manner you have attempted to tinge it a study in scarlet with
romanticism which produces much the same effect as if you work to love story some
facts should be suppressed or at least a just sense of proportion
should be observed in treating them the only point in the case which deserved
mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes by
which I succeeded in unraveling it Sherlock Holmes on John Watson's
pamphlet the sign of the four nevertheless Holmes his friendship with
Watson is his most significant relationship when Watson is injured by a
bullet although the wound turns out to be quite superficial Watson is moved by
Holmes's reaction it was worth a wound it was worth many wounds to know the
depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask the clear hard
eyes were dimmed for a moment and the firm lips were shaking for the one and
only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain all my
years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of
revelation 20:2 practice Holmes clients vary from the most powerful monarchs and
governments of Europe to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists to
impoverished porn brokers and governesses he is known only in select
profession circles at the beginning of the first story but is already
collaborating with Scotland Yard however his continued work in the publication of
Watson's stories raises Holmes profile and he rapidly becomes well-known as a
detective so many clients ask for his help instead of or in addition to that
of the police that Watson writes by 1895 Holmes has an immense practice police
outside London asked Holmes for assistance if he is nearby even during a
vacation a prime minister and the king of bohemia visit 221 B Baker Street in
person to request Holmes's assistance the government of France Awards him its
Legion of Honour for solving a case the king of Scandinavia is a client and he
aids the Vatican at least twice the detective acts on behalf of the British
government in matters of national security several times and declines a
knighthood for services which may perhaps someday be described
the great hiatus the first set of Holmes stories was published between 1987 and
1893 wishing to devote more time to his historical novels turmoil killed off
Holmes in a final battle with the criminal mastermind professor James
Moriarty in the final problem published 1893 but set in 1891 legend has it that
Londoners were so distraught upon hearing the news of Holmes death that
they wore black armbands in mourning however there is no known contemporary
source for this the earliest known reference to such events comes from 1949
after resisting public pressure for eight years Conan Doyle wrote the Hound
of the Baskervilles serialized in 1901 no 2 with an implicit setting before
Holmes's death in 1903 Conan Doyle wrote the adventure of the empty house set in
1894 Holmes reappears explaining to a stunned Watson that he had faked his
death to fool his enemies the adventure of the empty house marks the beginning
of the second set of stories which Conan Doyle wrote until 1927 Holmes
aficionados refer to the period from 1891 to 1894 between his disappearance
and presumed death in the final problem and his reappearance in the adventure of
the empty house as the great hiatus the earliest known use of this expression is
in the article Sherlock Holmes and the great hiatus by Edgar W Smith published
in the July 1946 issue of the Baker Street Journal retirement in his last
boat Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs and taken up
beekeeping as his primary occupation the move is not dated precisely but can be
presumed to predate 1904 since it is referred to retrospectively in the
second stain first published that year the story features Holmes and Watson
coming out of retirement to aid the war effort only one other adventure the
adventure of the lion's mane takes place during the detectives retirement Watson
describes homes as bohemian in his habits and life
dile described by Watson in the Hound of the Baskervilles as having a cat-like
love of personal cleanliness combs is an eccentric with no regard for
contemporary standards of tidiness or good order in many of the stories Holmes
dives into an apparent mess to find a relevant item in the adventure of the
musgrave ritual Watson says although in his methods of thought he was the
neatest and most methodical of mankind he keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle
his tobacco in the two end of a Persian slipper and his unanswered
correspondence transfixed by a jackknife into the very center of his wooden
mantelpiece he had a horror of destroying documents
thus month after month his papers accumulated until every corner of the
room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to
be burned and which could not be put away saved by their own the detective
starves himself at times of intense intellectual activity such as during the
adventure of the Norwood builder wherein according to Watson Holmes had no
breakfast for himself for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more
intense moments he would permit himself no food and I have known him to presume
upon his eye and strength until he has fainted from pure in addition while the
detective is usually dispassionate and cold during an investigation he is
animated and excitable he has a flair for showmanship preparing elaborate
traps to capture and expose a culprit often to impress observers his companion
condones the detectives willingness to bend the truth or break the law on
behalf of a client lying to the police concealing evidence or breaking into
houses when he feels it morally justifiable but condemns Holmes
manipulation of innocent people in the adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
Holmes derives pleasure from baffling police inspectors with his deductions
and has supreme confidence bordering on arrogance in his intellectual abilities
while the detective does not actively seek Fame and his usually content to let
the police take public credit for his work he is pleased when his skills are
recognized and responds to except for that of Watson Hamzah voice
casual company in the adventure of the Gloria Scott he tells the doctor that
during two years at college he made only one friend I was never a very sociable
fellow Watson I never mixed much with the men of my year
the detective is similarly described in a study in scarlet as shooting practice
during a period of boredom Holmes decorates the wall of his Baker Street
lodgings with a patriotic VR Victoria Regina in bullet pox from his revolver
Holmes relaxes with music in the red-headed league taking the evening off
from a case to listen to pablo de sara sato play violin his enjoyment of vocal
music particularly vogner is evident in the adventure of the red circle drug use
Holmes in a blue bathrobe reclining against her pillow and smoking his pipe
1891 Sidney Paget strand portrait of Holmes for the man with the twisted lip
Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs especially in the absence of stimulating
cases he uses cocaine which he injects in a 7% solution with a syringe kept in
a Morocco leather case although Holmes also dabbles in morphine he expresses
strong disapproval when he visits an opium den both drugs were legal in 19th
century England as a physician what some strongly disapproves of his friend's
cocaine habit describing it as the detectives only vice and concerned about
its effect on Holmes his mental health and intellect dot in the adventure of
the missing three quarter Watson says that although he has weaned Holmes from
drugs the detective remains an addict whose
habit is not dead but merely sleeping Watson and Holmes both used tobacco
smoking cigarettes cigars and pipes although his chronicler does not
consider Holmes is smoking advice per se Watson a physician occasionally
criticizes the detective for creating a poisonous atmosphere in their confined
quarters finances the detective is known to charge clients for his expenses and
claim any reward offered for a problem so
such as in the adventure of the speckled band' the red-headed league and the
adventure of the Beryl coronet in the problem of thor bridge the detective
says my professional charges are upon a fixed scale I do not vary them save when
I remit them altogether in this context a client is offering to double his feet
and it is implied that wealthy clients habitually pay homes more than his
standard fee in the adventure of the Priory school Holmes earns a 6 Camus
low fee an amount that surprises even Watson at a time where annual expenses
for a rising young professional were in the area of five hundred however in the
adventure of black Peter Watson notes that Holmes would refuse to help even
the wealthy and powerful if their cases did not interest him although when the
stories begin Holmes needed Watson to share the rent for their residence by
the time of the final problem he says that his services to the government of
France and the royal family of Scandinavia had left him with enough
money to retire comfortably attitudes towards women as Conan Doyle wrote to
Joseph bell Homme Caesars in human heirs of Babbage's calculating machine and
just about as likely to fall in love Holmes said in the valley of fear I am
NOT a hole sold admirer of womankind and in the adventure of the second stain
finds the motives of women inscrutable how can you build on such quicksand
their most trivial actions may mean volumes their most extraordinary
conducts may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs in the sign of the four he
says I would not tell them too much women are never to be entirely trusted
not the best of them Watson says in the adventure of the copper beeches that the
detective inevitably manifested no further interest in the client when once
she had ceased to be the center of one of his problems in the lion's mane Tom's
rights women have seldom been an attraction to me for my brain has always
governed my heart indicating that he has been attracted to women in some way on
occasion but has not been interested in pursuing relationships with them
ultimately however in the adventure of the
Devils foot he claims outright that I have never loved at the end of the sign
of four homes states that love is an emotional thing and whatever is
emotional is opposed to the true cold reason which I place above all things I
should never marry myself lest i bias my judgment
despite his overall attitude Holmes is adept at effortlessly putting his
clients at ease and what some says that although the detective has an aversion
to women he has a peculiarly ingratiating way with them Watson notes
in the adventure of the dying detective that mrs. Hudson is fond of Holmes
because of his remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women he
disliked and distrusted the sexes but he was always a chivalrous opponent in the
adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton the detective easily manages to become
engaged under false pretenses in order to obtain information about a case but
also abandons the woman once he has the information he requires Irene Adler
Irene Adler is a retired American opera singer and actress who appears in a
scandal in Bohemia although this is her only appearance she is one of only a
handful of people who best Holmes in a battle of wits and the only woman for
this reason Adler is the frequent subject of pastiche writing the
beginning of the story describes the high regard in which Holmes holds her to
Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman I have seldom heard him mention her
under any other name in his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of
her sex it was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler yet
there was but one woman to him and that woman was the late Irene Adler of
dubious and questionable memory five years before the story's events Adler
had a brief liaison with Crown Prince of Bohemia Wilhelm von ormstein as the
story opens the prince is engaged to another fearful that the marriage would
be called off if his fiance's family learns of this past impropriety ormstein
hires holmes to regain a photograph of Adler and himself Adler slips away
before Holmes can succeed her memory is kept alive
by the photograph of Atlin at homes received for his part in the case and he
refers to her from time to time in subsequent stories shortly after meeting
Holmes in the first story a Study in Scarlet generally assumed to be 1881
though the exact date is not given watson assesses the detectives abilities
knowledge of literature nil knowledge of philosophy nil knowledge of astronomy
nil knowledge of politics feeble knowledge of botany variable welled up
in belladonna opium and poisons generally knows nothing of practical
gardening knowledge of geology practical but limited tells at a glance different
soils from each other after walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers and
told me by their color and consistency in what part of London he have received
them knowledge of chemistry profound knowledge of anatomy accurate but
unsystematic knowledge of sensational literature immense he appears to know
every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century plays the violin well is
an expert single stick player boxer and swordsman has a good practical knowledge
of British law Arthur Conan Doyle a study in scarlet subsequent stories
reveal that Watson's early assessment was incomplete in places and inaccurate
in others due to the passage of time if nothing else at the end of a Study in
Scarlet Holmes demonstrates a knowledge of Latin despite Holmes's supposed
ignorance of politics in a scandal in Bohemia he immediately recognizes the
true identity of Count von kramm his speech is peppered with references to
the Bible Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the detective
quotes a letter from Gustav flow bare to George sand in the original French at
the end of a case of identity poems courts Hathor's in the Hound of the
Baskervilles the detective recognizes works by Martin NOLA and Joshua Reynolds
Watson won't allow that I know anything but but that is my jealousies since our
views upon the subject differ in the adventure of the bruce-partington plans
Watson says that Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon
the polyphonic motets of Lassus considered the last word on the subject
Holmes is also a Crypt analyst telling Watson in the adventure of the dancing
men I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing and am myself the
author of a trifling monograph upon the subject in which I analyze 160 separate
ciphers in a Study in Scarlet Holmes claims to be unaware that the Earth
revolves around the Sun since such information is irrelevant to his work
after hearing that fact from Watson he says he will immediately try to forget
it the detective believes that the mind has
a finite capacity for information storage and learning useless things
reduces one's ability to learn useful things the latest stories move away from
this notion in the valley of fear he says all knowledge comes useful to the
detective and in the adventure of the lion's mane the detective calls himself
an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles Holmes
demonstrates a knowledge of psychology in a scandal in Bohemia luring Irene
Adler into betraying where she hid a photograph based on the premise that an
unmarried woman will save her most valued possession from a fire another
example is in the adventure of the blue carbuncle where Holmes obtains
information from a salesman with a wager when you see a man with whiskers of that
cut and the pink on protruding out of his pocket you can always draw him by a
bet I dare say that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of him that man
would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the
idea that he was doing me on a wager Maria konnikova points out in an
interview with DJ Grove that Holmes practices what is now called mindfulness
concentrating on one thing at a time and almost never multitasks she adds that in
this he predates the science showing how helpful this is to the brain 49
homes the in deduction though the stories always refer to homes
intellectual detection methodology as deduction he primarily relies on
abduction inferring an explanation for observed details from the drop of water
he writes a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara
without having seen or heard of one or the other in a scandal in bohemia' homes
in first that Watson had got wet lately and had a most clumsy and careless
servant girl when Watson asks how Holmes knows this the detective answers it is
simplicity itself my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe just
where the firelight strikes it the leather is scored by six almost parallel
cuts obviously they have been caused by someone who is very carelessly scraped
around the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it hence you see
my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather and that you had a
particularly malignant boot slitting specimen of the London slavey in the
first Holmes story a study in scarlet dr. Watson compares Holmes to see a
goose do bomb Edgar Allan Poe's fictional detective who employed a
similar methodology alluding to an episode in the murders in the Rue Morgue
where do pond determines what his friend is thinking despite their having walked
together in silence for a quarter of an hour Holmes remarks the trick of his
breaking in on his friends thoughts with an apropos remark is really very showy
and superficial nevertheless Holmes later performs the same trick on Watson
in the adventure of the art world this methodology allows homes to learn a
strangers occupation and other details he observes the dress and attitude of
his clients and suspects noting skin marks such as tattoos contamination such
as ink stains of clay on boots emotional state and physical condition in order to
deduce their origins in recent history thus Thailand state of wear of a
person's clothes and personal items are also commonly relied on in the stories
Holmes is seen applying his method to walking-sticks
pipes hats and other objects Holmes does employ deductive reasoning as well the
detectives guiding principle as he says in the sign of the four and other
stories it's when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however
improbable must be the truth despite Holmes remarkable reasoning
abilities Conan Doyle still paints him as fallible in this regard this being a
central theme of the adventure of the yellow face forensic science though
Holmes is famed for his reasoning capabilities his investigative technique
relies heavily on the acquisition of hard evidence many of the techniques he
employs in the stories were at the time in their infancy
for example Scotland Yard's fingerprint bureau opened in 1901 the detective is
particularly skilled in the analysis of trace evidence and other physical
evidence including latent prints such as footprints hoof prints and shoe and tire
impressions to identify actions at a crime scene a Study in Scarlet the
adventure of silver blaze the adventure of the Priory school the Hound of the
Baskervilles the Boscombe Valley mystery using
tobacco ashes and cigarette butts to identify criminals the adventure of the
resident patient the Hound of the Baskervilles handwriting analysis and
graphology the adventure of the Reigate Squire the man with the twisted lip
comparing typewritten letters to expose a fraud a case of identity using
gunpowder residue to expose to murderers the adventure of the Reigate Squire
comparing bullets from two crime scenes the adventure of the
house analyzing small pieces of human remains to expose to murders the
adventure of the cardboard box and an early use of fingerprints the Norwood
builder because of the small scale of much of his evidence
the detective often uses a magnifying glass at the scene and an optical
microscope at his Baker Street lodgings he uses analytical chemistry for blood
residue analysis and toxicology to detect poisons Combs's home chemistry
laboratory is mentioned in the adventure of the Naval Treaty ballistics feature
in the adventure of the empty house when spent bullets are recovered and matched
with a suspected murder weapon disguises poems displays a strong aptitude for
acting and disguise in several stories the adventure of Charles Augustus
building the man with the twisted lip the adventure of the empty house and a
scandal in Bohemia to gather evidence undercover he uses disguises so
convincing that Watson fails to recognize him in others the adventure of
the dying detective and again a scandal in Bohemia Homs feigns injury or illness
to incriminate the guilty in the latter story Watson says the stage lost a fine
actor when Holmes became a specialist in crime fifty-eight agents until Watson's
arrival at Baker Street Holmes largely worked alone only occasionally employing
agents from the city's underclass these agents included a variety of informants
such as Langdale pike the human book of reference upon all matters of social
scandal 59 and shin hwal johnson who acted as Holmes agent in the huge
criminal underworld of London the most well-known of Holmes agents are a group
of street children he called the Baker Street Irregulars
combat pistols Holmes and Watson carry often pistols with them in Watson's case
his old service weapon probably a mark 3 Adams revolver issued to British troops
during the 1870s Holmes and Watson shoot the eponymous hound in the Hound of the
Baskervilles and in the adventure of the empty
house homes pistol-whips Colonel Sebastian Moran in the adventure of the
solitary cyclist the adventure of black Peter and the adventure of the dancing
men Hamzah Watson use a pistol to capture the criminals other weapons as a
gentleman Homs often carries a stick or cane he is described by Watson as an
expert at single stick and uses his cane twice as a weapon in a study in scarlet
Watson describes Holmes as an expert swordsman and in the adventure of the
Gloria Scott the detective practices fencing in several stories a case of
identity the red-headed league the six Napoleon's Pomp's wields a riding crop
described in the latter story as his favorite weapon personal combat the
detective is described or demonstrated as possessing above-average physical
strength in the yellow face hamza chronicler says few men were capable of
greater muscular efforts in the adventure of the speckled band dr. Roya
demonstrates his strength by bending a fire poker in half watson describes
Holmes as laughing if he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was
not much more feeble than his own as he spoke he picked up the steel poker and
with a sudden effort straightened it out again Holmes is an adept bare-knuckle
fighter the adventure of the Gloria Scott mentions that Holmes trained as a
boxer in the sign of the for he introduces himself to McMurdo a
prizefighter as the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Allison's rooms
on the night of your benefit four years back
McMurdo remembers are you're one that has wasted your gifts you have you might
have aimed high if you had joined the fancy in the yellow face Watson says he
was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his wake that I have ever seen the
detective occasionally engages in hand-to-hand combat with his adversaries
in the adventure of the solitary cyclist and the adventure of the Naval Treaty in
the adventure of the empty house combs tells Watson that he used a
Japanese martial art known as Barrett su to fling Moriarty to his death in the
Reichenbach Falls Barrett suis Conan Doyle's version of Bartitsu which
combines jiu-jitsu with boxing and cane fencing the detective story although
Holmes is not the original fictional detective his name has become synonymous
with the role the investigating detective such as Agatha Christie's
Hercule Poirot and Dorothy L sayers Lord Peter Wimsey became a successful
character for a number of authors elementary my dear Watson
the phrase elementary my dear Watson is never uttered by Holmes in the sixty
stories written by Conan Doyle he often observes that his conclusions
are elementary however and occasionally calls Watson my dear Watson one of the
nearest approximations of the phrase appears in the adventure of The Crooked
Man when Holmes explains the deduction excellent
I cried elementary said he William Gillette is widely considered to have
originated the phrase with the formulation oh this is elementary my
dear fellow allegedly in his 1899 play Sherlock Holmes however the script was
revised numerous times over the course of some three decades of revivals and
publications and the phrase is present in some versions of the script but not
others the exact phrase as well as closed variants can be seen in newspaper
and journal articles as early as 1909 there is some indication that it was
cliched even then the phrase elementary my dear fellow quite elementary appears
in PG Wodehouse's novel Smith in the City 1909-10
and elementary my dear Watson elementary in his 1915 novel Smith journalist
neither spoken by Holmes the exact phrase elementary my dear Watson is used
by protagonist Tom Beresford in Agatha Christie's 1922 novel the secret
adversary it also appears at the end of the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock
Holmes the first Holmes sound
the phrase became familiar with the American public in part due to its use
in the Rathburn Bruce series of films from 1939 to 1946 the great game Conan
Doyle's 56 short stories and four novels are known as the canon by holmes
aficionados early canonical scholars included ronald knox in britain 70 and
Christopher Morley in New York Morley founded the Baker Street Irregulars the
first society devoted to the Holmes Canon in 1934 the Sherlockian game also
known as the Holmes in game the great game or simply the game attempts to
resolve anomalies and clarify details about Holmes and Watson from the Canon
the game which treats Holmes and Watson as real people and Conan Doyle as
Watson's literary agent combines history with aspects of the stories to construct
biographies and other scholarly analyses of these aspects ronald knox is credited
with inventing the game one detail analyzed in the game is
Holmes's birthdate the chronology of the stories is
notoriously difficult with many stories lacking dates and many others containing
contradictory ones Morley and William baring-gould author of Sherlock Holmes
of Baker Street a life of the world's first consulting detective contend that
the detective was born on the 6th of January 1854 the year being derived from
the statement in his last bow that he was 60 years of age in 1914 while the
precise day is derived from broader non-canonical speculation this is the
date the Baker Street Irregulars work from with their annual dinner team held
in January Laurie R King also speculated about Holmes's birth date she instead
argues that details in the adventure of the Gloria Scott a story with no precise
internal date indicate that Holmes finished his second and final year of
university in 1880 or 1885 if he began University at age 17 his birth year
could be as late as 1868 Combs's emotional and mental health have
long been subjects of analysis in the game at their first meeting in a study
in scarlet the detective warns Watson that he gets in the dumps at times and
doesn't open his mouth for days on end Lesley s clinger has suggested that
Holmes exhibits signs of bipolar disorder with intense enthusiasm
followed by indolent self-absorption John Radford 1999 speculated on Holmes's
intelligence stuff using Conan Doyle's stories as data he applied three methods
to estimate the detectives intelligence quotient and concluded that his IQ was
about 190 Schneider 2004 examined Holmes's methods in the context of mid
to late 19th century criminology societies in 1934 the Sherlock Holmes
Society in London and the Baker Street Irregulars
in New York were founded both are still active although the Sherlock Holmes
Society was dissolved in 1937 and revived in 1951 the London society is
one of many worldwide who arranged visits to the scenes of Holmes
adventures such as the Reichenbach falls in the Swiss Alps the two societies
founded in 1934 were followed by many more first in the u.s. where they are
known as science society's offshoots of the Baker Street Irregulars and then in
England and Denmark there are at least 250 societies worldwide including
Australia Canada the bootmakers of Toronto India and Japan whose society
has 80,000 members fans tend to be called Holmes Ian's in Britain and
Sherlock Ian's in the United States though recently Sherlockian has also
come to refer to fans of the benedict cumberbatch led BBC series regardless of
location museums for the 1951 Festival of Britain
Holmes's living room was reconstructed as part of a Sherlock Holmes exhibition
with a collection of original material after the festival items were
transferred to the Sherlock Holmes a London pub and the Conan Doyle
collection housed in song Switzerland by the office son Adrian both exhibitions
each were the Baker Street sitting-room reconstruction are open to the public in
1990 the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened on Baker Street in London followed the
next year by a museum in marring him near the Reichenbach Falls dedicated to
the detective a private Conan Doyle collection is a permanent exhibit at the
Portsmouth City Museum where the author lived and worked as a physician other
honours the London Metropolitan Railway named one of its 20 electric locomotives
deployed in the 1920s for Sherlock Holmes he was the only fictional
character so honored along with eminent Britons such as Lord Byron Benjamin
Disraeli and Florence Nightingale a number of London streets are associated
with Holmes York Mews south of Crawford Street was renamed Sherlock muse and
Watson's muses near Crawford place in 2002 the Royal Society of Chemistry
bestowed an honorary fellowship on Holmes for his use of forensic science
and analytical chemistry in popular literature making him as of 2017 the
only fictional character thus honoured the popularity of Sherlock Holmes has
meant that many writers other than Arthur Conan Doyle have created tales of
the detective in a wide variety of different media with varying degrees of
fidelity to the original characters stories and setting according to the
alternative Sherlock Holmes pastiches parodies and copies by Peter Ridgeway
wattens Joseph Greene the first known period pastiche dates from 1893 titled
the late Sherlock Holmes it came from the pen of Conan Doyle's close friend J
M Barrie a common past each approaches to create a new story fully detailing an
otherwise passing canonical reference such as an aside by Conan Doyle
mentioning the giant rat of Sumatra a story for which the world is not yet
prepared in the adventure of the Sussex vampire other adaptations have seen the
character taken in radically different directions
or placed in different times or even universes
for example Holmes falls in love and Mary's in Laurie are Kings Mary Russell
series is reanimated after his death to fight future crime in the animated
series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century and is meshed with the setting
of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in Neil Gaiman's a study in Emerald which won
the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short story an especially influential pastiche was
Nicolas Myers the 7% solution a 1974 New York Times best-selling novel in which
Holmes's cocaine addiction has progressed to the point of endangering
his career it was made into a film of the same name in 1976 and popularized
the pastiche writing trend of incorporating clearly identified and
contemporaneous historical figures such as Oscar Wilde Aleister Crowley or Jack
the Ripper into tales featuring Holmes something Conan Doyle himself never did
related and derivative writings in addition to the Holmes canon Conan
Doyle's 1898 The Lost special features an unnamed amateur reasoner intended to
be identified as Holmes by his readers the author's explanation of a baffling
disappearance argued in Holmes II and style poked fun at his own creation
similar Conan Doyle short stories are the early the field bizarre the man with
the watches and 1924 how what's and learned the trick a parody of the Watson
Holmes breakfast-table scenes the author wrote other material
especially plays featuring Holmes much of it appears in Sherlock Holmes the
published Apocrypha edited by Jack Tracy the final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
edited by Peter Haiming and the uncollected Sherlock Holmes compiled by
Richard lancelyn green in terms of writers other than Conan Doyle offers as
diverse as Antony Burgess Neil Gaiman Dorothy B Hughes Stephen King Tanith Lee
a a Milne and PG Woodhouse have all written Sherlock Holmes pastiches
notably famed American mystery writer John D
ancar collaborated with Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian Conan Doyle on the
exploits of Sherlock Holmes a pastiche collection from 1954 in 2011 Anthony
Horowitz published a Sherlock Holmes novel the house of silk presented as a
continuation of Conan Doyle's work and with the approval of the Conan Doyle
estate a sequel Moriarty was published in 2014 some authors have written tales
centered on characters from the Canon other than Holmes M J trow has written a
series of seventeen books using Inspector Lestrade as the central
character beginning with The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade in 1985 Carol
Nelson Douglas Irene Adler series is based on the woman from a scandal in
Bohemia with the first book 1990s goodnight mr. Holmes retelling that
story from masters point of view Martin Davis has written three novels where
Baker Street housekeeper mrs. Hudson is the protagonist Mycroft Holmes has been
the subject of several efforts entered the Lion by Michael P Hodel and Sean M
Wright 1979 before book series by Quinn for set and 2015 s Mycroft by former NBA
star Kareem abdul-jabbar John Gardner Michael Kurland and Kim Newman amongst
many others have all written tales in which Holmes his nemesis Professor
Moriarty is the main character and follow Jesus by Michael Kurland and
George Mann are entirely devoted to stories told from the perspective of
characters other than Holmes and Watson Laurie R King recreated Holmes in her
Mary Russell series beginning with 1994's the beekeepers apprentice set
during the First World War and the 1920s her Holmes semi-retired in Sussex is
stumbled upon by a teenaged American girl recognizing a kindred spirit he
trains her as his apprentice and subsequently marries her as of 2018 the
series includes 15 novels and a novella tied into a book from King's Kate
Martinelli series the art of detection the final solution a 2004 novella by
Michael Schaben concerns an unnamed but long retired detective interested in
beekeeping who tackles the case of a missing parrot belonging to a Jewish
refugee boy Mitch Collins novel a slight trick of the mind 2005 takes place two
years after the end of the Second World War and explores an old and frail
Sherlock Holmes now as he comes to terms with a life spent
in emotionless logic this was also adapted into a film 2015 s mr. Holmes
there have been a host of scholarly work stealing which airlock Holmes some
working within the bounds of the great game and some written with the
understanding that Holmes is a fictional character in particular there have been
three major annotated editions of the complete series the first was William
baring-gould 1967 the annotated Sherlock Holmes this
two volume set was ordered to fit bearing ghouls preferred chronology and
was written from a great game perspective the second was 1993 the
Oxford Sherlock Holmes general editor Oh in Dudley Edwards a nine volume set
written in a straight scholarly manner the most recent is Leslie cling as the
new annotated Sherlock Holmes 2004 oh five a three volume set that returns to
a great game perspective adaptations in other media Guinness World Records has
listed Holmes as the most portrayed movie character with more than 70 actors
playing the part in over 200 films his first screen appearance was in the 1900
mutoscope film Sherlock Holmes battle doctor Detective has appeared in many
foreign language versions including a Russian miniseries broadcast in November
2013 Williams elects a teen 99 play Sherlock Holmes or The Strange Case of
Miss Faulkner was a synthesis of several Conan Doyle stories in addition to its
popularity the play is significant because it rather than the original
stories introduced one of the key visual qualities commonly associated with
Holmes today his calabash pipe that play also formed the basis for the
Gillette's 1916 film Sherlock Holmes in his lifetime
Gillette performed as Holmes some 1300 times in the early 1900s
H they saints Murray took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play
between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of the adventure of the
speckled band Saints the report read Holmes over 1,000 times Basil Rathbone
played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in 14 us films 2 for 20th Century
Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1946 and in the New
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946
before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway while the Fox films were period
pieces the Universal films abandoned Victorian Britain and moved to a then
contemporary setting in which Holmes occasionally battled Nazis the 1984-85
Italian / Japanese anime series Sherlock hound adapted the Holmes stories for
children with its characters being anthropomorphic dogs the series was
co-directed by Hayao Miyazaki between 1979 and 1986 Soviet television produced
a series of five television films The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and dr.
Watson the series were split into 11 episodes and starred vasily livanov his
homes and vitaly solomin miss Watson Leviathan was appointed an honorary
member of the Order of the British Empire for a performance ambassador
Antony Brenton described as one of the best I've ever seen Jeremy Brett played
the detective in seven series of Sherlock Holmes for Britain's Granada
television from 1984 to 1994 Watson was played by David Burke in the first three
series and Edward Hardwick in the remainder Brett and Hardwick also
appeared on stage in 1988-89 in the secret of Sherlock Holmes directed by
Patrick Garland BIRT cool spend the further adventures
of Sherlock Holmes starring Clive Maris in his Holmes and Michael Williams /
Andrew sexes Watson based on throwaway references in Conan Doyle's short
stories and novels he also produced original scripts for this series which
was also issued on CD cools had previously dramatized the entire Holmes
Canon for BBC Radio 4 the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes earned Robert Downey jr.
a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Holmes and go star Jude Law as Watson
Downey and Laura turned for a 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes a Game of Shadows
in May 2018 the release date of the 25th of December 2020 was set for the third
film in the series Benedict Cumberbatch plays a modern
version of the detective with Martin Freeman as John Watson in the BBC one TV
series Sherlock which premiered on the 25th of July 2010 in the series created
by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat the story's original Victorian setting is
replaced by present-day London Cumberbatch's Holmes uses modern
technology including texting and blogging to help solve crimes
similarly on the 27th of September 2012 Elementary premiered on CBS set in
contemporary New York the series features Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock
Holmes and Lucy Liu as a female doctor Joan Watson copyright issues the
copyright for Conan Doyle's works expired in the United Kingdom and Canada
at the end of 1980 was revived in 1996 and expired again at the end of 2000 the
author's works are now in the public domain in those territories all works
published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain this
includes all the Sherlock Holmes stories except for some of the short stories
collected in the casebook of Sherlock Holmes
conan doyle's heirs register the copyright to the casebook in 1981 in
accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976 on the 14th of February 2013
Leslie s clinger lawyer and editor of the new annotated Sherlock Holmes filed
a declaratory judgment suit against the Conan Doyle estate in the Northern
District of Illinois asking the court to acknowledge that the characters of
Holmes and Watson were public domain in the u.s. the court ruled in clingers
favor on the 23rd of December and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed
its decision on the 16th of June 2014 the case was appealed to the US Supreme
Court which declined to hear the case letting the appeals court's ruling stand
this final step resulted in the characters from the Holmes stories along
with all but 10 of the stories themselves those present in the case
book other than the adventure of the Mazarin stone and the problem of Thorpe
Ridge being in the public domain in the u.s. 117 copyright on the remaining
protected stories expires between 2019 and 2023
you
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét