Sherlock Holmes Series
Sherlock Holmes
| Sherlock Holmes | |
|---|---|
| Sherlock Holmes character | |
Sherlock Holmes in a 1904 illustration by Sidney Paget
| |
| First appearance | A Study in Scarlet |
| Created by | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Consulting detective |
| Family | Mycroft Holmes (brother) |
| Nationality | British |
Sherlock Holmes (/ˈʃɜːrlɒk
First appearing in print in 1887's A Study in Scarlet, the character's 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 totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are 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 221B Baker Street, London, where many of the stories begin.
Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the best known,[1] with Guinness World Records listing him as the "most portrayed movie character" in history.[2] Holmes's popularity and fame are such that many have believed him to be not a fictional character but a real individual;[3][4][5] 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 and popular culture as a whole, with the original tales as well as thousands written by authors other than Conan Doyle being adapted into stage and radio plays, television, films, video games, and other media for over one hundred years.
Inspiration for the character
Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many later characters, including Holmes.[6] Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?"[7] Similarly, the stories of Émile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq were extremely popular at the time Conan Doyle began writing Holmes, and Holmes' speech and behaviour sometimes follow that of Lecoq.[8] Holmes and Watson discuss Dupin and Lecoq 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 clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations.[9] However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it".[10] Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, 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.[11]
Other inspirations have been proposed, such as Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain. In this 1871 novel (sixteen years before the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, opium-smoking polymath detective, operating in Paris.[12][13][14] It is not known if Conan Doyle read the novel, but he was fluent in French.[15] Michael Harrison has suggested that a German self-styled "consulting detective" named Walter Scherer may have been the model for Holmes.[16]
Fictional character biography
Family and early life
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 Bow" places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes him as sixty years of age.[17] 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 Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle, or Horace Vernet. 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.[18] A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession,[19] 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 two take lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London, an apartment at the upper (north) end of the street, up seventeen steps.[20]
Life with Watson
Holmes worked as a detective for twenty-three years, with physician John Watson assisting him for seventeen.[21] 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 frame narratives, written from Watson's point of view as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes frequently calls Watson's writing sensational and populist, suggesting that it fails to accurately and objectively report the "science" of his craft:
Nevertheless, Holmes's 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:
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