User:Jim Carter/Sherlock Holmes

Jim Carter/Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes in a 1904 illustration by Sidney Paget

Sherlock Holmes

Inspiration

Few sources cites that Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired partially by C. Auguste Dupin, the central character of Edgar Allan Poes' three short stories. It has also been noted that one of the most well know short story surrounding Dupin, "The Purloined Letter" was a inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Sources also remarked that virtually every story about Sherlock Holmes has details picked from Doyles' own experience.

Robert Louis Stevension, a fellow writer and friend complimented Doyle for his work and wrote in 1893 that, "very ingenious and very interesting "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"", but noted that "Only the one thing troubles me: Can this [Sherlock Holmes] be my old friend Joseph Bell?".

Doyle later said that the character, Sherlock Holmes was inspired by people whom he met during his early career. One of them was, Joseph Bell with whom Doyle met when he worked for Bell as a clerk in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1877. Bell was a surgeon there and like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. However, Bell later wrote to Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it". Few source also cite Sir Robert Christison alongside Bell to be inspiration for Holmes. Beside Bell and Christison, 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 Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime.

It is also believed that the characters' name was inspired by Doyles' early life. A close school friend of Doyle during childhood has his surname, "Sherlock". "Holmes" is a link to a friend of Doyles' mother, American physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., many scholars believe. Sources also describe that the character Moriarty was a reference to a pair of brothers named "Moriarty" Doyle met when he was sent to Stony hurst, a Scottish boarding school. The character Moriarty later turn out to be the greatest rival of Holmes.

Another inspiration is thought to be Francis "Tanky" Smith, a policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicesters' first private detective.

Character background

Early life and family

Throughout the series of Sherlock Holmes story and novels, mentions of Holmes's early life creates a loose biographical picture of Sherlock Holmes drawn by Doyle about his life and extended family. In most cases, Dr. John Watson, the sidekick of the detective narrates about Holmes early life and family. Once Watson said that Holmes "rarely spoke of his relations".

In "His Last Bow" set in August 1914, Holmes is described as 60 years of age so an estimation places his birth year at 1854. In 1933, Christopher Morley a American journalist and founder of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts organization Baker Street Irregulars, wrote in the Saturday Review of Literature that somewhere in the month of January, Holmes had been born. He further said that since the first issue of Sherlock Holmes stories appeared in January 6 column so "I nominate January 6th". Other writers had also agreed with the date but given different rationale. Nathan Bengis in 1957 noted that in the novel "The Valley of Fear" which sets in January 7; It is described in the early paragraphs that Holmes was in some amount of cranky mood with his "untasted breakfast", sitting in a table: is a circumstantial evidence that Holmes was in a hangover after the previous night, January 6, possibly because of a little birthday celebration. Later, Leslie S. Klinger, author of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, also posited the detective's birth date as January 6.

Holmes's parents are not mentioned in the Original Doyle's stories, although Holmes mentions that his ancestors were "country squires". In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", he claims that his great-uncle was French artist Horace Vernet. The story also introduces Holmes's brother, Mycroft, seven years his senior. Holmes also described to Watson in the story that Mycroft Holmes is much greater in observation and deduction than Holmes himself. But Holmes also explained that Mycroft has no ambition and enery for deduction and Mycroft considers it a "mental excercise". He also added that Mycroft is too lazy to find clues by running around to find suspects. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Of his time, Mycroft spent most of it in his office at Whitehall, his flat in Pall Mall and in the Diogenes club. Out of all other places, Mycroft only trusted the club.

In a story, Holmes remarked that he developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students.

Appearance and detective career

Holmes first appeared in the detective mystery novel "A Study in Scarlet" in 1887. The novel was published by Ward Lock & Co and appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual.

Dr. Watson, the sidekick fictional character of Holmes was used as the first person narrator of the novel. The novel also described how Watson and Holmes met and how they settled in the 221B Baker Street, London. Along side the introduction of the main characters, the novel also marked the starting point of Holmes's professional consulting detective career. Conan Doyle subsequently written other short stories and novels following "A Study in Scarlet" surrounding Sherlock Holmes. According to the first short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia", of the Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which was published in October 31, 1892 in The Strand magazine, 221B is an apartment at the upper end of the street, up 17 steps.

Doyle written a total of 56 short stories in five set of books namely, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), His Last Bow (1917) and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) and four novels- "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), "The Sign of the Four" (1890), "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1901–1902) and "The Valley of Fear" (1914–1915) featuring Holmes's detective career. As a detective Holmes worked for 23 years, with physician John Watson assisting him for 17. They were roommates before Watson's 1887 marriage and again after his wife, Mary Watson's death. 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:

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 worked a 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 unravelling it —Sherlock Holmes on John Watson's "pamphlet", The Sign of the Four

Nevertheless, Holmes' 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' 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.

References

Bibliography

• Sova, Dawn B (2001). Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z (Paperback ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. ISBN 0-8160-4161-X.

• iMinds (May 14, 2014). iMinds: Sherlock Holmes. iMinds Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-1921746918. Retrieved February 19, 2015.

• Acord, David (November 1, 2011). Success Secrets of Sherlock Holmes: Life Lessons from the Master Detective. Penguin publishers. ISBN 978-1101545720. Retrieved February 19, 2015.

• Lycett, Andrew (2007). The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-7523-1.

• Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Snowball Classics Publishing. Retrieved February 20, 2015.

• Barring-Gould, William S. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. ISBN 0-517-50291-7.

• Doyle, A. Conan (1961). The Boys' Sherlock Holmes, New & Enlarged Edition. Harper & Row.

• Eyles, Allen (1986). Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration. Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-015620-1.

• Riccardi, Ted. The Lost years of Sherlock Holmes.

• Doyle, Arthur Conan (October 1979). The Sherlock Holmes Omnibus (2nd illustrated ed.). John Murray. ISBN 071953691X.

• Klinger, Leslie (2005). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05916-2.

• Redmond, Christopher (September 28, 2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook (Second Edition ed.). Dundurn. Retrieved February 23, 2015. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)

• Doyle, Arthur Conan (1893). Ware (ed.). The Original illustrated 'Strand' Sherlock Holmes (1989 ed.). England: Wordsworth. ISBN 978-1-85326-896-0.

• Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. (February 22, 2010). Sherlock Holmes For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470647370. Retrieved February 24, 2015.

• Kabatchnik, Amnon (2008). Sherlock Holmes on the stage: A chronological Encyclopedia of plays. Scarecrow press. ISBN 1461707226. Retrieved February 24, 2015.

• Cavenagh, Tom (2009). Sherlock Holmes; Reports from the Dark Side. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1440120459.

• Wolfreys, Julian (1992). "Introduction". In Conan Doyle, Arthur (ed.). The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: Wordsworth. ISBN 1-85326-033-9.