Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 91 views

    New Microsoft Word Document

    Uploaded by

    a_44m
    Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle known for his skills of observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning. He first appeared in print in 1887 and became widely popular in short stories published in The Strand Magazine from 1891 onward. The stories are usually narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson, who accompanies Holmes on investigations and lives with him at 221B Baker Street in London. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous in literature and other media, with adaptations spanning over a century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    New Microsoft Word Document

    Uploaded by

    a_44m
    91 views2 pages
    Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle known for his skills of observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning. He first appeared in print in 1887 and became widely popular in short stories published in The Strand Magazine from 1891 onward. The stories are usually narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson, who accompanies Holmes on investigations and lives with him at 221B Baker Street in London. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous in literature and other media, with adaptations spanning over a century.

    Original Description:

    holmes_sherlock

    Original Title

    New Microsoft Word Document (4)

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle known for his skills of observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning. He first appeared in print in 1887 and became widely popular in short stories published in The Strand Magazine from 1891 onward. The stories are usually narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson, who accompanies Holmes on investigations and lives with him at 221B Baker Street in London. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous in literature and other media, with adaptations spanning over a century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    91 views2 pages

    New Microsoft Word Document

    Uploaded by

    a_44m
    Sherlock Holmes is a fictional private detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle known for his skills of observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning. He first appeared in print in 1887 and became widely popular in short stories published in The Strand Magazine from 1891 onward. The stories are usually narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer Dr. Watson, who accompanies Holmes on investigations and lives with him at 221B Baker Street in London. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous in literature and other media, with adaptations spanning over a century.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Sherlock Holmes (/rlk ho mz/) is a fictional private detective created by British author Sir

    Arthur Conan Doyle. Known as a "consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for a
    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 (in A Study in Scarlet), the character's popularity became
    widespread with the first series of short stories inThe Strand Magazine, beginning with "A
    Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891; additional tales appeared from then to 1927, eventually
    totalling four novels and 56 short stories. All but one are set in
    the Victorian or Edwardian periods, taking place between about 1880 to 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 most well-known,
    with Guinness World Records listing him as the "most portrayed movie character" in history.
    [1]

    Holmes's popularity and fame are such that many have believed him to be not a fictional

    character but a real individual;[2][3][4] numerous literary and fan societies have been founded that
    pretend to operate on this principle. The stories and character have had a profound and lasting
    effect on mystery writing and popular culture as a whole, with both 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 that were created later, including Holmes. [5]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?" [6]
    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 Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a
    clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations.
    [7]

    However, he later wrote to Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it".

    [8]

    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.[9]
    Other inspirations have been considered. One is thought to be Francis "Tanky" Smith, a
    policeman and master of disguise who went on to become Leicester's first private detective.
    [10]

    Another might be Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain. It is not known if Conan

    Doyle read Maximilien Heller, but in this 1871 novel (sixteen years before the first adventure of

    Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, polymath, cat-loving, and
    opium-smoking Paris-based detective.[11][12][13]

    Life with Watson

    Holmes and Watson in a Sidney Paget illustration for "Silver Blaze".

    Holmes worked as a detective for twenty-three years, with physician John Watson assisting him
    for seventeen.[18] They were roommates before Watson's 1887 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:
    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.[19]
    Sherlock Holmes on John Watson's "pamphlet", The Sign of the Four
    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:

    You might also like