Sherlock Holmes

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A Reader’s Guide to Sherlock Holmes


Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man of great intelligence who was brought up to love books. Influenced by his father’s criminal work, Doyle produced his first ‘Holmes’ story in 1887. Sherlock Holmes was created by the amazing imagination of Doyle, with his ‘sidekick’, Watson. The great detective stories were very intriguing. Doyle planned to end the series in 1893 but due to great public demand, resurrected his popular hero in 1903. The character of Sherlock brought hope to the Victorians as they disliked the police force. Crime rates were high and many of the police force were corrupt themselves. In 1892, at 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes arrived and graced London with a hope of crime solving. The mysteries of Sherlock Holmes provided the people of London with a hope that one day criminals may be captured and brought to justice.

A stereotypical detective has a sharp mind, is observant, occasionally odd or strange. They like to be in charge and have a dislike of authority and seem to never fail. They have a lack of home life or family and seemingly do not care about others options. From looking at these key characteristics, it can easily be seen that Holmes has all or more of these; he is well known for his incredible observation skills.

All of the Sherlock Holmes Stories and detective cases are written in first person narrative. It shows this in ‘The specked band’ "In glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes".

In Sherlock Holmes, most of the cases have a touch of melodrama in it. You can tell this by the layout of each story. He views his job as ‘time filler’ which saves him from “boredom”; this suggests he doesn’t have a life outside of detective work, and that his work is his life. He doesn’t encounter love, as he feels it will interfere with his job, and cloud his judgement in a role which he sees as being vital within the area he lived. Holmes relationship with Watson is very similar to that of Inspector Morse who was described as often miserable and cranky; he would rather drink beer than talk to you. Middle-aged with white hair, he enjoys opera and classical music. Holmes uses Watson as an accessory rather than an assistant, but I think deep down, there is a slight element of real friendship. Holmes, like most Victorians disliked the police; he thought that they were pointless as he was always picking up crimes they had dropped. He had a specific way of working and many methods, a very popular one was deduction and conjecture (guess work), and this was mainly performed by observation.

In terms of personality, Holmes' most apparent characteristic is his tendency to be exceptionally observant, for example in The Red Headed League, when Holmes "stopped in front of it (Jabez Wilson's pawnbrokers) with his head on one side and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between puckered lids". Also, during his first meeting with a new client, Holmes makes a habit of deducing as much about them as he can through their appearance. One example of this is at the beginning of The Red Headed League, when Holmes deduces several facts about Wilson (all of which then prove to be true) thus rather impressing the client. With the skill of analysing the details he has registered in order to reach a judgement, Holmes appears highly superior to all other characters mentioned in the stories, such as Watson.

However, logic isn't Holmes' only area of expertise: for one, he always seems to have a broad knowledge of virtually every subject that presents itself in his investigations, shown by his instant identification of Jabez Wilson's fish tattoo as being Chinese. Besides this, Watson's description of Holmes enjoying the concert they attended in The Red Headed League, where Holmes "...sat in the stalls, wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long thin fingers in time to the music..." suggests he also appreciates and understands the arts, and, judging by Watson's reference to Holmes as "a very enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer, but a composer of no ordinary merit" he is a distinct musicologist himself.

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Although on a personal level Holmes rarely seems avid, he can become quite fanatical when investigating a case, and seems determined to see justice triumph over misconduct. He appears to find some pleasure in his line of work, being particularly fond the rather ambiguous cases he specialises in, rather than less remarkable crimes - this is shown by his rant at the beginning of The Copper Beeches, in which he says that "...the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality." It is also mentioned in The Speckled ...

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