Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes has quite a few interests apart from the obvious mystery solving. He plays the violin, he enjoys smoking a pipe (and has a compendious knowledge of different types of tobacco ash), He likes to perform chemical experiments, he is a keen boxer and fencer, he took up the beekeeping when he retired, and has always had an interest in many topics including the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, miracle plays, mediaeval pottery, Stradivarius, violins, the Buddhism of Ceylon, and the warships of the future.

He kept a collection of agony column clippings and -- what he called -- an index of biographies, about anyone and everyone of note, he must have been a voracious reader to be so well versed in the quotes and languages he used on several occasions.

Sherlock Holmes moved into 221B Baker Street shortly after meeting John Watson. They were introduced by a man that knew both of them were looking for a roommate to share the expense. Holmes lived there from 1881 until 1903.

Holmes solved the mystery cheerlessly.

Many different types. His favorite was not the calabash, as many people assume (it is never mentioned in the books) but rather the long stemmed briar pipe known as a Churchwarden. He is also mentioned using a clay pipe. The pipe he is most commonly depicted with, and that has become synonymous with his name, is however the Calabash.

He preferred to write historical novels. He didn't want Holmes to overshadow those, so he killed him.

Conan Doyle brought him back to life by having Sherlock survive the Reichenbach Falls confrontation, hence the continuing stories of Sherlock Holmes written in the Mystery genre.

Watch the end of the movie. Holmes explains everything to Watson and Morstan, showing how he pretended to be hanged, made Watson believe he was completely dead and broke out of his tomb. It's all very scientific and he takes them through it step by step with examples to boot.

In 1893 After seeing the magnificent Reichenbach Falls in the northern Swiss Alps Conan Doyle decided the place would make a worthy tomb for Sherlock Holmes.

The Adventure of the Final Problem was published in Dec 1893 in The Strand magazine. People were so upset that many thousands cancelled their subscription to the magazine.

In 1901 Sherlock Holmes reappeared in The Hound of the Baskervilles. However it clear that Holmes was not alive. This story took place before the incident at Reichenbach Falls.

Later Holmes really was brought back to life in 'The Adventure of the Empty House' published in 1903.

So he never really 'died'

In 1893 he would have been 39 years old

Sherlock Holmes was in four novels and 56 short stories. The first two short novels appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. All of the following stories were printed in The Strand Magazine.

Dr. Grimesby Roylott trains his snake to climb down a false bell pull to bit Julia Stoner in her sleep. So, while the snake's poison kills Julia Stoner, it is widely held that Dr. Roylott is her murderer.

-Major Spoiler-

At the end of the story, Holmes remarks that he feels no guilt for HIS responsibility in turning the snake on Dr. Roylott. This epitomizes the notion in detective fiction that poetic justice is justice. (Roylott dies at the wrong end of his own tactics)

Sir Charles Baskerville and Selden, an escaped convict who is killed by mistake because the murderer thinks he is Sir Henry Baskerville.

If you believe the curse, Hugo Baskerville (circa 1650) and the maiden he kidnapped are also victims.

Holmes said John Clay was the fourth (and possibly the third) smartest man in London, that he was at the head of his profession, that he had an ingenious mind, and that he was one of the coolest and most daring criminals in London. Holmes twice mentioned he had previous dealings with Clay and that they were unsettled. Based on all of these comments, Clay may have been one of the three men who had beaten Holmes early in his career.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 Sherlock Holmes story's including 4 novels and 56 short stories.

John H Watson MD had a Doctor of Medicine degree, was a medical (general practice) doctor, and was retired on disability from the British Army.

Sherlock Holmes used a seven percent solution of cocaine quite often. And there is a questionable mention of opium use I discovered while reading the "The man with the twisted lip". Holmes was prescribed morphine by a physician after being wounded in "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client."

"You look like a general who's planning a battle with his chief of the staff."

Over the green squares of the fields and the low curve of a wood there rose in the distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and vague in the distance, like some fantastic landscape in a dream.

A steep curve of heath-clad land, an outlying spur of the moor, lay in front of us. On the summit, hard and clear like an equestrian statue upon its pedestal, was a mounted soldier, dark and stern, his rifle poised ready over his forearm.

Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking this fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out.

Baskerville shuddered as he looked up the long, dark drive to where the house glimmered like a ghost at the farther end.

Sherlock is smart and perfect. Watson is kindly but not as smart.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created his character Sherlock Holmes modelling him after his teacher in the Edinburgh Medical School, Dr. Joseph Bell. So this character was created out of the elements and faculties of observation, logic, deduction and diagnosis. Dr.Watson was a shadow of Doyle's past inner self from the student days, created as an unpolished rock against which the razor of Holmes' logic could be sharpened. Holmes is pictured as a very detached and reserved person whereas Watson is kind, humane, emotional and social. Watson is not at all a fool or unclever, but he certainly can not raise himself above earthly cares whereas Holmes can abandon food and rest for days if necessary, when he is engaged in a mind blowing puzzle the solving of which needs him being just a weight of nerves. Watson is straight forward and simple and just can not enter the mind of a criminal as his famous companion does. Nor can he invent ingeneous tricks like Holmes to trap adversaries.

When conan doyle was studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh he met a Dr Joseph Bell who was one of his professors. After 2 years at the school Doyle was chosen by Bell to assist him on his wards and it was through watching how Bell had an amazing ability to detect Information about a patient such as how they walked, whether they had tattoos, their accent, physical appearance etc... that holmes`s character would later be based. As well as being amazingly intuitive Bell was physically tall, thin, had an angular well defined face and very distinctive walk.

They needed to get Wilson out of his shop. That would allow them to do the digging that was required. So they came up with a mindless time consuming job that would allow them to keep him busy and out of their way.

Sherlock

To quote the chairman of directors, Mr. Merryweather, "We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources, and borrowed, for that purpose." A considerable temptation for a robbery.

There are a few suspicious details that Mr. Wilson fails to recognize when he gets his interview for the position at the red-headed league. Wilson's new assistant, Vincent Spaulding, was willing to work for half the normal wage. Spaulding was also the one who found the advertisement in the newspaper, and he practically pushed Wilson all the way to the front of the application line whereupon Wilson was promptly led in to the interview.

Three gilt balls and a brown board with "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street and then down again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up to the door and knocked.

Sherlock Holmes was a skilled violinist and was learned in the Oriental defense art of baritsu, which is actually a fictional martial art but related to judo, I believe. He was interested in chemistry, and frequently dabbled with poisons and acids and anything he needed to fulfill experiments. According to Dr. Watson, he was an excellent singlestick player (one-handed fencing stick), boxer, and swordsman. He also spoke French quite a lot in his sentences, so odds are he was able to speak it fluently. Then there is the obvious interest in crime and sensational happenings.

A Sherlock Holmes story titled 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box' was contained in The Strand Magazine (January 1893); however, it was subsequently banned (by Conan Doyle himself) until 1917 though it did appear in unauthorized American books before that time. The reason given for the ban was the elicit (for the Victorian era) adultery portrayed in the story. When it did reappear it was, and still is, typically placed in the collected short stories titled 'His Last Bow' rather than in its original order in 'The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.' Another anomaly in this tale is that the so-called mind-reading incident at the beginning of the story was transplanted to 'The Resident Patient,' and it remains in both stories (American version only).