Sherlock Holmes

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).

The Baskerville family tree in the Hound of the Baskervilles include Jack Stapleton, son of Rodger Baskerville II, Hugo Baskerville, Henry Baskerville, and Charles Baskerville. Also in the family tree are Beryl Stapleton, wife of Jack Stapleton.

If you every read the story, you should recall about a ventilator so small that a rat might not be able to pass through it, the dummy bell rope that was hooked onto the ventilator, and the bed which was clamped down to the floor. The bell rope could also lay on top of the pillow. These are some of the clues that led to the conclusion of the mystery in ''The Speckled Band''.

{| |- | The first two short novels appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. The majority of the following stories were published in The Strand Magazine. When he 'killed off' Sherlock at the Falls, many people cancelled their subscriptions. He was pretty much forced to explain away the death and bring him back to life. |}

It is a Sherlock Holmes story

written by Arthur Conan Doyle

The great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, described himself as the world's first Consulting Detective.

"Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is." -- Sherlock Holmes, 'A Study In Scarlet'

Sir Henry Baskerville - The late Sir Charles's nephew and closest living relative. Sir Henry is hale and hearty, described as "a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built." By the end of the story, Henry is as worn out and shell-shocked as his late uncle was before his death.

Dr. John H. Watson, MD

His full middle name is unknown, though due to his wife at one point addressing him as 'James' it has been theorized that his middle name is Hamish (Scottish for James) but this is mostly looked upon as a typo.

He described himself as the world's first consulting detective.

correction he described himself as the world's only consulting detective.

'. . . That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.'

'The only unofficial detective?' I said, raising my eyebrows.

'The only unofficial consulting detective,` he answered.

-- 'The Sign of Four'

Please check the link below.

Because that was when mystery books written the way Sherlock Holmes is were flourishing. People enjoyed reading Sherlock back in England because that's the way people spoke back then.

In Victorian times, England was colonising and prospering abroad. Her ships brought back not only wealth but also new information. Like in the Renaissance times in Italy, science commenced to stir in England. People very much liked Holmes stories, which had a rich and thought-provoking scientific background. After a lonely Jules Verne, England and the world was looking for the right person to appear with works that could satisfy their new appetites. Moreover, the appearance of a detached, intelligent and lofty character of integrity and English reserve on the literature scene pleased the public. That was why Sherlock Holmes was popular in the Victorian times and continues to be so since then.

The createspace version has 114 pages. It was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the book that introduces the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson characters.