Without a doubt one of the most famous detectives of all times is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes first appeared in print in 1887 and is generally accepted to appear in 56 short stories and four novels. Many of the stories appeared in Strand magazine and were illustrated by Sidney Paget. Strand thought they were commissioning his brother Walter for the art and ironically Walter became the model for Holmes.
Conan Doyle is thought to have based his creation on Doctor Joseph Bell one of his teachers at the University of Edinburgh. All but four of the stories are narrated by Watson. Sherlock Holmes became for Conan Doyle the fulfillment of the old curse of "be careful what you wish for." He became so sick of his character that he "killed" him off only to resurrect him later when the lure of money became to great.
The four novels are A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, Valley of Fear, and probably the most famous of all The Hound of the Baskervilles.
I think everyone has their favorite Sherlock Holmes story. I think mine is A Scandal in Bohemia where Holmes is defeated by Irene Adler.
I think what made Homes so unique as a character is that he is so unlikable. He is rude, drug addled at times, egotistic, and condescending. In fact if it wasn't for Watson I think many people would have been totally turned off by the character. I think the fact that the four stories that were not narrated by Watson come off as boring is a tribute to how important the character is.
I rarely watch any of the Sherlock Holmes movies. The only ones I watched faithfully were the PBS ones with the late Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Those adaptations did not try to make a buffoon out of Watson. I think that the stories themselves would have been boring if we did not have the character of Watson. Sherlock Holmes himself was really irritating as a character. He was almost a caricature rather then a character. Without the humanizing presence of Watson the stories would be unreadable. In the couple of stories where Watson did not appear the stories lack the spark of humanity.
I think the genius that is Watson is the fact that he wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes. He was a man who often led with his heart rather then his head. He really seemed to care about the people who asked for help. Holmes was not someone you could warm up to. He was a computer in an age before computers were even thought of. You put data in and he spewed results out.
Watson was a man who could fall head over heels in love with a client. He was a man who stopped what he was doing to be a doctor and care for a patient. He was a man with flaws who admitted them and went on with his life. He was a man who would never descend to taking cocaine because he was bored and needed artificial stimulation.
Sherlock Holmes was a character that has been often imitated but never improved on. The detective field would have been greatly diminished if he did not exist.
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