Sherlock Holmes

In the wake of Sherlock Holmes' passing, the world mourned the loss of the greatest detective it had ever known! Dr. John Watson, his steadfast companion and chronicler, found himself at a loss without his dear friend. Yet, life moved forward, albeit with a palpable absence in the world of crime-solving.

Years passed, and the legend of Sherlock Holmes only grew, his name becoming synonymous with deductive brilliance and unparalleled ingenuity! Watson, too, continued to write, penning numerous accounts of their adventures together, ensuring that the memory of Holmes would live on for generations to come!

As time marched on, new mysteries arose, and the world found itself longing for the keen intellect of Sherlock Holmes once more. Yet, he was gone, leaving behind only the echoes of his brilliance in the annals of history.

And so, the spirit of Sherlock Holmes lived on, not just in memory, but in the indomitable spirit of those who followed in his footsteps. For as long as there were mysteries to solve and crimes to thwart, the legacy of Sherlock Holmes would endure, a testament to the enduring power of deduction and the insatiable human thirst for truth!

Sherlock Holmes was born in 1854, which makes him 60 years old in the story "His Last Bow," set in August 1914. The story doesn't talk about his parents, but Holmes says his ancestors were local landowners. In another story, "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter," he mentions that his grandmother was related to a famous French artist named Vernet, but doesn't say exactly which one. Holmes has an older brother, Mycroft, who is seven years older and works for the government. Mycroft is very smart and knows a lot about government matters, but he doesn't like to do fieldwork and prefers to stay at his club, the Diogenes Club. Sherlock thinks Mycroft is smarter than he is, but Mycroft doesn't do detective work.

Edgar Allan Poe created the first detective character in fiction, C. Auguste Dupin, who inspired many others, including Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle, the author of the Holmes stories, acknowledged Poe's influence, saying Poe started the whole genre of detective fiction. Before Doyle wrote about Holmes, another detective character, Monsieur Lecoq, by Émile Gaboriau, was also popular and influenced the creation of Holmes. In the book "A Study in Scarlet," when Watson first meets Holmes, he tries to praise Holmes by comparing him to Dupin. However, Holmes doesn't think highly of Dupin, calling him inferior, and he calls Lecoq a failure.

Conan Doyle was inspired to create Sherlock Holmes by a real person, Joseph Bell, a surgeon he met in 1877 while working as a clerk at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Like Holmes, Bell was known for drawing a big conclusions from small observations. Bell even told Conan Doyle that Doyle himself was the real Sherlock Holmes. Another inspiration for Holmes was Sir Henry Littlejohn, who taught medical law at the University of Edinburgh and worked as a police surgeon. Littlejohn showed Conan Doyle how medical skills could help solve crimes.

There are suggestions of other influences on Sherlock Holmes that Conan Doyle never confirmed. For example, a character called Maximilien Heller, from an 1871 French novel by Henry Cauvain, was a detective who was also a depressed, anti-social polymath and used opium, much like Holmes. The novel was set in Paris, and it's possible that Conan Doyle could have read it because he knew French well. Another theory by Michael Harrison proposes that Holmes could have been modeled after a German "consulting detective" named Walter Scherer. However, there's no solid proof that Doyle used these characters as direct inspirations for Holmes.

In "A Study in Scarlet," Holmes and Watson become roommates at 221B Baker Street in London because they need to save money. Mrs. Hudson is their landlady and takes care of the place. Holmes has been a detective for 23 years, and Watson helps him for 17 of those years. Watson writes about Holmes's cases, which are usually quite fascinating. However, Holmes often says that Watson's stories are more about entertainment than being a true record of his detective work, which Holmes considers a science.

Holmes believes that detective work is a science that should be approached with precision and without emotion. He criticizes Watson's writing in "A Study in Scarlet" for adding romance, comparing it to mixing a love story into a math problem. Holmes thinks that only certain facts should be shared, with a focus on how logical reasoning can solve a case by working backwards from effects to causes. That logical process is the most important part for him!

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