Part 1 (1/2)

The Complete Sherlock Holmes

Volume I

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived an interesting life by any standard As a young shi+p's surgeon he sailed the Arctic in a whaling shi+p, and later he steao vessel In midlife his fame as a writer opened doors all over the world He showed so in a Verhbor, Bernard Shaw, about the titanic titanic He climbed the top of the Great Pyramid in Giza, and lectured the deacons in the Great Mormon Tabernacle in Utah As a champion of spiritualism he proclaimed that a pharaoh's curse could indeed have caused the death of Lord Carnarvon, the patron of the Tutankhaatha Christie, who had mysteriously disappeared, would show up safe and sound because a psychic to whohted by King Edward VII for writing a pa the British cause in the Boer War He wrote what he thought were important historical novels in the h theh, all these events have a chance to be rearded as ”a lower stratum of literary achievement,” his peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes

Holmes has become as famous as any character in literature His name is synonymous with brilliant deduction Call someone ”Sherlock” and everyone knohat you mean The stories have been in print continuously since the time the first one, A Study in Scarlet A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887 In addition Hol character in hundreds of plays, films, and television shows He made his debut in fil the stories Long before Basil Rath-bone and Nigel Bruce created their memorable roles of Holmes and Watson in films of the late 1930s and the 1940s, the celebrated sleuth had already been played by a host of actors on stage and screen The stories continue to be filmed today You have probably seen one of the excellent Granada Television episodes with Jere this book

Sherlock Holination that he is no longer moored to the books in which he first appeared Not satisfied by the fifty-six short stories and four novellas of the Hol cases Dr Watson hadSoon they constructed new episodes for the h many films have been scrupulously true to the plots of the stories, so Sherlock Hol Sherlock Holmes (1985), which invented a childhood for the detective In it Hol school where Professor Moriarty, Hol teacher It also introduces a love interest for Holirl whose death at the hands of Moriarty, who turns into a deadly foe, explains why Hol kind (1985), which invented a childhood for the detective In it Hol school where Professor Moriarty, Hol teacher It also introduces a love interest for Holirl whose death at the hands of Moriarty, who turns into a deadly foe, explains why Hol kind The Seven-Per-Cent Solution The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) sends Holmund Freud, who traces Holmes's obsession with Moriarty to a repressed memory of his mother in the ar of the stories, and certainly the mund Freud, who traces Holmes's obsession with Moriarty to a repressed memory of his mother in the ar of the stories, and certainly the , Without a Clue Without a Clue (1988) reveals that Watson was the real detective genius and that Holmes was his fictional creation; when the public clamored to meet Holmes, Watson hired a dim-witted actor to play the role (1988) reveals that Watson was the real detective genius and that Holmes was his fictional creation; when the public clamored to meet Holmes, Watson hired a dim-witted actor to play the role

So powerful is the Holential connections attract viewers In 2000 and 2002 the Public Broadcasting System aired a joint British-American series of mysteries that featured Conan Doyle and his teacher, Dr Joseph Bell, on who crimes in the innings of Sherlock Hols of Sherlock Holmes, the episodes weave incidents from Conan Doyle's life into fictional plots that foreshadow the great stories to come But clearly the draw for the series is the name of the iin? While the springs of creation are always ultimately mysterious, they are never entirely hidden As with everysources, as with raphical

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859 He was a healthy, athletic lad, who appeared to have a happy childhood He grew up in a middle-class family with a keen sense of its place in society and history His farandfather, John Doyle, like ifted Irishmen, had moved to London, where he made his name as a political cartoonist His four sons all became artists of one sort or another Conan Doyle's Uncle Richard knew dickens; a warreat novelist survives in the family archives Richard was also a friend of William Thackeray, whose works he had illustrated The author of Vanity Fair Vanity Fair once bounced young Arthur on his knee while paying a visit to Conan Doyle's father, Charles, orked as a young architect in the Government Office of Works He carried on the fa in his spare tie, traced her descent back to the Plantagenets on one side and Sir Walter Scott on the other, both sources of considerable pride Arthur Conan Doyle grew up in a stable society orth valuing Nothing in his early life gave hireat detective would one day uphold the values of this social order, acting as aArthur on his knee while paying a visit to Conan Doyle's father, Charles, orked as a young architect in the Government Office of Works He carried on the fa in his spare tie, traced her descent back to the Plantagenets on one side and Sir Walter Scott on the other, both sources of considerable pride Arthur Conan Doyle grew up in a stable society orth valuing Nothing in his early life gave hireat detective would one day uphold the values of this social order, acting as a ood education His thorough knowledge of both ancient andthe Hol schools, where he initially rebelled against their harsh discipline, as well as the dullness of his studies His outlook changed when he discovered the essays of English historian and poet Thoh hardly anyone reads Macaulay today, he was immensely influential in the nineteenth century Conan Doyle was entranced by his language and his sharp, colorful pronouncements Macaulay made history a source of wonder and roetic believer in the superiority of British life It is not as if there weren't a thousand springs fro British boy could drink in this notion, but Macaulay supplied a river of it to Conan Doyle He carried a volume of the essays around with hi Macaulay had influenced hiraduation fro school, it was time to choose a career Since it appeared that Conan Doyle did not inherit the faenes, he decided on a career in h that he met the two men ould have the most influence on his conception of Holeon Dr Joseph Bell; Conan Doyle later claiularly a facts about his patients from minute observations of their appearance and behavior Conan Doyle's autobiography, Memories and Adventures Me”), lists only one example of the doctor's deductive powers (see ”For Further Reading”), lists only one example of the doctor's deductive powers

In one of his best cases he said to a civilian patient: 'Well,discharged?' 'No, Sir' 'A Highland regiment?' 'Aye, Sir' 'A non-com officer?' 'Aye, Sir' 'Stationed at Barbados?' 'Aye, Sir' 'You see, gentlemen,' he would explain, 'the man was a respectful man but did not remove his hat They do not in the ar discharged He has an air of authority and he is obviously Scottish As to Barbados, his complaint is Elephantiasis, which is West Indian, and not British' (p 330)

That could well be Sherlock Hol a visitor at 221B Baker Street Bell's reasoning powersan impression on Conan Doyle that he turned to those memories when he decided to write a detective novel When the first twelve stories were published in book form as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Adventures of Sherlock Holht dedicate them to hiratulate Conan Doyle on ”your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Hol troubles me: can this be my old friend Joe Bell?”

Dr Bell wasn't the only e Budd, a fellow by team Brilliant but mercurial, Budd could talk expansively on subject after subject, then lapse into moody silence The life of the party at one moment, he could turn violent the next The tere friends at medical school, but they lost track of one another when Budd raduation in 1881 In 1882, after Conan Doyle had spent soraduate tiland, to start a practice there

Budd hadevery rule of ainst walls, cursed others, told many they ate too much, drank too much, and slept tooto an anxious clutch in the waiting roo to spend the day in the country Despite this bizarre behavior, or perhaps because of it, his consulting services were enor reason was that he charged no fee for his diagnoses It was no coincidence, however, that Budd prescribed medicine for every patient Their pills could be conveniently purchased down the hall, where Mrs Budd typed up the labels for the bottles and took the patients' money Budd earned a fortune from this dubious practice He made a point each day on his way to the bank to carry his earnings in a big bag through the doctors' quarter of the city, jingling it as he went, just to rankle his fellow practitioners He was convinced that the rules of etic doctors subservient to their elders

Conan Doyle was both appalled and amused by this display When Budd offered to take him on as an assistant, however, he accepted Budd furnished Conan Doyle with a consulting room in his clinic, then flooded hiestion was to start a novel that very day Although he had already published one short story, Conan Doyle hadn't considered writing anything as ambitious as a novel But because he had no patients as yet and thus plenty of tiave it a try

There is no evidence that Sherlock Holmes was born out of this circu e of interests, and blackelse essential that runs throughout Conan Doyle's work Through Budd, Conan Doyle experienced deception and betrayal for the first time Of course Conan Doyle knew, as we all do, that people can lie and turn against former friends, but it makes a different and certainly deeper impression when it happens to you personally It ca his time in Budd's clinic, Conan Doyle'sher displeasure at his involvement with Budd, whom she considered an unscrupulous character Budd apparently read thee, and developed a bitter resentainst his friend At so because of Conan Doyle As Conan Doyle, unlike Budd, really was a man of honor, he immediately went to his office door with a hammer and pulled off his nameplate

This display of character softened Budd's resentment, at least for a while He proposed to lend Conan Doyle a pound a week to help him set up a practice in Portsmouth Once Conan Doyle ed on the pay what he considered slanderous passages from a letter of Conan Doyle's mother, which he clairate This kind of back-stabbing carried on under his roof was a betrayal he couldn't forgive, said Budd He would have nothing more to do with Conan Doyle

Conan Doyle was stunned Upon thinking it over, he couldn't reh his pockets he found the very one fro andhis mail surreptitiously He wrote back to say he had seen through the cluree her low opinion of Budd He assured Budd that any attempt to har uise and dress of asubhuht that I was powerless against it” (The Stark Munro Letters, p 271) He was also powerless to explain it Whenever he depicts some descent into the abyss of vice, it is inevitably without any insight into how a soul makes such a journey: It is always taken as merely a fact of existence

It was a few years later, in 1886, after he had set up a mildly profitable medical practice of his own, that Conan Doyle first turned to the idea of a detective novel In addition to his Edinburgh models, Sherlock Holmes had literary sources, too Conan Doyle had read and adar Allan Poe, the creator of the genre, as well as the detective novels of e criuste Dupin, and the stories have a structure re to either of those Parisian detectives And ulti

Just what is it about Sherlock Hol? It's easy to see soence, his self-assurance, hisWe are also attracted by Holmes's sense of humor From the very first Holmes not only sprinkles the stories with his dry retorts and ironic asides, he also laughs, chuckles, s way toward hu it easier to feel affection for a character whose abilities could well make him seem more machine than human

His eccentricities add to his appeal An unwritten rule says that every commentator must mention the tobacco he keeps in the toe end of his Persian slipper, the cigars he keeps in a coal-shuttle, and the unanswered correspondence he transfixes by a jack-knife into the very center of his wooden mantelpiece But his odd qualities extend further than these surface details They are really only shallow tricks that add some local color, perhaps, to his characterization, but reveal little about his character More revealing of just how truly eccentric he is are the passions central to his o in their service

Devoting his life to fighting crime, for instance, is surely unusual With his skills and connections, one would think he could have had his choice of careers What sort of person dedicates hi people who cole to conclude that someone who feels this need must have suffered some sort of injustice as a child As we can never knohat this sad event e can only speculate, and many have Whatever it was, it has made Holmes a moralist It is not the law that he upholds, but his own conception of justice Several times he substitutes this conception for the letter of British law by letting souilty of a crime Several other ti about sos we adness to become the final arbiter of justice entleland that the word i On one occasion he disguises hiar, on another as an opium addict, and, most iuises help hiet to the truth, we think of them, if we think of the ones, for solving crihast at seeing a fellow they knew sauntering forth in a frock and a wig, or holed up in an opiu and unco them for alms Yet Holmes not only befriends such boys, he enlists theulars,” he also seems to feel affection and sympathy for the to an external set of shared beliefs Holht think of his actions, so long as those actions help hi criminals to their just deserts His self-worth co up to his own moral code

Holmes's attitude toward class distinctions is also unusual for his time, and ments about people arise from the content of their characters, not from the color of their coats of arms He shows the most respect for characters who display loyalty to soe Irene Adler in ”A Scandal in Bohemia,” Grant Munro in the ”The Yellow Face,” and Captain Jack Crocker in ”The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” all gain his respect because they show these qualities It's surely significant that none of those characters are upper class Aristocrats and even royalty usually fare rather less well in his esti of Boheht over the royal head Holmes sternly rebukes Lord Holdernesse in ”The Adventure of the Priory School” as if he were a judge scolding a prisoner in the dock He can scarcely conceal his distaste for Lord Robert St Simon in ”The Adventure of the noble Bachelor,” and we read in ”The Adventure of the Three Garridebs” that he refused an offer of knighthood from Edward VII It isn't that he dislikes these people because of their class He accepts an emerald pin froton Plans,” and he's perfectly gracious to the title farave Ritual” It's that he expects everyone, irrespective of their class, to live up to a common set of human values

Lest he see weaknesses He is wrong fro He is inclined to be critical of the people around hi Watson, when they haven't h standard Soh, since he holds himself to the same standard More important, he is ould call today a manic-depressive He comes alive only when on the trail of crime, but not just any crime It must have some special feature that baffles ordinary mortals When no crime worthy of his skills is currently afoot, he lapses into listlessness, requiring cocaine for stial at the time; these were the 1880s and 1890s, the time of boheas, and the drug-induced estheticish not illicit, this dependency is clearly a character flaw

The sum of all his qualities makes Sherlock Holmes seem like a real person This sense of his reality sets these stories apart fro the illusion of his existence was powerful On October 29, 1892, an article called ”The Real Sherlock Holmes” by ”Our Special Correspondent” appeared in the National Observer National Observer It quoted Sherlock Holiarized Dr Watson Holnation at Conan Doyle's misrepresentations of some of his cases He didn't make any of those little azine Strand Magazine, which published all the short stories, received letters wanting to know if Holily replied that it had not made his personal acquaintance but would certainly call upon hiated

Even after it ell known that Holmes was a fictional creation, a curious phenomenon developed that has no other parallel in literature It has becoood-humored convention for Holmes scholars to treat the stories as historical events and the protagonists as real figures Conan Doyle is often referred to as the literary agent for Dr John H Watson Several biographies have been written about Holet mail addressed to him In October 2002 the Royal Society of Chemistry in Britain awarded an Honorary Fellowshi+p to Sherlock Holmes, its first fictional inductee, on the hundredth anniversary of his co out of retirement to solve the case of The Hound of the Baskervilles The Hound of the Baskervilles

In addition to his own characteristics, Holmes is popular for other reasons The plots and the at the Hol London has made countless readers feel they know the city The inclusion of so many accurate details from daily life in the city-from train stations and schedules, concert series, real-life perforave conte an account from the newspapers The inclusion of thens the sense that we are reading a personal memoir The stories were also initially popular because of the novelty of the scientificwe can't help but take for granted now

Hol his exploits narrated by an adood Dr Watson provides not only a contrast as the Everyman to Holmes's Superman, he also perfectly embodies the British ht the model for Holmes's friend and chronicler Like Watson, Conan Doyle was a doctor Also like Watson, e learn was a rugby player in his youth, Conan Doyle was an avid footballer He was also a boxer, cricket player, and golfer He was an all-round sportsman, and like other sportsmen, then and now, he had an uncomplicated attitude toward the world Conan Doyle was like Watson in another way that's scarcely believable except for the testi to Hesketh Pearson he was apparently as little likely to deduce so about you as Watson was (Conan Doyle: His Life and Art, pp 183-184) The obvious difference between Conan Doyle and Watson is that Watson did not have the capacity to invent a character like Sherlock Holrateful that Arthur Conan Doyle did, and that he used that capacity to enrich our i a hero who reassures us that even thees us to use our powers of observation

If you are reading these stories for the first ti your acquaintance with thee you, as other editors of these stories have urged their readers beforeroom at 221B Baker Street, where you ainst the Master's Co essay after you've finished We'll have much to talk about