The violin-playing, smoke-stack that is Sherlock Holmes was introduced in 1887 in The Study in Scarlet which spurred a world-wide fervor for the people at that time. No one, besides Edgar Allan Poe with his creation of C. Auguste Dupin (which was part of the inspiration for Holmes' creator), had ever written of such an ingenious detective. In 1887, a doctor by the name of Arthur Doyle was struggling with his practice and found that he had some time to kill, so he had written some detective stories (note that this was around the ballpark of 1887, sometime before he wrote Scarlet). Now the curious beginnings of Holmes are quite fascinating, even some of the myths of the fictional detective have been set in stone are quite curious, too.
Most know the story now, with the newly released sequel of Sherlock Holmes (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) entitled Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows as a sort of catalyst to the researcher and reader of the stories, Doyle had attended Edinburgh University and one of his instructors was a brilliant doctor by the name of Joseph Bell, who was much like Holmes in every way. Bell was the physician to Queen Victoria, so he was, needless to say, quite renowned for his medical practices, but he wasn't only renowned for his way around the medical table, but he was famed for his role as a diagnostician (which helped when he was researching a particular case in a borough in London in 1888, although the murderer was never brought to justice, and that case was the case of Jack the Ripper). Bell could deduce from a person's appearance their habits, their maladies, even their occupation, just through pure observation and careful notes. His brilliance enthralled the young Doyle and he thought that it was fitting to put those characteristics of deduction into the character of Sherlock Holmes (who was originally called Sherringford Hope, I believe, but I may be wrong) and cast himself as Holmes' Boswell (as Holmes alludes to on occasions in the stories), Doctor Watson (who was originally called Ormond Sacker, I think, but, I very well could be wrong with this one, too). Anyway, after Doyle created the inquisitive and ingenious detective, the public would entrust Doyle to write them for years to come, no matter what.
When it came to the the winter of 1893, however, Doyle, much like Poirot's creator Agatha Christie became years later, was absolutely fed up with Holmes. After he had been with Holmes nearly a decade, and writing countless amounts of short stories and some novels, Doyle killed off the world's favorite fictional detective in a deathly battle with Holmes' nemesis, the unscrupulous Professor James Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Even though it was a great weight off of Doyle's shoulders, and just when he was preparing to set off in a new direction with the brutish character of Professor Challenger (which would later inspire the Jurassic Park movies), the public was absolutely outraged that Sherlock Holmes was "dead and gone" (that is only the approximate quote from Doyle, not the absolute exact quote). Doyle, quite reluctantly, put pen to paper, once again, and penned Holmes' next adventure explaining his "death" in 1903, nearly ten years after his fall, in the short story "The Adventure of the Empty House." I quite enjoy this story mainly because of Watson's reaction to Holmes' triumphant return (because Holmes is, at first, disguised as an aged bookseller). After he sheds his disguise, Watson turns around to see the gaunt and aquiline figure of Holmes and Watson faints on the spot.
After Holmes' return, Doyle was roped into doing more stories about the detective, calculating a grand total of fifty-six short stories and four novels, I believe. Even though Doyle went on to write more stories about the Boer War and more Professor Challenger stories, Doyle and his brainchild of Sherlock Holmes, the great monster of a character that Doyle created on pure whim, would be etched on the panels of history as the greatest fictional character that had ever graced the pages of literature.
Since, Doyle created Holmes there has also been a singular illustrator that has become quite famous for creating the look that Doyle never meant to create for his character. There is a particular story that involves the illustration process at that time. Doyle had sent a letter to a famous illustrator by the name of Walter Paget to become the illustrator to the famous detective's stories, but, merely by chance, his brother, Sidney, opened the letter instead, and took the job as the illustrator for the Strand Magazine's Sherlock Holmes Stories. Paget used his brother's aquiline features for partial inspiration for the great detective, but there is one detail that Paget created that shall forever immortalize the silhouette of the detective. In the story entitled "Silver Blaze" (which is actually the first Sherlock Holmes story I had ever read) there is a moment that Paget illustrates in which Holmes and Watson travel to the country to investigate a case. In that opportune moment, Paget illustrates Holmes wearing what is widely considered the stereotypical uniform for the detective: an Inverness cape and a deerstalker cap. Although it was simply a couple of fine strokes of the pen, it has forever set in stone the fine silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.
Now, I know that I shall only ramble on and on about the finer details of the Holmes stories, in short, I have read the stories ever since I was a young kid, so I take great joy in researching about Doyle and Holmes. So, I found it fitting that the final detective in this series should be the grandest detective of all, Mister Sherlock Holmes and his incredible creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Notes: This was drawn with a dip pen with waterproof ink and a fine point pen to create the sort of haggard and bohemian appearance of Holmes. Thanks for enduring the rambling.
Truly brilliant, brother.
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