Doyle Arthur Conan - Sherlock Holmes FAQ: all thats left to know about the worlds greatest private detective

Copyright 2013 by Dave Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2013 by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books

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The FAQ series was conceived by Robert Rodriguez and developed with Stuart Shea.

All Photographs are from the authors collection unless otherwise indicated.

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Snow Creative Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thompson, Dave, 1960 January 3
Sherlock Holmes FAQ : all thats left to know about the worlds greatest private detective / Dave Thompson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4803-3149-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Doyle, Arthur Conan, 18591930CharactersSherlock Holmes. 2. Holmes, Sherlock--Miscellanea. 3. Sherlock Holmes films. 4. Sherlock Holmes television programs. I. Title.
PR4624.T44 2014
823.8dc23
2013041890

www.applausebooks.com

To Mick Farren, who solved every mystery life flung at him.
Thanks for Willys Rats!

Contents

In which we meet the Family, despair of the Youth, and investigate the Greatest Mystery of them all. Do we call him Arthur Conan? Or Mr. Conan Doyle?

In which the Vagaries of Indecision cast our Hero to at least a few of the Seven Seas, before embroiling him in the Easily Solved Adventure of the Syphilitic Sailors

In which an American author, a Scottish Surgeon, a French Thief-taker and a Veritable Shelf of Adventurous Fiction conspire to birth an Immortal Legend

In which we Investigate the Holmesian Home, are Introduced to its Residents, and Wonder why we have Suddenly been Banished to Utah

In which Holmes gets High, Watson gets Married, and London becomes a Character in Her own Right

In which we Discover The Strand , Marvel at the Illustrated Police News , and Investigate a few of Londons own Mysteries

In which we revisit the Twelve Stories that Constitute Watsons first Book of Memoirs, commencing with the Singular Saga of A Scandal in Bohemia

In which Conan Doyle composes his Second Series of Short Stories, we Reveal the Truth about Holmess Most Beloved Catch-Phrase, and the Author arrives at a Most Singular Determination

In which we meet Moriarty, Tumble off a Waterfall and Investigate the Adventure of the Final Problem

In which the Sleuth goes to the Theater, the Author goes to War, and Sherlock Holmes... Well, maybe he wasnt Quite as Dead as he Claimed to Be

In which we learn that Rumors of Holmess Demise were Somewhat Exaggerated, and are Invited to Thrill once more to the Old Curmudgeons Feats of Intellectual Gymnastics

In which Conan Doyle is Widowed, Holmes bestrides the silver screen, and we Begin to Suspect that the Business about Beekeeping was all a Bunch of Malarkey

In which Conan Doyle Publishes his Fourth and Final Sherlock Holmes Novel, while Contemplating Anew the Possibility of Doing Away with the Detective Altogether

In which Doctor Watson Unearths some Musty Old Files, Conan Doyle Conjures some Musty Old Spirits, and we Bid Farewell to the Great Detective

In which we ask Who was the Greatest Holmes of all, and put a few Watsons under the Microscope, too

In which we Consider what might have Happened had Sherlock Holmes not Existed until Today

In which we Spend several weeks Glued to the Television Screen and develop Carpal Tunnel from Constant Manipulation of the Remote Control

In which we pop round to 221b, ring the Doorbell... and Nobody answers. Is there Someone else we could call instead?

In which Conan Doyle Dies, then Comes Back from the Grave, and we meet Harry Price, perhaps the One Man in England Qualified to Determine whether the Old Boys Ghost was Really Walking

Thank you to everyone who lent a hand, offered an opinion, or threw in an utterly unreasonable demand as I wrote this book, but especially to Amy Hanson, for her tireless championing of Peter Cushings BBC Holmes, and permission to quote from her extensive knowledge of Ripperana; to Chrissie Bentley, for introducing me to Ambrose Horne; to Vincent ONeil, for sharing his thoughts on Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Price; and to Chloe Mortensen, for reminding me that Moriarty is not quite as bad as he is painted. Well, not always.

To John Cerullo, Marybeth Keating, Jaime Nelson, and Angela Arcese for bringing the project to life.

And finally, to all the other people who threw something strange into the casebook, even if it was just bad jokes. Karen and Todd, Linda and Larry, Betsy and Steve, Jo-Ann Greene, Jen, Dave and Sue, Gaye and Tim, everyone at Captain Blue Hen in Newark, Oliver, Trevor, Toby, Barb East, Bateerz and family, the Gremlins who live in the heat pump, and John the Superstar, the demon of the dry well.

There are probably as many books about Sherlock Holmes as there are words in all of the stories. Or at least different words.

That may be an exaggeration, but only marginally. There is no single character in western fiction who has inspired more authors to write about him than Sherlock Holmes, with even James Bond and Doctor Whothe two that come closestlagging far, far behind in terms of simple shelf filling. A complete Sherlock Holmes bibliography could fill a small library, a vision that is made all the more remarkable when one considers that the original stories that inspired this phenomenal outpouring would take up barely six inches of shelf space.

Just four novels and fifty-six short stories constitute the complete adventures of Sherlock Holmes. To this there can be added a dozen or so other writings by Sherlock Holmess creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, whose inclusion in, or exclusion from, the canon (as the primary series of tales is known) has fired a debate that might never end. But they would add no more than another inch of published paper, tucked away in a room that is already stuffed with so many other books that it would take a lifetime to read them all. Never, one might say, has so little given birth to so much.

Neither does this outpouring look like it is ending. The massive success of Sherlock , the BBCs twenty-first-century reimagining of Holmes has inspired a whole new generation of writers and researchers to immerse themselves in the world of Holmes, and an older one to reacquaint themselves. Indeed, one of the most popular fiction serials of the modern age, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs Agent Pendergast, closed 2013 with the publication of White Fire , a thoroughly modern detective tale rooted in a near century-old Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Sherlocks triumph, however, transcends all of thesethat triumph itself being defined not by viewing figures (which themselves are massive) or popularity (ditto), but by the skill with which we are invited to enter a world in which the real Sherlock Holmes, the classic Holmes whom we have spent the past century-plus enjoying, never existed. Until today.

The original Holmes was a child of his times, the last years of the Victorian era and the first of the twentieth century. The modern Holmes is likewise a child of his times, the first decades of the twenty-first century. That is, more than one hundred years after Conan Doyles original stalked the streets, the intervening century has shaped the modern Holmes just as thoroughly as the prototype was shaped by the years that preceded him. Culture creates the heroes it requires. Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes fit his era like a glove. British writers and TV creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatisss is equally well proportioned.