Famous characters: Sherlock Holmes. The character of Sherlock Holmes: appearance, habits, knowledge (Comparative analysis) What Sherlock Holmes looks like description

Sherlock Holmes had a real prototype - Joseph Bell. Conan Doyle met Dr Bell in 1877 at Edinburgh Medical University. Conan Doyle was studying to become a doctor, and Bell was one of his professors. Bell was thirty-nine years old when Conan Doyle first attended one of his lectures. In addition to being a brilliant physician, Bell was also an amateur poet, sportsman and birdwatcher. Towards the end of Conan Doyle's second year, Bell chose him as an assistant in his ward. This gave Conan Doyle the opportunity to see Dr. Bell's remarkable ability to quickly draw conclusions about a patient.

Watson describes Holmes as "bohemian" in habits and lifestyle (bohemianism is a lifestyle typical of people involved in music, art and literature).

According to Watson, Holmes is eccentric, oblivious to modern standards of cleanliness and good order.

Holmes is tall and thin, claiming to be 6 feet tall, but his friend Watson claims he is taller than 6 feet. He has black hair and gray eyes, thin lips and a hawk nose. Holmes has a harsh voice. Although Holmes has never trained for fun, he is always fit and ready for the action that occurs in the stories, and is ready to see off his attackers with boxing or baritsu, a form of martial art. He is also proficient in fencing and fencing.

Holmes goes to bed late and gets up just as late. He is a smoker, and when severe depression hits him, he is unfortunately known to indulge in injecting cocaine with a 7% solution. Watson tried many times to stop Holmes from continuing this dangerous habit - and once suspected (wrongly) that Holmes had turned to Opium. Holmes is scrupulously clean and always neatly dressed, rarely wearing a deerstalker cap. Holmes is known for his energetic approach to solving cases that are brought before him by many people, from many walks of life - from the lowest to the highest on earth, but when he is not involved in a case - he can become lethargic - and fell into the depression mentioned earlier . Holmes is a music lover, attending various concerts and operas, and, of course, he himself is a violinist, preferring German music (according to the Chamber's Dictionary of Literary Characters, Holmes even owned a Stradivarius violin). Holmes at first glance seems to be an unloving person, but this is not so. He cares deeply for his friends and worries about Watson, especially when Watson's wife dies. As for women, Holmes could never overcome Irene Adler in particular. She will always be a “woman” to him.

In The Musgrave Ritual, Watson describes Holmes as follows:

Although in his methods of thinking he was the most subtle and methodical of all mankind... [he] keeps his cigars in a coal mine, his tobacco in the toe of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence turned over with a jack. a knife into the very center of his wooden mantelpiece... He had a horror of destroying documents... Thus, month after month, his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscripts, which were by no means burnt, and which could not be removed except by their owner.

Sherlock Holmes was a very educated man. He was even a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (as well as real life!). But look at how Dr. Watson describes Sherlock Holmes' abilities in A Study in Scarlet:

Knowledge of literature is zero.

Knowledge of philosophy is zero.

Knowledge of astronomy - zero.

Knowledge of politics is weak.

Knowledge of botany is variable. Good in Belladonna, opium and poisons in general. Knows nothing about practical gardening.

Knowledge of geology is practical but limited. Says at first glance different soils from each other. After walking around he showed me the splashes on his trousers and told me by color and consistency what part of London he got them from.

Knowledge of chemistry is deep knowledge.

Knowledge of anatomy is accurate, but unsystematic.

The knowledge of sensational literature is enormous. He seems to know every detail of every horror committed in the century.

Plays the violin well.

He is an accomplished singles player, boxer, and fencer.

Has a good working knowledge of British law.

Updated: 2019-04-09

Attention!
If you notice an error or typo, highlight the text and click Ctrl+Enter.
By doing so, you will provide invaluable benefit to the project and other readers.

Thank you for your attention.

Errors in the film

Sherlock Holmes is a private detective who does his job for the "love of art." Solving difficult intellectual problems is a kind of drug for him. Without a job, Holmes becomes depressed and may turn to cocaine.

Holmes calls his method of solving crimes deductive. Its essence is taking into account the smallest details, using strict logic and identifying cause-and-effect relationships. The key points of Holmes's work are observation and expert knowledge (he could determine the brand of a cigar from the remains of the ash).

...From one drop of water, a person who knows how to think logically can conclude about the possibility of the existence of the Atlantic Ocean or Niagara Falls, even if he has never seen or heard of either one. Every life is a huge chain of causes and effects, and we can understand its nature one by one...

Initially, Holmes looks like a rather one-sided person, obsessed with his work (the great detective did not know the structure of the solar system). He believed that only specialized knowledge was important. Everything else only prevents a person from being a professional in his field. However, Holmes is good at playing the violin, boxing, and owns different types weapons, understands politics, etc.

...it seems to me that the human brain is like a small empty attic that you can furnish as you please. A fool will drag in there all the junk he can get his hands on, and there will be nowhere to put useful, necessary things, or at best, you won’t even be able to get to them among all this rubbish. And a smart person carefully selects what he places in his brain attic. He will take only the tools that he needs for his work, but there will be a lot of them, and he will arrange everything in an exemplary order...

Holmes has high spiritual qualities and often performs work for a nominal fee to save the innocent, protect the weak and find out the truth. He is a good friend and a confirmed bachelor.

Sherlock Hill is the most famous fictional detective and many books (besides the canonical series) and films are dedicated to him.

Here are some film incarnations of the detective.

Basil Rathbone. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939).

Peter Cushing. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).

Nikolay Volkov. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1971).

Roger Moore. Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976).

Vasily Livanov. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson (1979).

Jeremy Brett. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984-1985).

Robert Downey. The Younger Sherlock Holmes (2009).

Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock (2010 - ...)

Igor Petrenko. Sherlock Holmes (2013).

Ian McKellen. Mr. Holmes (2015).

When first meeting Sherlock Holmes (“A Study in Scarlet”), Dr. Watson describes the great detective as tall, thin young man: “He was more than six feet tall, but with his extraordinary thinness he seemed even taller. His gaze was sharp, piercing, except for those periods of numbness mentioned above; a thin aquiline nose gave his face an expression of lively energy and determination. Square , a slightly protruding chin also spoke of a decisive character."

Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch (2010)

By education, Sherlock Holmes is a biochemist. Works as a laboratory assistant in a London hospital. But this is mentioned only at the beginning of A Study in Scarlet. “One fellow who works in the chemical laboratory at our hospital... In my opinion, he knows anatomy very well, and he is a first-class chemist, but it seems he has never studied medicine systematically.” However, in none of the works does the medical assistant-laboratorian appear at work. Just like the author no longer talks about the main work of his main character. Holmes is a multifaceted personality. Possessing versatile talents, he devoted his life to his career as a private detective. Investigating cases supplied by his clients, he relies not so much on the letter of the law as on his life principles, the rules of honor, which in some cases replace paragraphs of bureaucratic norms for him. Repeatedly, Holmes allowed people who, in his opinion, were justifiably committing a crime, escape punishment. Holmes, in principle, is not mercantile; he is primarily concerned with work. For his work in solving crimes, Sherlock Holmes takes a fair remuneration, but if his next client is poor, he can take a symbolic payment or refuse it altogether.

Holmes is a resident of Victorian England, a Londoner with excellent knowledge of his city. He can be considered a homebody, and he travels outside the city (country) only when absolutely necessary. Holmes solves many cases without leaving Mrs. Hudson's living room, calling them “one-pipe cases.”

Sherlock Holmes played by Robert Downey Jr. (2009)

Holmes has stable habits in everyday life. He is unpretentious and practically indifferent to amenities, completely indifferent to luxury. He cannot be called absent-minded, but he is somewhat indifferent to the order in the room and neatness in handling things. For example, he conducts risky chemical experiments in his apartment, often filling it with suffocating or foul-smelling fumes, or trains in shooting, knocking out Queen Victoria's monogram on the wall of the room with shots.

Holmes is a confirmed bachelor who, according to him, has never once experienced romantic feelings for anyone. He repeatedly states that he does not like women at all, although he is invariably polite to them and ready to help. Only once in his life did Holmes, one might say, not that he was in love, but was imbued with great respect for a certain Irene Adler, the heroine of the story “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

Holmes smokes strong tobacco. In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson states that Holmes does not use drugs, but in The Sign of Four we see him using cocaine intravenously. This is explained by the fact that until the beginning of the twentieth century, cocaine was considered a medical drug.

It is difficult to say anything definite about Holmes’ relationship with alcohol, although he is clearly not a strict teetotaler.

Sherlock Holmes in Vasily Livanov (1980)

Holmes is not vain in principle, and in most cases he is of little interest in gratitude for a solved crime:
- How unfairly the winnings were distributed! […] Everything in this matter was done by you. But I got a wife. And all the glory will go to Jones. What remains for you?
- To me? - said Holmes. - And for me - an ampoule with cocaine.

- “The Sign of Four”

Although in a number of cases Holmes expresses his annoyance at this state of affairs:
“But you probably can’t waste a second,” I became alarmed. - Should I go call a cab?
- I’m not sure whether I’ll go or not. I’m the most lazy person in the world, that is, of course, when laziness attacks me, but in general I can be agile.
- You dreamed of such a case!
- My dear, what is the point to me? Suppose I unravel this case - after all, Gregson, Lestrade and company will pocket all the glory anyway. Such is the fate of an unofficial person.

- “A Study in Scarlet”

However, he is quite jealous of comparing his talent as a detective with other European detectives.

Holmes prefers to receive clients at his home. Even very wealthy clients, royalty and the Prime Minister of England himself, come to see him personally. Holmes is a theatergoer and loves to dine at Simpsons restaurant (the most prestigious place in London).

Myth or reality?

Let me ask quite strange question: “Did there really live a brilliant detective named Sherlock Holmes?”

No? Then why did half the world beg Conan Doyle to give Mr. Holmes's real address? (It’s elementary, after all, that Baker Street was named for purposes of conspiracy.) And why did the writer bring messages (from fully grown, respectable ladies and gentlemen) to give to the person mentioned?.. Yes, I completely forgot about autographs: Conan Doyle was simply tormented with requests to get an autograph famous detective!

The consulting detective received very serious offers to investigate family secrets. The newspaper clippings bureau was wondering if a celebrity would like to become their regular subscriber. The image of Holmes (alone and with Dr. Watson) has been repeatedly depicted on postage stamps.

Holmes - V. Livanov

Someone meticulously calculated that 52 of Holmes's statements became aphorisms and were included in daily life English. The most famous of them: “This is a three-tube case, Watson!” And how many jokes about the famous detective are circulating around the world! Chapaev and Stirlitz are resting...

When Mr. Holmes retired and settled on a small farm in Sussex to indulge in his favorite pastime - raising bees, several elderly ladies were ready to manage his household, becoming a kind of successor to Mrs. Hudson. One particularly persistent lady insisted that she loved raising bees and was able to accurately “spot the queen.”

And finally, a message flashed in one of the English newspapers in 1957: Sherlock Holmes died on January 6, his birthday, at the age of 103.

So did the great detective really exist?

Dossier

Sherlock Holmes had a huge card index of all the criminals he knew. It is not surprising that information about the consulting detective himself was carefully collected and stored not only in the annals of Scotland Yard, but also in the private archives of the criminal world. We invite you to familiarize yourself with one of the documents that has reached us. The compiler and owner of the text, unfortunately, is unknown.

Dossier

Last name, first name: Holmes, Sherlock.

Year of birth: 1887 (see Encyclopædia Britannica). However, a certain Nathan Benjis, one of Mr. Holmes’ admirers, named a completely different year - 1854. And he even specified the day - January 6th.

Parents: father - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; mother - name unknown. Granddaughter of the sister of the French artist Horace Vernet (1789-1863).

Marital status: single

Close relatives: brother - Mycroft Holmes, seven years older than Sherlock. Politician.

Appearance: thin build, height more than six feet (more than 180 cm), thin aquiline nose, square, slightly protruding chin, sharp, piercing gaze, “somewhat creaky” voice.

Education: may have studied at Oxford. Cambridge is excluded.

Address: UK, London, Baker Street, 221-b. Occupation: private investigator or consulting detective.

Baker Street at the beginning of the 20th century

First thing: investigation into the causes of the sudden death of Magistrate Mr. Trevor (story "Gloria Scott").

Friends: a doctor named Watson (or Watson). The acquaintance took place in 1881.

Main enemies: Professor Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian Moran.

Bad habits: smoking, addiction to morphine and cocaine.

Hobby: chemistry, violin playing. Has a weakness for Turkish baths.

Favorite newspapers: Daily Telegraph, Times.

Sports hobbies: boxing, fencing, golf, swimming, martial arts. Shots a pistol very well.

Published works: brochures “Identification of tobacco varieties by ashes”, “Guide to bee breeding”, works on footprints, on the influence of professions on the shape of the hand, monograph “Polyphonic Motets of Lassus”. Sherlock Holmes also wrote two stories about his own investigations. The best of them is "Lion's Mane".

Special Notes: nothing is known about the life of Sherlock Holmes after 1914.

Predecessors

Among the ancestors of Sherlock Holmes were detectives Dupin and Legrand from the stories of E. Poe and Lecoq from the novels of the Frenchman E. Gaboriot. “Gaborio attracted me because of how he knew how to twist a plot, and the insightful detective Monsieur Dupin of Edgar Poe was my favorite hero since childhood,” A. Conan Doyle once admitted. The third “ancestor” of the detective-consultant can be considered detective Cuff from W. Collins’ novel “The Moonstone”.

Name

In the 19th century, the American poet, writer and scientist Oliver Wendell Holmes was very popular in England. A. Conan Doyle always had his books on his shelf: “The Autocrat”, “The Poet”, “The Professor at the Dinner Table”. Sir Arthur once said: “Never have I so understood or loved a man whom I had never seen. Meeting him became the goal of my life, but ironically, I arrived in his hometown just in time to lay a wreath on his fresh grave.” Now it’s clear where the name Holmes came from? But with the name everything was not so simple. A. Conan Doyle hesitated for a long time what to call the great detective: Sheringford or Sherlock.

Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur

Modern biographers of Sir Arthur unanimously claim that for many years he was financially dependent on the consulting detective. And, as often happens in such cases, I didn’t particularly like this man. Having finally overcome the depressing lack of money, Conan Doyle happily drowned Sherlock Holmes in a Swiss waterfall. Is this true or a legend?

As you know, Conan Doyle was inseparable from Sherlock Holmes for almost his entire adult life. And during this time, his attitude towards the detective-consultant, like any normal person, changed many times.

Well, if you're really serious...

Start:
Do you know what the young doctor meant... no, of course, not Watson, but Conan Doyle, when he said that he was able to write “something... fresh, bright and tasty”? So, these are stories about Sherlock Holmes.

A few years later:
“Writing about Holmes was difficult because, in fact, each story required the same original, precisely constructed plot as a longer book. I decided that... I wouldn't write Holmes stories unless I had a real plot and a problem that really occupied my mind, because that's the first requirement for getting anyone else interested. If I managed to nurture this character for a long time and if the public believes and will continue to believe that the last story is no worse than the first, then I owe this entirely to the fact that I have never, or almost never, written stories by force” (A. Conan Doyle).

A little later:
The desire to part with Sherlock Holmes with dignity arose when Conan Doyle felt that he was tired and would soon begin to write low-grade stories. So from a trip to the Swiss mountains, the author took away not only admiration for the beauty of the land, but also the idea of ​​​​drowning the poor detective in a waterfall. “I heard that many even cried, but I myself, I’m afraid, remained absolutely cold and only rejoiced at the opportunity to express myself in other areas of fantasy.”

And suddenly Conan Doyle, just like Watson, received a dying message from the great detective. But the intonation here was not at all lyrical. “You’re a fool, you’re a fool! - wrote Sherlock Holmes. - For so many years you lived in luxury thanks to me. With my help, you rode a lot in cabs, where no writer had ever ridden before. From now on you will only travel in omnibuses!” Sir Arthur simply could not tolerate such treatment. And, offended, for ten years he tried not to think about Sherlock Holmes. (To be honest, these words belonged to James Barry, and I took them from his parody of writings about the great detective.)

Ten years later:
What made Conan Doyle return to stories about the famous detective is unlikely to be known for certain. We can assume three main reasons: requests from readers, financial difficulties and the desire to meet again the hero of his youth.

At the end of life:
One of the actors once asked Conan Doyle if it was possible to marry Sherlock Holmes. “Marry him, kill him, do whatever you want with him,” was the author’s answer. An important role here was played by the fact that Sir Arthur was increasingly confused with Holmes. Conan Doyle was especially infuriated by the bill sent to Sir Sherlock. Conan Doyle did not tolerate jokes with titles.

Result:
“I don’t want to be ungrateful to Holmes, who was a good friend to me in many ways. And if I got tired of him, it was because his image did not allow any contrasts” (A. Conan Doyle).

Declaration of love:

I have completed my simple task,
If you gave me at least an hour of joy
To a boy who is already half a man,
Or a man who is still half a boy.

(Epitaph on Sir Arthur's grave,
written by himself.)

Habits of a Consulting Detective

Unless there was urgent work, Mr. Holmes woke up late. When the blues came over him (oh, that notorious English spleen!), he, dressed in a mouse-colored robe, could remain silent for days on end. In the same “cheerful” attire, he carried out his endless chemical experiments. The remaining robes - red and bluish - expressed other states of mind and were used in a variety of situations.

At times, Sherlock Holmes was overwhelmed by the desire to argue, then, instead of the traditional clay one, he lit a cherry wood pipe. Deep in thought, the famous detective allowed himself to bite his nails (on his hands, of course). He was unreasonably little interested in food and his own health.

By the way, for some reason the consulting detective kept pipes and cigars in a coal bucket, and tobacco in the toe of a Persian shoe. However, this was only the most harmless detail of the chaos he created in the house. Justifying himself, Holmes said that in such chaos he could think better.

Sherlock Holmes' Friend: Breaking the Stereotype

You can familiarize yourself with the beginning of Dr. Watson’s life; to do this, you just need to open “A Study in Scarlet” and read the first few pages. For those who don’t have the book at hand, I’ll tell you briefly...

John Hamish Watson was born in the early 50s of the 19th century. He spent his childhood in Australia. He graduated from the Medical College of the University of London and entered the course of military surgeons at Netley. In Afghanistan, in the Battle of Maiwand, he was seriously wounded and sent into retirement.

(Further information about Watson should be closely followed throughout the numerous texts.)

Watson's father died, his older brother, having squandered his inheritance, became an alcoholic. The meeting with Holmes became a salvation from loneliness for the doctor. Watson helped the great detective for 17 years (not excluding the years when he was married). He also visited Holmes at the apiary in Sussex, after he stopped doing his investigations.

Watson was a good doctor and was popular with patients, first in Paddington and Kensington, then on Queen Anne Street, where he established a private practice.

These are all facts, and now let's turn to emotions. For some reason, many consider Watson to be a narrow-minded person and completely devoid of individuality. In fact, he was a charming gentleman, whose virtues include fearlessness, tolerance, impeccable attitude towards women, literary talent, the ability to be ironic about oneself and not to become despondent under any circumstances. And Watson was definitely not stupid. Don't believe me? Then remember the saying: “Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.”

Take another close look at Watson. Honestly, the doctor is often much nicer than Holmes. And life, by the way, did not spoil him at all (see biography).

Is Watson right?

Watson once wrote a humorous "Certificate" of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes - his capabilities

1. Knowledge in the field of literature - none.

2. Knowledge in the field of philosophy - none.

3. Knowledge in the field of astronomy - none.

4. Knowledge in the field of politics is weak.

5. Knowledge in the field of botany is uneven. Knows the properties of belladonna, opium and poisons in general. Has no idea about gardening.

6. Knowledge in the field of geology - practical, but limited. Identifies different soil samples at a glance. After walking, he shows me splashes of mud on his trousers and, based on their color and consistency, determines what part of London it is from.

7. Knowledge in the field of chemistry is deep.

8. Knowledge of anatomy is accurate.

9. Knowledge in the field of criminal chronicles is enormous. He seems to know all the details of every crime committed in the nineteenth century.”

10. Plays the violin well.

11. Excellent fencing with swords and espadrons, an excellent boxer.

12. Thorough practical knowledge of English laws.

It is unlikely that Dr. Watson heard Kozma Prutkov’s statement: “A specialist is like gumboil.” Mr. Holmes's biographer, however, has followed this aphorism almost exactly. And of course, I was wrong in many ways.

Let's start with the fact that Holmes did not just play the violin, but was a true music lover. He improvised, composed music himself, adored the work of German composers and constantly dragged poor Watson with him to concerts. In addition, Holmes was well versed in the advantages and disadvantages of Cremonese violins and easily discussed “the difference between the masterpieces of Stradivarius and Amati.”

Fiction was also no stranger to the consulting detective. He could choose the work of the English writer George Meredith as a topic for conversation. At times he quoted Goethe, G. Flaubert, and in the original, and once, by the way, in front of Watson, he pulled out a pocket volume of Petrarch to enjoy poetry on the road.

“Holmes had no knowledge of gardening,” said Dr. Watson. The fact in itself is dubious, because no Englishman has yet been born who knows nothing about growing plants. What can you do, national tradition! In addition, feeling London as his element, the great detective, as it turned out later, secretly dreamed of “plunging into the peace and silence of nature.”

“Let’s go for a walk in these wonderful groves, Watson, let’s admire the birds and flowers.”

So is Watson right?

There was an error

“I've never really worried about the details - sometimes you need to feel like you're in control. Once, when an alarmed editor wrote to me: “There is no second line of rails in this place,” I replied: “And I will lay one.” (A. Conan Doyle)

As you know, Dr. Watson voluntarily became Sherlock Holmes' biographer. Having taken on such a serious responsibility, he always tried to be extremely punctual. Except that in the “Motley Ribbon” the snake descended on a freely hanging cord, which, according to herpetologists, in principle could not be done, and the announcement of the “Union of Redheads” was published in the “Morning Chronicle”, a newspaper that by that time had long since gone bankrupt . But when talking about himself, Watson makes some rather strange mistakes. He cannot remember whether the bullet fired by the “merciless ghazi” was lodged in his shoulder or leg. Or he completely forgets given name. In "A Study in Scarlet" he calls himself John H. Watson (John G. Watson - in another translation), and in the story "The Man with the Cut Lip" he unexpectedly turns into James. Apparently, the war in Afghanistan did not end so harmlessly for the doctor. However, Watson preferred not to dwell on this topic too much.

Deduction method

This way of thinking logically was “taught” to Sherlock Holmes by Joseph Bell, a surgeon at Edinburgh Hospital. By the way, the famous detective partially inherited his extraordinary appearance from Bell. Don't believe me? Ask A. Conan Doyle.

“Bell was a very remarkable man, both in appearance and in mind. He was tall, wiry, dark-haired, with a long-nosed, penetrating face, attentive gray eyes, thin shoulders and a twitching gait. His voice was harsh. He was very strong in diagnostics, not only of diseases, but also of profession and character. For reasons that remained a mystery to me, he singled me out from the crowd of students who often visited his wards and made me his outpatient secretary... But I had ample opportunity to study his methods and make sure that he often, with a glance at the patient, learned about him more than I, who asked him questions” (A. Conan Doyle).

By the way, Joseph Bell was sympathetic to Sherlock Holmes and carefully followed the progress of his investigations.

Famous phrase

Sherlock Holmes's most famous line? "Elementary, Watson." However, Russian translators sometimes forced the detective to pronounce the tasteless “excellent” or “primitive”, “quite simple” or “nonsense”. Only occasionally on the pages of domestic publications does one encounter the proud “elementary, Watson!” But in 1991, a newspaper of the Holmesian society was published in Sverdlovsk, which was called... Well, of course, “Elementary, Watson!”

Sayings of Sherlock Holmes

Holmes, as a rule, spoke little, but his speech was filled with aphorisms. Let me remind you of just a few of them.

“My whole life is a continuous effort to escape the dreary monotony of our everyday life. Little riddles that I sometimes solve help me achieve this goal.”

“Crime investigation is an exact science, or at least it should be.”

“I imagine the human brain is like a little empty attic that you can furnish however you want.”

“If you throw away everything completely impossible, then exactly what remains - no matter how incredible it may seem - is the truth!”

“I never guess. Very bad habit: has a detrimental effect on the ability to think logically.”

“You see everything, but you don’t give yourself the trouble to think about what you see!”

Unsolved cases

Among the unsolved cases of Sherlock Holmes was the disappearance of a certain James Phillimore, who returned home to get an umbrella and disappeared forever. The great detective failed to find traces of the Alicia boat, which once disappeared forever into the fog. What remains shrouded in darkness is the murder of Mr. Persano, a journalist by profession and a duelist by vocation, whose corpse was found frozen next to... a caterpillar unknown to science (or maybe a worm or even a worm; in English it’s all spelled the same - worm), in general, with something long and narrow, hidden in a matchbox.

Of course, not all of Holmes’s failures are mentioned here, but who likes to remember their defeats?!

Portrait painters

The first portrait of Sherlock Holmes was created by Conan Doyle's father, Charles Doyle. However, the publishers and, apparently, even his son did not like the work. In any case, Sir Arthur tried not to mention these drawings.

Readers first saw what the famous detective and his constant friend Doctor Watson looked like on the pages of the Strand Magazine. The author of the published portraits of Holmes and Watson was the artist Sidney Paget. The model in this case was Walter Paget, the illustrator’s younger brother and fellow worker. From the point of view of A. Conan Doyle, Sherlock turned out to be too handsome, having largely lost the expressiveness of his appearance. “However, from the point of view of ... the readers, it was for the best,” Sir Arthur later remarked condescendingly. When Sidney died in 1904, Walter continued his work.

The Americans, however, preferred a different image of the consulting detective. It was drawn by Frederick Dorr Steele. The theater actor William Gillett, generally recognized as the best Sherlock Holmes of the 19th century, posed for him.

However, it seems that Moscow artist Leonid Kozlov has surpassed everyone, who created 10,000 (!) drawings on the theme of “the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” Conan Doyle's daughter Jane, married to Lady Broument, blessed him in writing for such a great feat. Unfortunately, only one album by Leonid Kozlov has been published so far. (And there were supposed to be seven of them.) Gentlemen, publishers, when will we see the rest?

Theater

The young Doctor Conan Doyle, who wrote his first story about Holmes and Watson, could not even dream that he would make his heroes appear on the stage. Moreover, in order to save the rented theater from collapse.

However, a few years later, Conan Doyle had to write a play about Sherlock Holmes in a week. It was called, like the story of the same name, “The Speckled Ribbon.” The play firmly entered the theatrical repertoire and began to be performed throughout the country with triumph. "For execution title role(Please note!) We had an excellent rocky boa constrictor, who was my pride,” Conan Doyle recalled. “So you can imagine my indignation when I learned that one literary critic ended his dismissive review with the words: “The critical moment in this production is caused by the appearance of an obviously artificial snake.” I was ready to pay him decent money if he decided to take her to bed with him... In the end, we began to use artificial snakes..."

The Speckled Band was the second play about Sherlock Holmes. The first, as Conan Doyle said, “was written and best directed by William Gillett, the famous American actor. I really liked the play, the performance, and the financial result.”

There was also a play “Sherlock Holmes”, which combined the plots of several stories by Conan Doyle. She lasted on stage for 30 years, performing 230 performances. Among the performers was young Charles Chaplin. (The play was shown on American television in 1975.)

However, deep down, Conan Doyle was dissatisfied with all the productions without exception. “Before leaving the subject of the various theatrical incarnations of Holmes, I can say that all of them, like his portraits, differed from my original plan.”

I wonder if Sir Arthur has seen how Holmes dances dashingly in musicals or soars over the stage in a ballet?..

Movie

Did you know that in terms of the number of film adaptations (more than 200), Holmes and Watson were included in the Guinness Book of Records. And that the role of the great detective was played by 80 actors (and one of them, Sam Robinson, was black).

The first film, Sherlock Holmes Perplexed, was directed by Thomas Edison in 1900 and lasted 30 seconds. A film was later made based on William Gillett's play, but the film has not survived. Dr. Watson first appeared in 1906 in the American film Sherlock Holmes and the Great Murder Mystery. In 1912, The Speckled Band (England-France) was staged, and in 1914, The Hound of the Baskervilles. In 1927, the sound film “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” appeared on the screens, where the writer himself talks about his books about Sherlock Holmes. I'd like to see it!..

Obviously, it is impossible, and it is not necessary, to analyze all the films about Holmes and Watson. Therefore, N. Chernetskaya acted very wisely by dividing the history of foreign Holmesian cinema into five periods and naming the most famous couples Holmes-Watson.

1. The era of silent films and early sound films (1900-1939).

2. The Rathbone-Bruce era (1939-1946).

3. The period of disparate film and television versions.

4. Brett - Burke - Hardwick era (1984-1993).

5. Modern era.

Famous acting duets:

The first successful duet in the history of cinema was actors Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, with whose participation 14 films were shot. For Rathbone, Holmes's main characteristics were his energy and quick thinking. Bruce's Watson had outstanding slowness and slowness, which set off the famous detective.

A grandiose era in Holmesian cinema was the films (40 episodes!) with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and David Burke, and then Edward Hardwick as Doctor Watson. Brett managed to embody in his hero the unity of opposites: consistency and spontaneity, energy and inertia, rationality and richness of feelings. The Watsons of Burke and Hardwick were each good in their own way. Burke personified youth, energy, simplicity, spontaneity, Hardwick portrayed a balanced, intelligent English doctor of the Victorian era.

The option with reincarnations is interesting. Thus, actor Patrick Macnee first played Watson opposite Roger Moore, then turned into Holmes in the television film The Phantom of London (1993).

Patrick Macnee played the role of Watson in another film, “The Incident at Victoria Falls” (1997). Sherlock Holmes here - Christopher Lee (Christopner Lee). Interestingly, in another film, Christopher Lee was Mycroft Holmes.

You can read more about foreign film adaptations on the Russian-language website “Sherlock Holmes at Nadezhda Chernetskaya”.

However, we know that the best Holmes in the world is, of course, Vasily Livanov, and the most charming Watson is Vitaly Solomin. It’s just not entirely clear whether foreign admirers of A. Conan Doyle share our opinion. In some sources you will read that foreigners recognized Livanov and Solomin as the most famous Holmes and Watson, in others that foreign moviegoers do not even suspect the existence of brilliant Russian actors. I wonder where the truth is?.. In any case, the “Russian” Holmes and Watson are familiar to the British. Having opened one of the British sites dedicated to the great detective, I was surprised to find Solomin and Livanov smiling on the screen.

Memorial places

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. in London, on Baker Street there was no house 221-b (the letter “b” simply means the second floor).

Now such a house exists, and it houses a permanent Sherlock Holmes Museum. It all started with an exhibition, which was opened by the widow of the writer Jean Conan Doyle in a house on Baker Street in the 1950s. Then some of the things were moved to the Sherlock Holmes Tavern on Northumberland Street. Here they are to this day, as well as portraits of film actors who played the role of a consulting detective. They say that in England there is a tradition - all those entering service in Scotland Yard consider it their duty to stop by the tavern on Northumberland Street and have a glass or two there.

However, let's return to the main museum. Those wishing to visit it can go to the Baker Street metro station. And don’t be surprised if a tall gentleman approaches them and hands them his business card with the surname Holmes. You are simply invited to visit the legendary house at number 221.

And here is a staircase of seventeen steps, which, as expected in the text, leads to the second floor. The famous Baker Street drawing room. A fireplace, armchairs, retorts for chemical experiments, a pipe in a coal bucket, master keys, a magnifying glass... However, fans of Sherlock Holmes will list all this without me, without even crossing the threshold of the museum.

(You can watch a video clip showing the setting of the famous living room on the English-language website.)

Downstairs, in the basement of building 221, there is a restaurant called Mrs. Hudson's, and next to it is a souvenir shop that sells pipes, key chains, postcards, handcuffs (real or not?), a model cab, a bust of the great detective and ... porcelain figurines of heroes, upon closer inspection, they turn out to be a table set of Holmes and Watson pepper shakers and salt shakers. Oh, this English humor! Or maybe business? However, it is curious which of the friends is the pepper shaker and which is the salt shaker.

The memory of Holmes is carefully preserved not only by the staff of the two museums.

There is a plaque at St. Bartholomew's Hospital stating that it was here, in 1881, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson first met. The second memorial plaque was installed in Switzerland at the infamous waterfall.

Sculptures of Sherlock Holmes have been erected in several cities in England.

Awards

For reasons that are not fully clear, Sherlock Holmes refused to be knighted. This was in June 1902. However, he considered it an honor to accept the Legion of Honor. We will modestly keep silent about several memorable gifts the detective received from crowned heads and other powerful people.

And most recently, on October 16, 2002, Mr. Holmes was accepted as a member of the British Royal Society of Chemistry. Typically, this honor is awarded mainly to Nobel Prize laureates, outstanding scientists and industrialists. The society's general secretary, Dr David Giachardi, commenting on the decision to admit the great detective to the society, said: “It was great man, who used his clear mind, courage and scientific achievements in the fight against evil."

Hymn

This is not a bad joke, but a real anthem of one of the Holmesian societies. By the way, you are supposed to sing while standing.

Sherlock Holmes look-alikes

Doubles of Sherlock Holmes began to appear with incredible speed. I don’t know how it is in England and America, but here in Russia we have always been quite careless about... um... borrowing. Steal? Why not? The author is far away, but the reading public will like it. Therefore, I dare to suggest that the freshly baked Holmeses especially flourished in Russia. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Levinson publishing house released a series of books about the “adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” History is silent about who composed these fake crafts; most likely, it was a group of eternally hungry beginners or tragically untalented writers. The “epic” “The Secret of the Red Mask” was especially popular. This endless (96 issues!) work totaled 1536 pages. (Let Tolstoy and Tolkien be jealous!) And a certain Mr. Orlovets offered readers “reports on the adventures of Holmes in Russia.” In some publications, Holmes had a young assistant named Harry (and where did they put Watson?). So the noble private detective of Victorian England became a brother of Nat Pinkerton and Nick Carter. However, this is not entirely true. Contemporaries argued that more literate people wrote about Sherlock Holmes, “and Pinkerton - whoever is not too lazy.” It was not for nothing that Pinkerton was worth five kopecks, and Holmes was worth seven.

Fortunately, Conan Doyle did not know the Russian language (it is known for certain that he immediately put letters from Russia in a box, considering them read), and it never occurred to anyone to translate all this nonsense into the author’s native language. Sir Arthur was quite familiar with the nonsense that flashed in the English and American press with the regularity of meteorites. One “timeless masterpiece” was dedicated to a woman who came to Holmes for advice: “I don’t know at all what to think, sir. In one week I lost a car horn, a broom, a box of golf balls, a dictionary and a shoe horn...” “Nothing could be simpler, madam,” Sherlock replied. “It’s clearer than clear that your neighbor keeps a goat.” Another story “tells how Sherlock went to heaven and, thanks to his extraordinary powers of observation, immediately recognized and greeted Adam” (“gentlemen, hussars, be silent!”).

Then they began to write well and seriously. Among the authors (it is impossible to list them all) were Adrian Conan Doyle (son of Sir Arthur), the master of the detective genre John Dixon Carr, and the creator of numerous “horror films” Stephen King. (Their stories about Holmes have been translated into Russian.) US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not remain indifferent to the image of Holmes. He is the author of the book “The Baker Street Folio: Five Notes on Sherlock Holmes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt” (1945).

It is recognized that one of the best serious works is “A Study of Fear” by Ellery Queen (pseudonym of Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee). Here Holmes solves the case of Jack the Ripper, whose sinister figure kept all of London in fear for a long time. (Queen E. A Study of Fear // Doyle A.K. Valley of Terror; Queen E. A Study of Fear. - St. Petersburg: Terra Incognita, . - P. 93-198.)

Among more or less modern works, we can offer a collection of stories by Mikhail Trushin and Vladimir Petrin “Illuminations of Sherlock Holmes” (1997). The cover was made by L. Kozlov. The book is written in the classic Doyle style and received brilliant reviews, including from Georgy Weiner. Unfortunately, it was published in Penza, and therefore is inaccessible to many readers. But fans of Sherlock Holmes can be consoled by books (“The Secret Archive of Sherlock Holmes,” “Sherlock Holmes in Orbit,” etc.) from the “Baker Street Mysteries” series, published by Terra publishing house. Of course, the level of essays, as happens in such cases, is not always the same.

The works of Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dixon Carr were published in the magazine Science and Life in the 1960s and 1970s. Nowadays the easiest way to find texts by these authors is on the Internet. Look, for example, for such books by A.K. Doyle, D. Carr: “The Wax Players”, “Two Women”, “Ruby Avas”, “The Mystery of the Locked Room”, “The Deptford Horror”, “The Fowlkes Crime” Race", "The Case of the Golden Watch".

These texts may disappoint you somewhat. And the point here is not in the authors of the stories, but in the translators. It’s not that they were completely bad, it’s just that few people are able to compete with Korn Ivanovich Chukovsky.

But there are no problems with the story “The Investigation of Dr. Watson” by Stephen King. It was published in the author’s collection of the “king of horrors” “Nightmares and Fantastic Visions” (M.: Mir, 1994).

Parodies

The image of Sherlock Holmes also attracted recognized classics. True, they preferred to write mainly parodies. For example, Bret Harte created “The Adventure of a Stolen Cigarette Case”, Mark Twain - “The Adventure of Double Sight”, O. Henry - the stories “The Adventures of Shamrock Johns” and “The Bloodhound”, James Barry - “The Adventures of Two Co-authors”. I give a bibliographic description of the last mentioned work, otherwise you will never find this text. (Barry J. Adventures of two co-authors // Doyle A.K. Life full of adventures. - M.: Vagrius, 2001. - P. 115-118.)

Literary hooliganism

This story is quite scandalous. Once upon a time, the world famous master detective ("father" of Nero Wolfe) Rex Stout gave a speech at a dinner of fans of the inhabitants of the house on Baker Street. In it, using the method of deduction, he proved that under the pseudonym “Doctor Watson” was hiding a lady, the legal wife of Sherlock Holmes. And he even named (with the evidence provided) her name - Irene Watson. How the writer came out of dinner alive is not known for certain. But all Conan Doyle fans still shudder at the mention of Rex Stout’s essay “Watson Was a Woman.”

Almost a joke

Once a certain S. Borisov created a story for a literary quiz, “The Death of a Russian Landowner.” The plot here is extremely simple: Holmes, sitting on Baker Street, discusses F. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” with Watson. One can only guess how this wretched story by S. Borisov ended up in one of the collections of A. Conan Doyle’s original works...

Holmes studies

Research works about Sherlock Holmes appeared already at the beginning of the 20th century. The books by R. Knox “A Study of the Literature Dedicated to Sherlock Holmes” (1911), H. W. Bell “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, a Chronicle of Their Adventures” (1931), H. Brenkenley “Sherlock Holmes: Fact and Fiction” are considered classics to this day. "(1932).

The pinnacle of “Holmology studies” was “The Sherlockian Encyclopedia: A Universal Dictionary of Information Established About Sherlock Holmes and His Biographer, Dr. John G. Watson” by Jack Tracy. This work is considered the best reference book, a reference book for all Holmes fans. “Sherlockiana” was translated into Russian by I.N. Bogdanov. For this work, the Ural Holmesian Society awarded him the Watson Literary Prize. I wouldn't want to offend anyone, but what does that mean?..

Sherlock Holmes and everyday life

Sherlock Holmes has become such a part of our lives that sometimes you don’t even know where you’ll meet your favorite hero. For example, you accidentally go to “Children’s World”, and there are comics on the theme of the adventures of a detective consultant (not necessarily stupid ones) or board game called "Sherlock Holmes". You say this is for little ones? Nothing of the kind. Absolutely adult uncles and aunts play interactive games on the Internet, one of which is called, for example, “Sherlock Holmes: The Return of Moriarty.” And while walking home from work, you may accidentally hear the phrase “elementary, Watson!” or call mobile phone, which reproduces... the melody of Vladimir Dashkevich from the television film “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson” (directed by I. Maslennikov). My neighbor in the country has a huge dog named the Hound of the Baskervilles, of whom the whole neighborhood is desperately afraid. And one inhabitant of a neighboring village built himself a house on the edge of the swamp, which the locals don’t call anything other than “Baskerville Hall”.

And God forbid that you need a private detective agency in your life. It's called... guess for yourself.

"Sherlock Holmitos"

Just don’t think that this is some kind of snake or caterpillar. This is what modern Latin Americans call short, skillful conclusions that are not relevant to the matter. In short, what Sherlock Holmes considered to be false alternative moves. The term “Sherlock Holmitos” arose after the local population became acquainted with the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Jokes

"Mr. Sherlock Holmes has always been a fertile target for jokers..." said Conan Doyle. Indeed, there are many anecdotes about Holmes and Watson floating around the world (and the Internet). Unfortunately, almost all of them are either quite stupid or completely indecent (and sometimes both at once). Anyway, I only managed to pick six.

Holmes and Watson spend the night in a tent in the forest.
- Watson, does this constellation mean anything to you?
- Good weather, Holmes!
- Watson, our tent was stolen.

* * *

What do you think, Holmes?
- Elementary, Watson!

Barrymore, what's that squishing in my shoe?
- Oatmeal, sir!
- But what is she doing there?
- It's squishing, sir.

What kind of howl is heard over the swamps?
- Elementary, Watson! Sir Henry was again served porridge for breakfast.

Holmes and Watson are going on a trip. Holmes sends a friend to look at the thermometer. Returning, Watson reports: “Hanging.”

Holmes, we seem to have gotten to the bottom of the truth!
- Yes, Watson, now let's try to get out of the hole.

Listen, Watson... What is your strange name - Doctor?..

Quite seriously

“Don’t you know that I am not the creator of the image of Sherlock Holmes? It was the readers who created it in their imagination.” Conan Doyle spoke these words at a gala dinner in honor of his seventieth birthday. Something to think about, right?

In his memoirs, Sir Arthur called the surgeon Joseph Bell the prototype of Holmes, and Major Wood the prototype of Watson. Readers stubbornly thought otherwise. Some equated Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, others - between Doyle and Watson. It seems that both of them were not far from the truth: if you create a portrait of one person from two famous heroes, then, most likely, you will get an alter ego of their creator, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Why are stories and tales about Holmes and Watson so attractive to us? A dashingly twisted plot? Victorian era flavor? Perhaps all this is not the main thing. How many detective stories were created before and after Holmes and Watson, but it was Conan Doyle who managed to write something special, so to speak, number one. Moreover, this procedure is not subject to revision.

The secret of Holmes and Watson's success is in the harmonious duet and in the glorification of male friendship. Almost like A. Dumas in “The Three Musketeers”. Indeed, what is Holmes without Watson and Watson without Holmes?.. It is not without reason that stories where the great detective finds himself alone for some reason are much weaker than all the others.

I don’t know how other nations perceive the inhabitants of Foggy Albion, but for us, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have long become the symbol of the English gentleman. We just never thought about it.

Nadezhda Voronova

Baker Street at the beginning XX century