Elementary, my dear Watson!
Who is Sherlock Holmes?
If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’re really young or you spent your life in a coma. Maybe you’re from another universe! It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t know the world’s most famous consulting detective.
In the vein of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin (from 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is an exceptional detective who can be can be dispassionate and cold, but always willing to face a new challenging mystery, ready to use his extremely logical mind, his deductive powers and his large knowledge of forensic science. He is an eccentric who avoids casual company, except for that of his friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson.
They famously live at 221B Baker Street, London, during the Victorian or Edwardian eras, between about 1880 and 1914.
Sherlock Holmes made his first appearances in print in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet. Since then, the characters appeared in four novels and 56 short stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a lot (a lot!) more.
Many writers other than his creator wrote tales of the detective—novels, short stories, stage plays, movies, TV Shows, comic books, audio dramas, video games …—to the point of being listed by Guinness World Records as the most portrayed literary human character in film and television history.
Read More »Sherlock Holmes Books in Order: How to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s series?