The Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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The Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859, he died

in 1930. He printed his first Sherlock Holmes book, "A Study in

Scarlet" in 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Sherlock Holmes soon

became very popular amongst the people of their day, People

immediately fell in love with Sherlock Holmes for several reasons. One

of the main reasons was because he was a detective and detectives were

new at the time, the police were very incompetent at doing their jobs.

The public were very insecure, they knew the police were absolutely

useless. The public felt very vulnerable, as if they were open to

attack all the time. Sherlock Holmes, when compared to the incompetent

police force of their time, was anything but incompetent. Watching an

amazing and undisputed detective like Sherlock Holmes solve incredible

mysteries that are seem complex enough to confuse people at first,

then when they finally realise how simple the mysteries are, they shut

the book with a "oh! So that's what happened then!" Reading stories

about someone great like Sherlock, he solves problems, he saves

people, no criminals are safe from Sherlock! They cower at his feet!

This really encouraged people to feel safer, as if Sherlock really did

exist and he was going to solve all their problems, he was something

along the lines of a personal Jesus, someone to turn to whenever

anything happened.

The Public loved Sherlock Holmes, they felt so close to him, as if he

were something real. Almost as if he really did live at 221B Baker

Street, at the time crime rates in London were high, and the

incompetent police ...

... middle of paper ...

...
House". The similarities start with Watson attempting to make sense of

a muddled crime, this leads to Holmes who then solves the crime very

easily, a way for him to "Come Back". Another feature that adds depth

to the stories making them seem more substantial than mere short

narrative stories is Watson's habit of referring to other cases from

time to time, the stories sort of hang together like a biography of

Holmes, a few chapters missing - we regard them as a collection.

Conventional detective stories always have a hero, in this case the

hero is Holmes, and a faithful sidekick who would die for the hero,

Watson. The hero always sits and waits for someone or a "damsel in

distress" to explain her troubles, the hero then ventures out into the

wild with his sidekick and does all he possibly can to solve the

problem!

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