The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [antikvár]

Foreword If ever a pair of fictional characters can be said to have leapt from the pages of a literary work and taken on lives of their own, those characters are Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Even today, a century after the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes adventure, one can find dyed-in-the-wool Sherlockians who insist that Holmes and Watson were not only real people, but that they are, in fact, still alive! Despite all evidence to the contrary, these disciples insist that the stories involving Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart companion, Watson, were not the product of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination, but that they foithfully represent the true case histories of the "real" Watson and Holmes. The assumption is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle signed his name to the Sherlock Holmes stories in order to protect the anonymity of the legitimate author. Dr. John Watson—a situation which, of course, reduces Arthur Conan Doyle's participation in the matter to that of literary agent. Thankfully, the tongues of most of these Holmesian "scholars" are planted firmly in their cheeks when pronouncements such as these are made (and those whose tongues are elsewhere ought to have their heads examined!). Still, the very fact that grown men and women actually take pleasure in such absurd conjecture is a subject that beckons attention. What is it about Holmes and Watson that makes them live in our minds? Volumes have been devoted to this question. Many elements have been credited for the enduring popularity of Sherlock Holmes: the consummate casting of Watson as a conservative foil for the eccentricity of Holmes; the often ingenious plotting; the lifelike dialogue; the charming late nineteenth-century London setting. But above all we must pay tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary ability to breathe life into his characters, to make them come alive. In the years prior to his marriage, Conan Doyle augmented