Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a male literary character who features in Sherlock Holmes.

Biography

Sherlock Holmes

The father of a classmate told the young Holmes that all the detectives of fact and of fancy would be children in his hands and that's it was his line of life. (Novel: The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez)

Then now and again cases came in his way, principally through the introduction of old fellow students, for during his last years at the university there was a good deal of talk there about him and his methods. (Novel: The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual)

Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession.

Overview

Personality and attributes

He was described as being a tall, gaunt figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. (Novel: The Boscombe Valley Mystery)

Watson described him as an automaton, a calculating machine with something positively inhuman in him. (Novel: The Sign of Four)

In his personal habits, Holmes was considered to be an untidy man with him being known to keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece. Sherlock also had a habit of destroying documents which resulted in month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner.

Holmes believes the use of cocaine stimulates his brain when it is not in use. He is a habitual user of cocaine, which he injects in a seven-per-cent solution using a personal syringe that he keeps in a Morocco leather case. Holmes is also an occasional user of morphine but expressed strong disapproval on visiting an opium den. These drugs were legal in late 19th-century England. Both Watson and Holmes are continual tobacco users, including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, though this was not an uncommon habit during this era. Holmes is an expert at identifying tobacco-ash residues, having penned a monograph on the subject.

Holmes's clients vary from the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe, to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists, to impoverished pawnbrokers and governesses. He is known only in select professional circles with him collaborating with Scotland Yard.

He was known to have had an older brother named Mycroft Holmes who was seven years his senior. Sherlock described his brother as the more intelligent of the two, but notes that Mycroft lacks any interest in physical investigation, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club.

Holmes had mentioned that his 'ancestors' were 'country squires'. He had also claimed that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet.

Powers and abilities

Sherlock Holmes was a man who seldom took exercise for exercise's sake. Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight; but he looked upon aimless bodily exertion as a waste of energy, and he seldom bestirred himself save where there was some professional object to be served. Then he was absolutely untiring and indefatigable. (Novel: The Adventure of the Yellow Face)

Referring to himself as a 'consulting detective', Holmes was known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

According to him, detection should be an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession.

Holmes's clients vary from the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe, to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists, to impoverished pawnbrokers and governesses. He is known only in select professional circles at the beginning of the first story, but is already collaborating with Scotland Yard. However, his continued work and the publication of Watson's stories raise Holmes's profile, and he rapidly becomes well known as a detective; so many clients ask for his help instead of or in addition to that of the police

Notes

• Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle where he featured in the setting of the Sherlock Holmes universe.

Appearances

• A Study in Pink: (1887)

External Links

• Baker Street Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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