词条 | Holmes, Sherlock |
释义 | Holmes, Sherlock fictional character ![]() ![]() Watson's narrations describe Holmes as a very complex and moody character who, although of strict habit, is considerably untidy. His London abode at 221B, Baker Street, is tended by his housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson. Holmes appears to undergo bouts of mania and depression, the latter of which are accompanied by pipe smoking, violin playing, and cocaine use. Throughout the four novels and 56 short stories featuring Holmes, a number of characters recur, including the bumbling Scotland Yard inspector Lestrade; the group of “street Arabs” known as the Baker Street Irregulars, who are routinely employed by Holmes as informers; his even wiser but less ambitious brother, Mycroft; and, most notably, his formidable opponent, Professor James Moriarty, whom Holmes considers the “Napoleon of crime.” Claiming that Holmes distracted him “from better things,” Conan Doyle famously in 1893 ( "The Final Problem" ) attempted to kill him off; during a violent struggle on Switzerland's Reichenbach Falls, both Holmes and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, are plunged over the edge of the precipice. Popular outcry against the demise of Holmes was great; men wore black mourning bands, the British royal family was distraught, and more than 20,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions to the popular Strand Magazine, in which Holmes regularly appeared. By popular demand, Conan Doyle resurrected his detective in the story "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1902). ![]() In addition to myriad translations of the Holmes adventures throughout the world, a genre of parodies and pastiches has developed based upon the Sherlock Holmes character. An entire collection of more scholarly “higher criticism” of Conan Doyle's writings was initiated by Ronald Knox's “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes” (1912). More recent higher criticism is epitomized by the work appearing in The Baker Street Journal (begun 1946), a quarterly publication of the Baker Street Irregulars. Holmes devotees, known as Sherlockians or Holmesians, frequently gather in societies around the world to pay tribute to the master detective with a cultist fervour. The most established of these societies are the Baker Street Irregulars (founded 1933) and The Sherlock Holmes Society of London (founded 1934). Additional Reading William S. Baring-Gould, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, 2 vol. (1967, reissued 2 vol. in 1, 1992), remains the standard scholarly edition of Conan Doyle's adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Jack Tracy (compiler and ed.), The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana: or, A Universal Dictionary of the State of Knowledge of Sherlock Holmes and His Biographer John H. Watson, M.D. (1977; also published as The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia, 1997), provides a remarkable companion volume of detailed and easily retrievable knowledge about the Holmes adventures. Ronald Burt De Waal, The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Classified and Annotated List of Materials Relating to Their Lives and Adventures (1974), and its companion volumes, The International Sherlock Holmes (1980) and The Universal Sherlock Holmes (1994), give information about particular themes of the “higher criticism” on Holmes. |
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