Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. Over the course of four novels and fifty six short stories Conan Doyle was able to create a character so vivid that no small number of people in his day came to believe that Sherlock Holmes was real. A recent British survey suggests that many people continue to think so. (Some also, incidentally, think that real persons such as Winston Churchill are fictitious)

Beyond the details provided by Conan Doyle himself, the "life" of the world's most famous detective has been fleshed out by legions of fans taking up the "game" of Sherlock Holmes scholarship and a number of authors who have written their own Sherlock Holmes stories.

A Character Sketch

In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson gives the following assesment of Holmes' abilities:

1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil.
2. Knowledge of Philosophy.—Nil.
3. Knowledge of Astronomy.—Nil.
4. Knowledge of Politics.—Feeble.
5. Knowledge of Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Knowledge of Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Knowledge of Chemistry.—Profound.
8. Knowledge of Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
9. Knowledge of Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.