The Truth About Death and 9 Famous Quotes of Sherlock Holmes

The life of Conan Doyle - the father of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, has many similarities with his character that not all readers know.

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective of all time. The talented detective first appeared in the classic detective work Sherlock Holmes by author Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887.

More than 100 years since his birth, Sherlock Holmes with his fedora and pipe smoke, with his cold thinking, has become an immortal image of a talented and famous detective in detective novels and is considered the most excellent character model ever in this literary genre.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists Holmes as the most-appeared film character, with 70 different actors playing him in over 200 films.

The Miserable Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Portrait of writer Conan Doyle - Father of the series 'Sherlock Holmes'.

Born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland (now England), Conan Doyle had a difficult childhood.

His father was an alcoholic. Conan Doyle was educated thanks to the efforts of his mother. She was his financial and emotional support until he got married and pursued a career in writing.

After studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881, Conan Doyle became a doctor on a ship sailing to West Africa. A year later, he opened a private practice in Plymouth. While waiting for patients, he began writing stories.

In 1890, Conan Doyle went to London to open an eye clinic. At this time, Doyle decided to write short stories and the main character was still Sherlock Holmes.

Doyle believed that Holmes and his cases were suited to the short story form. As Doyle believed, Holmes' short stories created a craze among detective story lovers at that time, especially the middle class.

In 1887, A Study in Scarlet , Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, was published and received a wide readership. But the book's success did little to help Conan Doyle make a living. In fact, Conan Doyle began to regret creating Holmes because Holmes's crime-solving stories completely overshadowed what he considered his more serious works, such as the historical novels Micah Clarke.

Sherlock Holmes and his conflicting love

In the story, Sherlock Holmes was born in 1854. He began living at 221B Baker Street, London, England with Dr. Watson, Holmes's close friend and biographer during and after the cases.

Doyle's feelings for Holmes were complicated. Doyle both loved and hated the 'brainchild' who made him one of the greatest writers of all time.

For two years, Doyle devoted himself to the character of the brilliant detective. But the more popular the work became, the greater the pressure on Doyle. The deadlines set by magazines became increasingly burdensome for the writer. Finally, Doyle decided to 'end' the life of Sherlock Holmes.

In his short story The Final Problem , Conan Doyle had Holmes carelessly walk over the edge of a rock and fall over the Reeichenbach Falls. The author's decision met with a very strong initial reaction from readers. But Doyle was steadfast: 'I would be criticized a lot if I 'killed' this gentleman. But it was not murder, it was self-defense. Because if I didn't kill him. He would have killed me anyway'.

With Sherlock Holmes, fans began to inject their personal thoughts into popular culture.

By the time he finished Holmes off, Conan Doyle must have thought that was enough. If he did, he didn't understand the feelings of his fans. The public's reaction to Holmes' death was unprecedented in fiction.

More than 20,000 readers of the Strand Magazine canceled their subscriptions in outrage at Holmes' untimely death. The magazine was unable to survive. Staff members called Holmes' death a 'horrific event'.

With Sherlock Holmes, fans have begun to inject their own personal ideas into popular culture. They want the works they love to meet their specific expectations. They seem to genuinely want to have an interactive relationship with the works they admire.

However, it took eight years, until 1901, when public pressure was so great that Conan Doyle had to write a new story about Holmes before his death called The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Doyle explained that this story took place before Holmes faced that fateful day. The following year, the author continued to publish The Adventure of the Empty House , in which Conan Doyle explained that only Moriarty fell off the cliff and Holmes only faked his death to continue investigating Moriarty's organization.

Today, many people have to admit that Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective in the history of literature and one of the most recognized literary characters in the world. The fact that Sherlock Holmes ' 'father' pushed him off the cliff did not kill Holmes. Holmes will always come back, in this life and the next. Fans will always look at that.

Famous quotes of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective of all time.

1. My name is Sherlock Holmes. My job is to know what other people don't know.

2. The human mind is originally like an empty room, into which we must fill such furniture as we please. The fool piles up all sorts of miscellaneous things in it, until the knowledge that might be useful to him is crushed under a pile of other knowledge, so that when he needs it, he can hardly get it out and use it.

On the contrary, the skilled worker carefully selected the things that were placed in that room. He wanted to contain only those tools that would be useful to him in his work; each one was arranged in a very neat manner.

It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can expand indefinitely. You (he was speaking to Dr. Watson) must believe that there comes a time when, with every new knowledge acquired, we forget something we already have.

So don't absorb useless concepts, they will push away useful things.

3. A basic mistake is to make assumptions before we have the facts in hand. Doing so can easily lead to our judgment being misguided.

4. Our thoughts must be on a par with the greatness of nature if we want to understand nature.

5. For a big mind nothing is small.

6. The question is not what you have done in this world, but what can you do to make people believe that you have done it?

7. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

8. From a single drop of water, a good thinker can infer the possibility of an ocean or a waterfall, without ever having seen them with his own eyes.

Thus, the whole of life is a vast chain whose nature we can know, if we know one link.

Like all other sciences, 'inference and analysis' is a science which can only be mastered after a long and persistent process of study.

Newcomers to this field should start with the basics: when meeting anyone, just by observing, try to find out their background and profession.

As childish as it may seem, this practice actually sharpens our powers of observation and teaches us where to look and what to look for.

Fingernails, calluses on the index finger and thumb, shirt sleeves, trouser knees, gait, and way of standing are all things that tell a person's profession.

9. People, when presented with a series of events, will most likely predict the outcome of those events.

They can put those events together in their minds and deduce what must have happened. But few people, after hearing it to the end, are able to deduce what events led to that outcome.