Sherlock Holmes

File:Arthur Conan Doyle by Walter Benington, 1914.png (1859–1930), Sherlock Holmes's creator, in 1914]]

Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many later characters, including Holmes.

{{Cite book | last = Sova | first = Dawn B. | title = Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z | publisher = Checkmark Books| year = 2001 | edition = Paperback | isbn = 0-8160-4161-X | pages = [https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoetoz0000sova/page/162 162–163] | url = https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoetoz0000sova/page/162 }} Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed ... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?"{{Cite book | last = Knowles | first = Christopher | title = Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes | year = 2007 |publisher = Weiser Books |isbn=978-1-57863-406-4|page=67| title-link = Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes }} Similarly, the stories of Émile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq were extremely popular at the time Conan Doyle began writing Holmes, and Holmes's speech and behaviour sometimes follow those of Lecoq.{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes|last=Conan Doyle|first=Arthur|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1993|editor-last=Lancelyn Green|editor-first=Richard|location=Oxford|pages=xv}}{{Cite web|last=Sims|first=Michael|date=25 January 2017|title=How Sherlock Holmes Got His Name|url=https://lithub.com/how-sherlock-holmes-got-his-name/|access-date=11 November 2020|website=Literary Hub|language=en-US|archive-date=16 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716112159/https://lithub.com/how-sherlock-holmes-got-his-name/|url-status=live}} Doyle has his main characters discuss these literary antecedents near the beginning of A Study in Scarlet, which is set soon after Watson is first introduced to Holmes. Watson attempts to compliment Holmes by comparing him to Dupin, to which Holmes replies that he found Dupin to be "a very inferior fellow" and Lecoq to be "a miserable bungler".Klinger III, pp. 42-44—A Study in Scarlet

Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations.{{cite book |last=Lycett |first=Andrew |title=The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |publisher=Free Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-7523-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/manwhocreatedshe00lyce/page/53 53–54, 190] |url=https://archive.org/details/manwhocreatedshe00lyce/page/53 }} However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it".{{cite book|last=Barring-Gould |first=William S. |title=The Annotated Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.|isbn=0-517-50291-7|page=8|year=1974 }} Sir Henry Littlejohn, Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, provided Conan Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime.{{cite book |last=Doyle |first=A. Conan |title=The Boys' Sherlock Holmes, New & Enlarged Edition |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1961 |page=88}}

Other possible inspirations have been proposed, though never acknowledged by Doyle, such as Maximilien Heller, by French author Henry Cauvain. In this 1871 novel (sixteen years before the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, opium-smoking polymath detective, operating in Paris.{{cite book|title = Peter D. O'Neill, foreword to Maximilien Heller|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dAhVcqVyDeAC&pg=PA3|access-date = 10 November 2015|isbn = 9781901414301|last1 = Cauvain|first1 = Henry|year = 2006|publisher = Glen Segell Publishers|archive-date = 19 February 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240219042323/https://books.google.com/books?id=dAhVcqVyDeAC&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status = live}}{{cite web|title=¿Fue Sherlock Holmes un plagio?|url=http://www.abc.es/cultura/20150223/abci-polemica-sobre-sherlock-holmes-201502211944.html|newspaper=ABC|date=22 February 2015|access-date=10 November 2015|archive-date=17 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117033314/http://www.abc.es/cultura/20150223/abci-polemica-sobre-sherlock-holmes-201502211944.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Maximilien Holmes. How Intertextuality Influences Translation, by Sandro Maria Perna, Università degli Studi di Padova 2013/14|url=http://tesi.cab.unipd.it/46778/1/TESI_COMPLETA_UNIPD.pdf|access-date=10 November 2015|archive-date=3 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103230818/http://tesi.cab.unipd.it/46778/1/TESI_COMPLETA_UNIPD.pdf|url-status=dead}} It is not known if Conan Doyle read the novel, but he was fluent in French.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=France|title=France|website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia|access-date=22 June 2018|archive-date=23 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623005023/https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=France|url-status=live}}

File:A Study in Scarlet from Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887.jpg, which contains Holmes's first appearance (A Study in Scarlet)]]

Details of Sherlock Holmes' life in Conan Doyle's stories are scarce and often vague. Nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective.

A statement of Holmes' age in "His Last Bow" places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes him as sixty years of age.Klinger II, p. 1432—"His Last Bow" His parents are not mentioned, although Holmes mentions that his "ancestors" were "country squires". In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle, or Horace Vernet. Holmes' brother Mycroft, seven years his senior, is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Sherlock describes 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.Klinger I, pp. 637-639—"The Greek Interpreter"{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mycroft-holmes|title=Mycroft Holmes|last=Quigley|first=Michael J.|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227073317/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mycroft-holmes|url-status=live}}

Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from his fellow university students.Klinger I, pp. 529-531—"The Musgrave Ritual" A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession.Klinger I, pp. 501-502—"The Gloria Scott"

File:Strand paget.jpg illustration for "The Adventure of Silver Blaze"]]

In the first Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet, financial difficulties lead Holmes and Dr. Watson to share rooms together at 221B Baker Street, London.Klinger III, pp. 17-18, 28—A Study in Scarlet Their residence is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson.{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mrs-hudson|title=Mrs Hudson|last=Birkby|first=Michelle|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227073313/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mrs-hudson|url-status=live}} Holmes works as a detective for twenty-three years, with Watson assisting him for seventeen of those years.Klinger II, pp. 1692, 1705-1706—"The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" Most of the stories are frame narratives written from Watson's point of view, as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes frequently calls Watson's records of Holmes's cases sensational and populist, suggesting that they fail to accurately and objectively report the "science" of his craft:

{{Blockquote|Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it [A Study in Scarlet] with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid. ... Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it.Klinger III, p. 217—The Sign of Four|sign=|source=}}

Nevertheless, when Holmes recorded a case himself, he was forced to concede that he could more easily understand the need to write it in a manner that would appeal to the public rather than his intention to focus on his own technical skill.Klinger II, pp. 1482-1483—"The Blanched Soldier"

Holmes's friendship with Watson is his most significant relationship. When Watson is injured by a bullet, although the wound turns out to be "quite superficial", Watson is moved by Holmes's reaction:

{{Blockquote|It was worth a wound; it was worth many wounds; to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.Klinger II, p. 1598—"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs"}}

After confirming Watson's assessment of the wound, Holmes makes it clear to their opponent that the man would not have left the room alive if he genuinely had killed Watson.

Holmes' 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"The Reigate Squires" and "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" are two examples. that, Watson writes, by 1887 "Europe was ringing with his name""The Reigate Squires" and by 1895 Holmes has "an immense practice".Klinger II, p. 976—"The Adventure of Black Peter" Police outside London ask Holmes for assistance if he is nearby.Klinger I, pp. 561-562—"The Reigate Squires" A British prime ministerKlinger II, pp. 1190-1191, 1222-1225—"The Adventure of the Second Stain" and the King of BohemiaKlinger I, pp. 15-16—"A Scandal in Bohemia" visit 221B Baker Street in person to request Holmes's assistance; the President of France awards him the Legion of Honour for capturing an assassin;Klinger II, p. 1092—"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" the King of Scandinavia is a client;Klinger I, p. 299—"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor"—there was no such position in existence at the time of the story. and he aids the Vatican at least twice.The Hound of the Baskervilles (Klinger III p. 409) and "The Adventure of Black Peter" (Klinger II p. 977) The detective acts on behalf of the British government in matters of national security several times"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", "The Naval Treaty", and after retirement, "His Last Bow". and declines a knighthood "for services which may perhaps some day be described".Klinger II, p. 1581—"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" However, he does not actively seek fame and is usually content to let the police take public credit for his work.In "The Naval Treaty" (Klinger I p. 691), Holmes remarks that, of his last fifty-three cases, the police have had all the credit in forty-nine.

File:Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.jpg Moriarty struggle at the Reichenbach Falls; drawing by Sidney Paget]]

The first set of Holmes stories was published between 1887 and 1893. Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in a final battle with the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/professor-james-moriarty|title=Professor James Moriarty|last=Walsh|first=Michael|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227073317/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/professor-james-moriarty|url-status=live}} in "The Final Problem" (published 1893, but set in 1891), as Conan Doyle felt that "my literary energies should not be directed too much into one channel".Klinger II, p. 1448—The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes However, the reaction of the public surprised him very much. Distressed readers wrote anguished letters to The Strand Magazine, which suffered a terrible blow when 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine in protest. Conan Doyle himself received many protest letters, and one lady even began her letter with "You brute".{{cite news |title=The hounding of Arthur Conan Doyle |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-hounding-of-arthur-conan-doyle-1.323267 |access-date=8 October 2020 |newspaper=The Irish News |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128002254/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-hounding-of-arthur-conan-doyle-1.323267 |url-status=live }} Legend has it that Londoners were so distraught upon hearing the news of Holmes's death that they wore black armbands in mourning, though there is no known contemporaneous source for this; the earliest known reference to such events comes from 1949.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/armbands.html|title=A Reader Challenge & Prize|last=Calamai|first=Peter|website=The Baker Street Journal|date=22 May 2013|access-date=25 June 2018|archive-date=27 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527161708/http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/armbands.html|url-status=live}} However, the recorded public reaction to Holmes's death was unlike anything previously seen for fictional events.

After resisting public pressure for eight years, Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised in 1901–02, with an implicit setting before Holmes's death). In 1903, Conan Doyle wrote "The Adventure of the Empty House"; set in 1894, Holmes reappears, explaining to a stunned Watson that he had faked his death to fool his enemies.Klinger I, pp. 791-794—"The Adventure of the Empty House" Following "The Adventure of the Empty House", Conan Doyle would sporadically write new Holmes stories until 1927.

Holmes aficionados refer to the period from 1891 to 1894—between his disappearance and presumed death in "The Final Problem" and his reappearance in "The Adventure of the Empty House"—as the Great Hiatus.Klinger II, pp. 815-822 The earliest known use of this expression dates to 1946.{{cite book|last=Riggs|first=Ransom|author-link=Ransom Riggs|title=The Sherlock Holmes Handbook. The methods and mysteries of the world's greatest detective|year=2009|publisher=Quirk Books|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1-59474-429-7|pages=115–118}}

In His Last Bow, the reader is told that Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs and taken up beekeeping as his primary occupation.Klinger II, pp. 1229, 1437, 1440—His Last Bow The move is not dated precisely, but can be presumed to be no later than 1904 (since it is referred to retrospectively in "The Adventure of the Second Stain", first published that year).Klinger II, p. 1189—"The Adventure of the Second Stain" The story features Holmes and Watson coming out of retirement to aid the British war effort. Only one other adventure, "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", takes place during the detective's retirement.Klinger II, p. 1667—"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"

File:The Adventure of the Priory School 08.jpg" from 1904. Sidney Paget's illustrations in The Strand Magazine iconicised both characters.]]

Watson describes Holmes as "bohemian" in his habits and lifestyle.Klinger I, p. 265—"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" Said to have a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness,Klinger III, p. 550—The Hound of the Baskervilles at the same time Holmes is an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order. Watson describes him as

{{Blockquote|in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. [He] 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. ... He had a horror of destroying documents. ... Thus 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.Klinger I, pp. 528-529—"The Musgrave Ritual"|sign=|source=|title=}}

While Holmes is characterised as dispassionate and cold, he can be animated and excitable during an investigation. He has a flair for showmanship, often keeping his methods and evidence hidden until the last possible moment so as to impress observers.Klinger III, p. 481—The Hound of the Baskervilles Holmes is willing to break the law as a means for righting a wrong, contending that "there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge."{{Cite book |last=DK |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9LgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT564 |title=The Sherlock Holmes Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained |date=2019-11-12 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-4654-9944-8 |location=United Kingdom |pages=564 |language=en}} His companion condones the detective's willingness to do this on behalf of a client—lying to the police, concealing evidence or breaking into houses—when he also feels it morally justifiable."A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", and "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client"

Except for that of Watson, Holmes avoids casual company. In "The Gloria Scott", he tells the doctor that during two years at college he made only one friend: "I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson ... I never mixed much with the men of my year."Klinger I, p. 502—"The Gloria Scott" The detective goes without food at times of intense intellectual activity, believing that "the faculties become refined when you starve them".Klinger II, p. 848—"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder"Klinger II, p. 1513—"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" At times, Holmes relaxes with music, either playing the violinKlinger III, pp. 34-36—A Study in Scarlet or enjoying the works of composers such as WagnerKlinger II, pp. 1296-1297—"The Adventure of the Red Circle" and Pablo de Sarasate.Klinger I, p. 58—"The Red-Headed League"

File:Sherlock Holmes - The Man with the Twisted Lip (colored).jpg"]]

Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in the absence of stimulating cases.Klinger III, pp. 213-214—The Sign of Four He sometimes uses morphine and sometimes cocaine, the latter of which he injects in a seven-percent solution; both drugs were legal in 19th-century England.{{Cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/doyle/addiction.html|title=Sherlock Holmes's Addictions|last=Diniejko|first=Andrzej|date=13 December 2013|website=The Victorian Web|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227043831/http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/doyle/addiction.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/science/addiction/addiction2.html|title=Victorian Drug Use|last=Diniejko|first=Andrzej|date=7 September 2002|website=The Victorian Web|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=2 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202222702/http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/science/addiction/addiction2.html|url-status=live}}{{cite journal |author= Dalby, J. T. |title= Sherlock Holmes's Cocaine Habit |journal= Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine |year= 1991 |volume= 8 |pages= 73–74 |url= http://bakerstreetdozen.com/coca.html |doi= 10.1017/S0790966700016475 |s2cid= 142678530 |access-date= 24 September 2007 |archive-date= 16 July 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716225106/http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com/coca.html |url-status= live |issn = 2051-6967}} As a physician, Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's only vice, and concerned about its effect on Holmes's mental health and intellect.Klinger III, pp. 215-216—The Sign of FourKlinger II, p. 450—"The Yellow Face" In "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", Watson says that although he has "weaned" Holmes from drugs, the detective remains an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping".Klinger II, p. 1124—"The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter"

Watson and Holmes both use tobacco, smoking cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. Although his chronicler does not consider Holmes's smoking a vice per se, Watson—a physician—does criticise the detective for creating a "poisonous atmosphere" in their confined quarters.Klinger III, p. 423—The Hound of the Baskervilles. See also Klinger II, pp. 950, 1108-1109.Klinger II, p. 1402—"The Adventure of the Devil's Foot"

Holmes is known to charge clients for his expenses and claim any reward offered for a problem's solution, such as in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", "The Red-Headed League", and "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet". The detective states at one point that "My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether." In this context, a client is offering to double his fee, and it is implied that wealthy clients habitually pay Holmes more than his standard rate.Klinger II, p. 1609—"The Problem of Thor Bridge" In "The Adventure of the Priory School", Holmes earns a £6,000 feeKlinger II, p. 971—"The Adventure of the Priory School" (at a time where annual expenses for a rising young professional were in the area of £500).{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/wages2.html|title=Wages and Cost of Living in the Victorian Era|website=The Victorian Web|access-date=13 March 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062554/http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/wages2.html|url-status=live}} However, Watson notes that Holmes would refuse to help even the wealthy and powerful if their cases did not interest him.Klinger II, p. 976—"The Adventure of Black Peter"

As Conan Doyle wrote to Joseph Bell, "Holmes is as inhuman as a Babbage's Calculating Machine and just about as likely to fall in love."{{cite book|last=Liebow|first=Ely|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5nb6TywMIQC&pg=PA173 |date=1982|title=Dr. Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Popular Press|isbn=9780879721985|page=173|access-date=17 October 2014}} Holmes says of himself that he is "not a whole-souled admirer of womankind",Klinger III, p. 704—The Valley of Fear and that he finds "the motives of women ... inscrutable. ... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes".Klinger II, pp. 1203-1204—"The Adventure of the Second Stain" In The Sign of Four, he says, "Women are never to be entirely trusted—not the best of them", a feeling Watson notes as an "atrocious sentiment".Klinger III, p. 311—The Sign of Four In "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", Holmes writes, "Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart."Klinger II, p. 1676—"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" At the end of The Sign of Four, Holmes states that "love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true, cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgement."Klinger III, p. 378—The Sign of Four Ultimately, Holmes claims outright that "I have never loved."Klinger II, p. 1422—"The Adventure of the Devil's Foot"

But while Watson says that the detective has an "aversion to women",Klinger I, p. 635—"The Greek Interpreter" he also notes Holmes as having "a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them]".Klinger II, p. 1111—"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez" Watson notes that their housekeeper Mrs. Hudson is fond of Holmes because of his "remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent."Klinger II, pp. 1341-1342—"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" In "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", the detective becomes engaged under false pretenses in order to obtain information about a case, abandoning the woman once he has the information he requires.Klinger II, pp. 1015-1106—"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"

Irene Adler is a retired American opera singer and actress who appears in "A Scandal in Bohemia". Although this is her only appearance, she is one of only a handful of people who bests Holmes in a battle of wits, and the only woman. For this reason, Adler is the frequent subject of pastiche writing.{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/irene-adler|title=Irene Adler|last=Karlson|first=Katherine|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227073313/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/irene-adler|url-status=live}} The beginning of the story describes the high regard in which Holmes holds her:

{{Blockquote|To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. ... And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.Klinger I, pp. 5-6—"A Scandal in Bohemia"}}

Five years before the story's events, Adler had a brief liaison with Crown Prince of Bohemia Wilhelm von Ormstein. As the story opens, the Prince is engaged to another. Fearful that the marriage would be called off if his fiancée's family learns of this past impropriety, Ormstein hires Holmes to regain a photograph of Adler and himself. Adler slips away before Holmes can succeed. Her memory is kept alive by the photograph of Adler that Holmes received for his part in the case.Klinger I, pp. 5-40—"A Scandal in Bohemia"

Shortly after meeting Holmes in the first story, A Study in Scarlet (generally assumed to be 1881, though the exact date is not given), Watson assesses the detective's abilities:

{{Blockquote|

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.Klinger III, pp. 34-35—A Study in Scarlet}}

In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes claims to be unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun since such information is irrelevant to his work; after hearing that fact from Watson, he says he will immediately try to forget it. The detective believes that the mind has a finite capacity for information storage, and learning useless things reduces one's ability to learn useful things.Klinger III, pp. 32-33—A Study in Scarlet The later stories move away from this notion: in The Valley of Fear, he says, "All knowledge comes useful to the detective",Klinger III, p. 650—The Valley of Fear and in "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", the detective calls himself "an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles".Klinger II, p. 1689—"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" Looking back on the development of the character in 1912, Conan Doyle wrote that "In the first one, the Study in Scarlet, [Holmes] was a mere calculating machine, but I had to make him more of an educated human being as I went on with him."Richard Lancelyn Green, "Introduction", The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) XXX.

Despite Holmes's supposed ignorance of politics, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognises the true identity of the disguised "Count von Kramm". At the end of A Study in Scarlet, Holmes demonstrates a knowledge of Latin.Klinger III, p. 202—A Study in Scarlet The detective cites Hafez,Klinger I, p. 100—"A Case of Identity" Goethe,Klinger IIII, p. 282—The Sign of Four as well as a letter from Gustave Flaubert to George Sand in the original French.Klinger I, p. 73—"The Red-Headed League" In The Hound of the Baskervilles, the detective recognises works by Godfrey Kneller and Joshua Reynolds: "Watson won't allow that I know anything of art, but that is mere jealousy since our views upon the subject differ."Klinger III, p. 570—The Hound of the Baskervilles In "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", Watson says that "Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus", considered "the last word" on the subject — which must have been the result of an intensive and very specialized musicological study with no obvious application to the solution of criminal mysteries.Klinger III, pp. 1333-1334, 1338-1340—"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans"{{cite web|url=http://webpages.charter.net/lklinger/lassus.htm|title=Lost in Lassus: The Missing Monograph|last=Klinger|first=Leslie|year=1999|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174800/http://webpages.charter.net/lklinger/lassus.htm|archive-date=3 March 2016|access-date=27 December 2019}}

Holmes is a cryptanalyst, telling Watson that "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers."Klinger II, p. 888—"The Adventure of the Dancing Men" Holmes also demonstrates a knowledge of psychology in "A Scandal in Bohemia", luring Irene Adler into betraying where she hid a photograph based on the premise that a woman will rush to save her most valued possession from a fire.Klinger I, p. 33—"A Scandal in Bohemia" Another example is in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", where Holmes obtains information from a salesman with a wager: "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet ... I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager."Klinger I, p. 216—"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"

Maria Konnikova points out in an interview with D. J. Grothe that Holmes practises what is now called mindfulness, concentrating on one thing at a time, and almost never "multitasks". She adds that in this he predates the science showing how helpful this is to the brain.{{cite web|url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/maria_konnikova_how_to_think_like_sherlock_holmes/|title=How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes|last1=Konnikova|first1=Maria|website=Point of Inquiry|publisher=Center for Inquiry|access-date=23 July 2017|archive-date=19 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219211946/http://www.pointofinquiry.org/maria_konnikova_how_to_think_like_sherlock_holmes|url-status=dead}}

File:Abbe-03.jpg"]]

Holmes observes the dress and attitude of his clients and suspects, noting skin marks (such as tattoos), contamination (such as ink stains or clay on boots), emotional state, and physical condition in order to deduce their origins and recent history. The style and state of wear of a person's clothes and personal items are also commonly relied on; in the stories, Holmes is seen applying his method to items such as walking sticks,Klinger III, pp. 387-392—The Hound of the Baskervilles pipes,Klinger I, pp. 450-453—"The Yellow Face" and hats.Klinger I, pp. 201-203—"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" For example, in "A Scandal in Bohemia", Holmes infers that Watson had got wet lately and had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl". When Watson asks how Holmes knows this, the detective answers:

{{Blockquote|It is simplicity itself ... my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey.Klinger I, p. 9—"A Scandal in Bohemia"}}

In the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson compares Holmes to C. Auguste Dupin, Edgar Allan Poe's fictional detective, who employed a similar methodology. Alluding to an episode in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", where Dupin determines what his friend is thinking despite their having walked together in silence for a quarter of an hour, Holmes remarks: "That trick of his breaking in on his friend's thoughts with an apropos remark ... is really very showy and superficial."Klinger III, p. 42—A Study in Scarlet Nevertheless, Holmes later performs the same 'trick' on Watson in "The Cardboard Box"Klinger I, pp. 423-426—"The Cardboard Box" and "The Adventure of the Dancing Men".Klinger II, pp. 864-865—"The Adventure of the Dancing Men"

Though the stories always refer to Holmes's intellectual detection method as "deduction", Holmes primarily relies on abduction: inferring an explanation for observed details.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMDWLq2FdrIC|title=Oxford studies in epistemology|editor1=Tamar Szabo Gendler |editor-first2=John |editor-last2=Hawthorne |first=Alexander |last=Bird |chapter=Abductive Knowledge and Holmesian Inference |page=11 |isbn=978-0-19-928590-7 |date=27 June 2006|publisher=OUP Oxford }}{{harvnb|Sebeok|Umiker-Sebeok|1984|pp=19–28, esp. p. 22}}{{cite book |title=Fact and feeling: Baconian science and the nineteenth-century literary imagination |page=214 |first=Jonathan |last=Smith |year=1994 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFn1Zx_desIC |isbn=978-0-299-14354-1 |access-date=29 September 2020 |archive-date=19 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219042335/https://books.google.com/books?id=hFn1Zx_desIC |url-status=live }} "From a drop of water," he writes, "a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other."Klinger III, p. 40—A Study in Scarlet However, Holmes does employ deductive reasoning as well. The detective's guiding principle, as he says in The Sign of Four, is: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."{{cite web |last=Bennett|first=Bo|title=Pseudo-Logical Fallacies |url=https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Pseudo-Logical-Fallacies |website=Logicallyfallacious.com |publisher=Logically Fallacious |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200731172256/https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Pseudo-Logical-Fallacies |archive-date=31 July 2020 |url-status=live}}

Holmes follows Sir Isaac Newton's rule of "hypotheses non fingo", for instance commenting in "A Scandal in Bohemia": "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

Despite Holmes's remarkable reasoning abilities, Conan Doyle still paints him as fallible in this regard (this being a central theme of "The Yellow Face").Klinger I, pp. 449-471—"The Yellow Face"

File:Mikroskop-seibert hg.jpg

Though Holmes is famed for his reasoning capabilities, his investigative technique relies heavily on the acquisition of hard evidence. Many of the techniques he employs in the stories were at the time in their infancy.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherlock-Holmes-Pioneer-in-Forensic-Science-1976713|title=Sherlock Holmes: Pioneer in Forensic Science|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|access-date=20 December 2019|archive-date=20 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220224925/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherlock-Holmes-Pioneer-in-Forensic-Science-1976713|url-status=live}}

The detective is particularly skilled in the analysis of trace evidence and other physical evidence, including latent prints (such as footprints, hoof prints, and shoe and tire impressions) to identify actions at a crime scene,A Study in Scarlet, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", "The Adventure of the Priory School", The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" using tobacco ashes and cigarette butts to identify criminals,"The Adventure of the Resident Patient", The Hound of the Baskervilles utilizing handwriting analysis and graphology,"The Reigate Squires", "The Man with the Twisted Lip" comparing typewritten letters to expose a fraud,Klinger I, pp. 99-100—"A Case of Identity" using gunpowder residue to expose two murderers,Klinger I, p. 578—"The Reigate Squires" and analyzing small pieces of human remains to expose two murders.Klinger I, pp. 438-439—"The Cardboard Box"

Because of the small scale of much of his evidence, the detective often uses a magnifying glass at the scene and an optical microscope at his Baker Street lodgings. He uses analytical chemistry for blood residue analysis and toxicology to detect poisons; Holmes's home chemistry laboratory is mentioned in "The Naval Treaty".Klinger I, p. 670—"The Naval Treaty" Ballistics feature in "The Adventure of the Empty House" when spent bullets are recovered to be matched with a suspected murder weapon, a practice which became regular police procedure only some fifteen years after the story was published.Klinger II, p. 814—"The Adventure of the Empty House"

Laura J. Snyder has examined Holmes's methods in the context of mid- to late-19th-century criminology, demonstrating that, while sometimes in advance of what official investigative departments were formally using at the time, they were based upon existing methods and techniques. For example, fingerprints were proposed to be distinct in Conan Doyle's day, and while Holmes used a thumbprint to solve a crime in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" (generally held to be set in 1895), the story was published in 1903, two years after Scotland Yard's fingerprint bureau opened.{{cite journal|last=Snyder|first=Laura J.|year=2004|title=Sherlock Holmes: scientific detective|journal=Endeavour|volume=28|issue=3|pages=104–108|doi=10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.07.007|pmid=15350761}}Klinger II, pp. 860-863 Though the effect of the Holmes stories on the development of forensic science has thus often been overstated, Holmes inspired future generations of forensic scientists to think scientifically and analytically.{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Roy |date=2022-05-20 |title=Opinion: The fictional character who changed the science of solving crime |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/20/opinions/sherlock-holmes-father-of-modern-forensic-science-schwartz/index.html |access-date=2022-05-21 |website=CNN |language=en |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521182548/https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/20/opinions/sherlock-holmes-father-of-modern-forensic-science-schwartz/index.html |url-status=live }}

Holmes displays a strong aptitude for acting and disguise. In several stories ("The Sign of Four", "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "A Scandal in Bohemia"), to gather evidence undercover, he uses disguises so convincing that Watson fails to recognise him. In others ("The Adventure of the Dying Detective" and "A Scandal in Bohemia"), Holmes feigns injury or illness to incriminate the guilty. In the latter story, Watson says, "The stage lost a fine actor ... when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime."Klinger I, p. 30—"A Scandal in Bohemia"

Guy Mankowski has said of Holmes that his ability to change his appearance to blend into any situation "helped him personify the idea of the English eccentric chameleon, in a way that prefigured the likes of David Bowie".{{Cite web |last=Schurr |first=Maria |date=15 March 2021 |title=Hauntings, Dystopia and the English Outsider in Albion's Secret History |url=https://www.popmatters.com/guy-mankowski-albions-secret-history |access-date=30 July 2021 |website=Pop Matters |archive-date=30 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730162312/https://www.popmatters.com/guy-mankowski-albions-secret-history |url-status=live }}

Until Watson's arrival at Baker Street, Holmes largely worked alone, only occasionally employing agents from the city's underclass. These agents included a variety of informants, such as Langdale Pike, a "human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal",Klinger II, p. 1545—"The Adventure of the Three Gables" and Shinwell Johnson, who acted as Holmes's "agent in the huge criminal underworld of London".Klinger II, p. 1456—"The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" The best known of Holmes's agents are a group of street children he called "the Baker Street Irregulars".Klinger III, p. 305—The Sign of Four. These "street Arabs" also appear briefly in A Study in Scarlet and "The Adventure of the Crooked Man".{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/the-baker-street-irregulars-and-billy-the-page|title=The Baker Street Irregulars and Billy The Page|last=Merritt|first=Russell|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227071330/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/the-baker-street-irregulars-and-billy-the-page|url-status=live}}

File:British Army Mark III Model of 1872.JPG

Holmes and Watson often carry pistols with them to confront criminals—in Watson's case, his old service weapon (probably a Mark III Adams revolver, issued to British troops during the 1870s).{{cite web|url=http://archives.gunsandammo.com/content/guns-sherlock-holmes|title=The Guns of Sherlock Holmes|access-date=27 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114030405/http://archives.gunsandammo.com/content/guns-sherlock-holmes |archive-date=14 November 2012}} Holmes and Watson shoot the eponymous hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles,Klinger III, p. 589—The Hound of the Baskervilles and in "The Adventure of the Empty House", Watson pistol-whips Colonel Sebastian Moran.Klinger II, pp. 805-806—"The Adventure of the Empty House" In "The Problem of Thor Bridge", Holmes uses Watson's revolver to solve the case through an experiment.

As a gentleman, Holmes often carries a stick or cane. He is described by Watson as an expert at singlestick, and uses his cane thrice as a weapon.See "The Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band". In A Study in Scarlet, Watson describes Holmes as an expert swordsman, and in "The Gloria Scott", the detective says he practised fencing while at university. In several stories ("A Case of Identity", "The Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"), Holmes wields a riding crop, described in the latter story as his "favourite weapon".Klinger II, p. 1050—"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"

File:The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist 03.jpg"|alt=Holmes fighting]]

The detective is described (or demonstrated) as possessing above-average physical strength. In "The Yellow Face", Holmes's chronicler says, "Few men were capable of greater muscular effort."Klinger I, p. 449—"The Yellow Face" In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Dr. Roylott demonstrates his strength by bending a fire poker in half. Watson describes Holmes as laughing and saying, {{"'}}If he had remained I might have shown him that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.' As he spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, straightened it out again."Klinger I, p. 243—"The Adventure of the Speckled Band"

Holmes is an adept bare-knuckle fighter; "The Gloria Scott" mentions that Holmes boxed while at university. In The Sign of Four, he introduces himself to McMurdo, a prize fighter, as "the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your benefit four years back". McMurdo remembers: "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high if you had joined the fancy."Klinger III, pp. 262-263—The Sign of Four In "The Yellow Face", Watson says: "He was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen."Klinger I, pp. 449-450—"The Yellow Face" In "The Solitary Cyclist", Holmes visits a country pub to make enquiries regarding a certain Mr Woodley which results in violence. Mr Woodley, Holmes tells Watson,Klinger II, p. 915—"The Solitary Cyclist"

{{blockquote|... had been drinking his beer in the tap-room, and had heard the whole conversation. Who was I? What did I want? What did I mean by asking questions? He had a fine flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. He ended a string of abuse by a vicious backhander, which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart.}}

Another character subsequently refers to Mr Woodley as looking "much disfigured" as a result of his encounter with Holmes.Klinger II, p. 916—"The Solitary Cyclist"

In "The Adventure of the Empty House", Holmes tells Watson that he used a Japanese martial art known as baritsu to fling Moriarty to his death in the Reichenbach Falls.Klinger II, p. 791—"The Adventure of the Empty House" "Baritsu" is Conan Doyle's version of bartitsu, which combines jujitsu with boxing and cane fencing.{{cite web|url=http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2010/10/the-mystery-of-baritsu-1958/|title=The Mystery of Baritsu|website=The Bartitsu Society|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130121805/http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2010/10/the-mystery-of-baritsu-1958/|archive-date=30 November 2018|access-date=27 December 2019}}

File:The Strand Magazine (cover), vol. 65, no. 321, September 1917.jpg in 1891. This September 1917 edition of the magazine, with the cover story, "Sherlock Holmes outwits a German spy", could be posted to troops free of charge.]]

The first two Sherlock Holmes stories, the novels A Study in Scarlet (1887) and The Sign of the Four (1890), were moderately well received, but Holmes first became very popular early in 1891 when the first six short stories featuring the character were published in The Strand Magazine. Holmes became widely known in Britain and America. The character was so well known that in 1893 when Arthur Conan Doyle killed Holmes in the short story "The Final Problem", the strongly negative response from readers was unlike any previous public reaction to a fictional event. The Strand reportedly lost more than 20,000 subscribers as a result of Holmes's death.{{Cite web |last=Kathryn Caroline Smith |date=2 May 2008 |title=Forming and Protecting the Middle-Class Victorian Ideal: Holmes and Watson |url=https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncp/f/Forming%20and%20Protecting%20the%20Middle-Class%20Victorian%20Ideal.pdf |website=University of North Carolina at Greensboro |publication-place=University of North Carolina at Pembroke}} Public pressure eventually contributed to Conan Doyle writing another Holmes story in 1901 and resurrecting the character in a story published in 1903. In Japan, Sherlock Holmes (and Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) became immensely popular in the country in the 1890s as it was opening up to the West, and they are cited as two British fictional Victorians who left an enormous creative and cultural legacy there.{{Cite web |last=Nathan |first=Richard |date=18 December 2020 |title=Ultra-Influencers: The Two British Fictional Victorians that Changed Japan |url=https://www.redcircleauthors.com/news-and-views/ultra-influencers-the-two-british-fictional-victorians-that-changed-japan/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218082150/https://www.redcircleauthors.com/news-and-views/ultra-influencers-the-two-british-fictional-victorians-that-changed-japan/ |archive-date=18 December 2020 |access-date=21 January 2021 |website=Red Circle Authors}}

Many fans of Sherlock Holmes have written letters to Holmes's address, 221B Baker Street. Though the address 221B Baker Street did not exist when the stories were first published, letters began arriving to the large Abbey National building which first encompassed that address almost as soon as it was built in 1932. Fans continue to send letters to Sherlock Holmes;{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/bank-accounts/5394699/Santander-who-was-Abbeys-most-famous-customer.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/bank-accounts/5394699/Santander-who-was-Abbeys-most-famous-customer.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Santander: who was Abbey's most famous customer?|date=27 May 2009|website=The Telegraph|access-date=18 February 2020}}{{cbignore}} these letters are now delivered to the Sherlock Holmes Museum.{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-mystery-of-221b-baker-street-3608784/|title=The Mystery of 221B Baker Street|last=Stamp|first=Jimmy|date=18 July 2012|website=Smithsonian |access-date=18 February 2020|archive-date=23 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123204245/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-mystery-of-221b-baker-street-3608784/|url-status=live}} Some of the people who have sent letters to 221B Baker Street believe Holmes is real. Members of the general public have also believed Holmes actually existed. In a 2008 survey of British teenagers, 58 per cent of respondents believed that Sherlock Holmes was a real individual.

Some scholarly discussion of Holmes has occasionally been written (usually facetiously) from the perspective of Holmes and Dr. Watson having existed; an example of this are the five critical essays, "Studies in Sherlock Holmes", by the author and essayist Dorothy L. Sayers in her 1946 non-fiction collection, Unpopular Opinions, including an article examining Watson's signature which was allegedly visible in some original Strand illustrations.{{Cite book | last = Sayers | first = Dorothy L. | title = Unpopular Opinions | location = London | year = 1946 |publisher = Victor Gollancz |page=134-190}}

The Sherlock Holmes stories continue to be widely read. Holmes's continuing popularity has led to many reimaginings of the character in adaptations. Guinness World Records, which awarded Sherlock Holmes the title for "most portrayed literary human character in film & TV" in 2012, released a statement saying that the title "reflects his enduring appeal and demonstrates that his detective talents are as compelling today as they were 125 years ago".

File:Statue Of Sherlock Holmes-Marylebone Road.jpg near 221B Baker Street, London]]

File:Sign at Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker St 221b.jpg at The Sherlock Holmes Museum 221b Baker Street, London]]

The London Metropolitan Railway named one of its twenty electric locomotives deployed in the 1920s for Sherlock Holmes. He was the only fictional character so honoured, along with eminent Britons such as Lord Byron, Benjamin Disraeli, and Florence Nightingale.{{cite book | title=Railway Engines of the World | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=Reed, Brian | year=1934 | page=133}}

A number of London streets are associated with Holmes. York Mews South, off Crawford Street, was renamed Sherlock Mews, and Watson's Mews is near Crawford Place.[http://www.lurotbrand.co.uk/images/mewsnews/MN%2002%20Summer%20web.pdf Mews News] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927185828/http://www.lurotbrand.co.uk/images/mewsnews/MN%2002%20Summer%20web.pdf |date=27 September 2013 }}. Lurot Brand. Published Summer 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2013. The Sherlock Holmes is a public house in Northumberland Street in London which contains a large collection of memorabilia related to Holmes, the original collection having been put together for display in Baker Street during the Festival of Britain in 1951.{{cite web|url=http://www.sherlockology.com/locations/northumberland-street|title=Northumberland Street|publisher=Sherlockology|access-date=6 June 2014|archive-date=21 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221002041/http://www.sherlockology.com/locations/northumberland-street|url-status=dead}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhEnHQAACAAJ|last=Thomson|first=Henry Douglas|title= The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue of the Collection in the Bars and the Grill Room and in the Reconstruction of Part of the Living Room at 221 B Baker Street|year=1958|publisher=Whitbread}}

In 2002, the Royal Society of Chemistry bestowed an honorary fellowship on Holmes for his use of forensic science and analytical chemistry in popular literature, making him (as of 2024) the only fictional character thus honoured.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2332461.stm|title=NI chemist honours Sherlock Holmes|date=16 October 2002|access-date=19 June 2011|work=BBC News|archive-date=19 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619014414/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2332461.stm|url-status=live}} Holmes has been commemorated numerous times on UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail, most recently in their August 2020 series to celebrate the Sherlock television series.{{cite news |title=Royal Mail launches Sherlock Holmes stamps that reveal secret storylines under UV light |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/sherlock-holmes-stamps-royal-mail-uv-light-buy-arthur-conan-doyle-a9651496.html |date=18 August 2020 |access-date=1 October 2022 |work=The Independent |archive-date=1 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001105307/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/sherlock-holmes-stamps-royal-mail-uv-light-buy-arthur-conan-doyle-a9651496.html |url-status=live }}

There are multiple statues of Sherlock Holmes around the world. The first, sculpted by John Doubleday, was unveiled in Meiringen, Switzerland, in September 1988. The second was unveiled in October 1988 in Karuizawa, Japan, and was sculpted by Yoshinori Satoh. The third was installed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1989, and was sculpted by Gerald Laing.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3OIoRbJFhAC&pg=PA301 |title=Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition |year=2009 |last=Redmond |first=Christopher |page=301 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=9781770705920}} In 1999, a statue of Sherlock Holmes in London, also by John Doubleday, was unveiled near the fictional detective's address, 221B Baker Street.{{cite news|last=Reid|first=T. R.|author-link=T. R. Reid|title=Sherlock Holmes honored with statue near fictional London home|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xA8hAAAAIBAJ&pg=2790,5166715&dq=statue+sherlock-holmes+london&hl=en|access-date=6 January 2013|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=22 September 1999|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109122558/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xA8hAAAAIBAJ&pg=2790%2C5166715&dq=statue%20sherlock-holmes%20london&hl=en|url-status=live}} In 2001, a sculpture of Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle by Irena Sedlecká was unveiled in a statue collection in Warwickshire, England.{{cite magazine |url=https://issuu.com/mallams/docs/the_franta_belsky_and_irena_sedleck |magazine=The Atelier Sale of Franta Belsky and Irena Sedlecka |publisher=Mallams |location=Oxford |date=11 April 2017 |access-date=6 August 2020 |last=Cannon-Brookes |first=Peter |page=33 |title=Irena Sedlecka |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020063753/https://issuu.com/mallams/docs/the_franta_belsky_and_irena_sedleck |url-status=live }} A sculpture depicting both Holmes and Watson was unveiled in 2007 in Moscow, Russia, based partially on Sidney Paget's illustrations and partially on the actors in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.{{cite web |url=https://ethnoworld.ru/en/projects/projects-in-russia/monument-to-sherlock-holmes-and-dr-watson/ |title=Monument to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson |website=Dialogue of Cultures - United World |access-date=26 July 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726130358/https://ethnoworld.ru/en/projects/projects-in-russia/monument-to-sherlock-holmes-and-dr-watson/ |url-status=live }} In 2015, a sculpture of Holmes by Jane DeDecker was installed in the police headquarters of Edmond, Oklahoma, United States.{{cite web |url=https://www.southwestart.com/featured/edmond-oct2017 |website=Southwest Art |title=A small Oklahoma town finds community through public art |last=Gangelhoff |first=Bonnie |date=15 September 2017 |access-date=6 August 2020 |archive-date=14 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114002326/https://www.southwestart.com/featured/edmond-oct2017 |url-status=live }} In 2019, a statue of Holmes was unveiled in Chester, Illinois, United States, as part of a series of statues honouring cartoonist E. C. Segar and his characters. The statue is titled "Sherlock & Segar", and the face of the statue was modelled on Segar.{{Cite web|url=https://www.baskervilleproductions.com/statue|title=December 7, 2019: First Permanent Granite Tribute to Sherlock Holmes erected in the Americas|last=McClure|first=Michael|date=7 December 2019|website=Baskerville Productions|access-date=7 December 2019|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726123951/https://www.baskervilleproductions.com/statue|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Sherlock Holmes fandom#Societies}}

In 1934, the Sherlock Holmes Society (in London) and the Baker Street Irregulars (in New York) were founded. The latter is still active. The Sherlock Holmes Society was dissolved later in the 1930s, but was succeeded by a society with a slightly different name, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which was founded in 1951 and remains active.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/about-the-society/|title=About the Society|website=The Sherlock Holmes Society of London|language=en-US|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=16 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191216172108/http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/about-the-society/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/bsi-history/|title=Origins of the BSI|website=The Baker Street Irregulars|date=8 June 2018|language=en|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227075452/https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/bsi-history/|url-status=live}} These societies were followed by many more, first in the US (where they are known as "scion societies"—offshoots—of the Baker Street Irregulars) and then in England and Denmark. There are at least 250 societies worldwide, including Australia, Canada (such as The Bootmakers of Toronto), India, and Japan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sherlockian.net/celebrating/locations/|title=Societies and Locations|website=Sherlockian.net|language=en-US|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227075449/https://www.sherlockian.net/celebrating/locations/|url-status=live}} Fans tend to be called "Holmesians" in the UK and "Sherlockians" in the US,{{Cite book|title=Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition|last=Redmond|first=Christopher|publisher=Dundurn Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-55488-446-9|pages=257}}{{Cite web|url=http://bakerstreetbabes.tumblr.com/post/13620494234/question-whats-the-difference-between-a|title=Anonymous asked: Question: What's the difference between a Sherlockian and a Holmesian?|date=1 December 2012|website=Baker Street Babes|access-date=16 June 2018|archive-date=27 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181227070457/http://bakerstreetbabes.tumblr.com/post/13620494234/question-whats-the-difference-between-a|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Brown|first=David W.|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63985/15-curious-facts-about-sherlock-holmes-and-sherlockian-subculture|title=15 Curious Facts About Sherlock Holmes|website=Mental Floss|date=6 January 2020|access-date=6 January 2020|archive-date=6 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200106201004/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63985/15-curious-facts-about-sherlock-holmes-and-sherlockian-subculture|url-status=live}} though recently "Sherlockian" has also come to refer to fans of the Benedict Cumberbatch-led BBC series regardless of location.{{Cite web|url=http://alistaird221b.blogspot.com/2012/06/sherlockian-or-holmesian-what-do-these.html|title=Sherlockian or Holmesian - What do these terms mean now?|date=19 June 2012|website=Doyleockian|access-date=16 June 2018|archive-date=17 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617042847/http://alistaird221b.blogspot.com/2012/06/sherlockian-or-holmesian-what-do-these.html|url-status=live}}

File:Statue of Sherlock Holmes in Edinburgh.jpg and a deerstalker cap on Picardy Place in Edinburgh (Conan Doyle's birthplace)]]

Although Holmes is not the original fictional detective, his name has become synonymous with the role. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories introduced multiple literary devices that have become major conventions in detective fiction, such as the companion character who is not as clever as the detective and has solutions explained to him (thus informing the reader as well), as with Dr. Watson in the Holmes stories. Other conventions introduced by Doyle include the arch-criminal who is too clever for the official police to defeat, like Holmes's adversary Professor Moriarty, and the use of forensic science to solve cases.

The Sherlock Holmes stories established crime fiction as a respectable genre popular with readers of all backgrounds, and Doyle's success inspired many contemporary detective stories. Holmes influenced the creation of other "eccentric gentleman detective" characters, like Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot, introduced in 1920.{{Cite book|title=The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Detecting Social Order|last=Jann|first=Rosemary|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1995|isbn=978-0805783841|page=16}} Holmes also inspired a number of anti-hero characters "almost as an antidote to the masterful detective", such as the gentleman thief characters A. J. Raffles (created by E. W. Hornung in 1898) and Arsène Lupin (created by Maurice Leblanc in 1905).{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Daniel|title=The Sherlock Holmes Companion: An Elementary Guide|publisher=Aurum Press|location=London|year=2014|edition=Updated|orig-year=2009|pages=107–108|isbn=978-1-78131-404-3}}

The phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" has become one of the most quoted and iconic aspects of the character. However, although Holmes often observes that his conclusions are "elementary", and occasionally calls Watson "my dear Watson", the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" is never uttered in any of the sixty stories by Conan Doyle.{{cite book|title=From Holmes to Sherlock|last=Boström|first=Mattias|publisher=Mysterious Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-8021-2789-1|page=182|title-link=From Holmes to Sherlock}} One of the nearest approximations of the phrase appears in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" (1893) when Holmes explains a deduction: {{"'}}Excellent!' I cried. 'Elementary,' said he."{{cite web|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elementary-my-dear-watson/|title=Sherlock Holmes and 'Elementary, My Dear Watson'|last=Mikkelson|first=David|date=2 July 2006|website=Snopes.com|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=31 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031104708/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/elementary-my-dear-watson/|url-status=live}}{{cite book | last = Shapiro | first = Fred | author-link = Fred R. Shapiro | title = The Yale Book of Quotations | date = 30 October 2006 | publisher = Yale University Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300107982/page/215 215] | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300107982 | url-access = registration | isbn = 978-0300107982}}

William Gillette is widely considered to have originated the phrase with the formulation, "Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow", allegedly in his 1899 play Sherlock Holmes. However, the script was revised numerous times over the course of some three decades of revivals and publications, and the phrase is present in some versions of the script, but not others. The appearance of the line "Elementary, my dear Potson" in a Sherlock Holmes parody from 1901 has led some authors to speculate that, rather than this being an incidental formulation, the parodist drew upon an already well-established occurrences of "Elementary, my dear Watson."{{Cite web|url=https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/07/19/sherlock-holmes/|title=A Study in Sherlock: Holmesian homages for Benedict's birthday|last=Tovey|first=Beth|date=19 July 2013|website=Oxford Dictionaries|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711042152/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/07/19/sherlock-holmes/|archive-date=11 July 2018|access-date=30 December 2019}}{{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Fred R. |title=The New Yale Book of Quotations |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-20597-8 |pages=226}}

The exact phrase, as well as close variants, can be seen in newspaper and journal articles as early as 1909.{{cite web|url=http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/07/14/watson/|title=Elementary, My Dear Watson|website=Quote Investigator|date=14 July 2016 |access-date=3 January 2017}} It was also used by P. G. Wodehouse in his novel Psmith, Journalist, which was first serialised in The Captain magazine between October 1909 and February 1910; the phrase occurred in the January 1910 instalment. The phrase became familiar with the American public in part due to its use in the Rathbone-Bruce series of films from 1939 to 1946.{{cite book | last = Bunson| first = Matthew |author-link=Matthew Bunson | title = Encyclopedia Sherlockiana | publisher = Macmillan Publishers | year=1997| pages = 72–73 | isbn =0-02-861679-0 }}

{{Main|Sherlockian game}}

File:221B Baker Street.JPEG]]{{multiple image

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}}Conan Doyle's 56 short stories and four novels are known as the "canon" by Holmes aficionados. The Great Game (also known as the Holmesian Game, the Sherlockian Game, or simply the Game, also the Higher Criticism) applies the methods of literary and especially Biblical criticism to the canon, operating on the pretense that Holmes and Watson were real people and that Conan Doyle was not the author of the stories but Watson's literary agent. From this basis, it attempts to resolve or explain away contradictions in the canon—such as the location of Watson's war wound, described as being in his shoulder in A Study in Scarlet and in his leg in The Sign of Four—and clarify details about Holmes, Watson and their world, such as the exact dates of events in the stories, combining historical research with references from the stories to construct scholarly analyses.{{Cite web |last=Todd |first=David |date=16 November 1987 |title=The enduring cult of Sherlock Holmes |url=https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1987/11/16/the-enduring-cult-of-sherlock-holmes |access-date=2 January 2023 |website=Maclean's |language=en-US |archive-date=2 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102185355/https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1987/11/16/the-enduring-cult-of-sherlock-holmes |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/108864-study-sherlock/|title=A Study in Sherlock|last=Montague|first=Sarah|date=13 January 2011|publisher=WNYC: New York, New York Public Radio|access-date=14 June 2018|archive-date=15 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415164256/https://www.wnyc.org/story/108864-study-sherlock/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/2011/01/15/grand-game-volume-one/|title=The Grand Game Vol. One: 1902–1959|date=15 January 2011|website=The Baker Street Irregulars|language=en|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=31 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231181037/https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/2011/01/15/grand-game-volume-one/|url-status=live}}

For example, one detail analyzed in the Game is Holmes's birth date. The chronology of the stories is notoriously difficult, with many stories lacking dates and many others containing contradictory ones. Christopher Morley and William Baring-Gould contend that the detective was born on 6 January 1854, the year being derived from the statement in "His Last Bow" that he was 60 years of age in 1914, while the precise day is derived from broader, non-canonical speculation.{{Cite web|url=https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-curious-case-of-a-birthday-for-sherlock/|title=The Curious Case of a Birthday for Sherlock|last=Lee|first=Jennifer|date=6 January 2009|website=The New York Times|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-date=14 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114021244/https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/the-curious-case-of-a-birthday-for-sherlock/|url-status=live}} This is the date the Baker Street Irregulars work from, with their annual dinner being held each January.{{cite web|url=http://www.sherlockian.net/investigating/about-holmes/|title=About Sherlock Holmes|website=Sherlockian.Net|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-date=4 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200404170057/http://www.sherlockian.net/investigating/about-holmes/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bsiweekend.com/|title=Baker Street Irregulars Weekend Activities|date=5 November 2011|website=Baker Street Irregulars Weekend Activities|access-date=28 August 2012|archive-date=20 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520185949/http://www.bsiweekend.com/|url-status=live}} Laurie R. King instead argues that details in "The Gloria Scott" (a story with no precise internal date) indicate that Holmes finished his second (and final) year of university in 1880 or 1885. If he began university at age 17, his birth year could be as late as 1868.{{cite web|url=http://www.laurierking.com/?page_id=769|title=LRK on: Sherlock Holmes|last=King|first=Laurie R.|website=Laurie R. King|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127142236/http://www.laurierking.com/?page_id=769#chronology|archive-date=27 January 2011|access-date=10 January 2011}}

For the 1951 Festival of Britain, Holmes's living room was reconstructed as part of a Sherlock Holmes exhibition, with a collection of original material. After the festival, items were transferred to The Sherlock Holmes (a London pub) and the Conan Doyle collection housed in Lucens, Switzerland, by the author's son, Adrian. Both exhibitions, each with a Baker Street sitting-room reconstruction, are open to the public.{{cite web|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/two-sherlock-holmes-museums-in-switzerland--elementary-/14590|title=Two Sherlock Holmes museums in Switzerland? Elementary!|website=Swissinfo|date=9 August 2001|access-date=26 October 2014|archive-date=25 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025154941/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/two-sherlock-holmes-museums-in-switzerland--elementary-/14590|url-status=live}}

In 1969, the Toronto Reference Library began a collection of materials related to Conan Doyle. Stored today in Room 221B, this vast collection is accessible to the public.{{Cite web|url=https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/books-video-music/specialized-collections/literature-genre-doyle.jsp|title=Arthur Conan Doyle Collection|website=Toronto Public Library|language=en|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=4 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200104113832/https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/books-video-music/specialized-collections/literature-genre-doyle.jsp|url-status=live}} Similarly, in 1974 the University of Minnesota founded a collection that is now "the world's largest gathering of material related to Sherlock Holmes and his creator". Access is closed to the general public, but is occasionally open to tours.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lib.umn.edu/holmes|title=Sherlock Holmes · University of Minnesota Libraries|website=www.lib.umn.edu|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=11 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190911142423/https://www.lib.umn.edu/holmes|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/06/27/books-thread-sherlock-archive-minnesota|title=Exploring the largest Sherlock Holmes archive in the world|last=Mumford|first=Tracy|date=27 June 2015|website=MPR News|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507005054/https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/06/27/books-thread-sherlock-archive-minnesota|url-status=live}}

In 1990, the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened on Baker Street in London, followed the next year by a museum in Meiringen (near the Reichenbach Falls) dedicated to the detective. A private Conan Doyle collection is a permanent exhibit at the Portsmouth City Museum, where the author lived and worked as a physician.{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/conandoyle|title=Conan Doyle Collection|website=www.visitportsmouth.co.uk|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=31 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231065342/https://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/conandoyle|url-status=live}}

The Sherlock Holmes stories have been scrutinized by a few academics for themes of empire and colonialism.

Susan Cannon Harris claims that themes of contagion and containment are common in the Holmes series, including the metaphors of Eastern foreigners as the root cause of "infection" within and around Europe.{{Cite journal|last=Harris|first=Susan Cannon|date=2003|title=Pathological Possibilities: Contagion and Empire in Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Stories|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058636|journal=Victorian Literature and Culture|volume=31|issue=2|pages=447–466|doi=10.1017/S1060150303000238|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=25058636|s2cid=162476755|issn=1060-1503|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=29 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529015806/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058636|url-status=live}} Lauren Raheja, writing in the Marxist journal Nature, Society, and Thought, claims that Doyle used these characteristics to paint eastern colonies in a negative light, through their continually being the source of threats. For example, in one story, Doyle makes mention of the Sumatran cannibals (also known as Batak) who throw poisonous darts, and in "The Speckled Band", a "long residence in the tropics" was a negative influence on one antagonist's bad temper.Raheja, Lauren. "Anxieties of Empire in Doyle's Tales of Sherlock Holmes". Nature, Society, and Thought, vol. 19, no. 4, 2006, p. 417, ProQuest Central. Yumna Siddiqi argues that Doyle depicted returned colonials as "marginal, physically ravaged characters that threaten the peace", while putting non-colonials in a much more positive light.{{Cite journal|last=Siddiqi|first=Yumna|date=2006|title=The Cesspool of Empire: Sherlock Holmes and the Return of the Repressed|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058745|journal=Victorian Literature and Culture|volume=34|issue=1|pages=233–247|doi=10.1017/S1060150306051138|jstor=25058745|s2cid=162557404|issn=1060-1503|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419050827/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25058745|url-status=live}}

The popularity of Sherlock Holmes has meant that many writers other than Arthur Conan Doyle have created tales of the detective in a wide variety of different media, with varying degrees of fidelity to the original characters, stories, and setting. The first known pastiche dates from 1891. Titled "My Evening with Sherlock Holmes", it was written by Conan Doyle's close friend J. M. Barrie.{{Cite web|title=My Evening With Sherlock|url=https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/article/2843-my-evening-with-sherlock|access-date=2022-02-13|website=www.mysteryscenemag.com|archive-date=13 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213023637/https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/article/2843-my-evening-with-sherlock|url-status=live}}

Adaptations have seen the character taken in radically different directions or placed in different times or even universes. For example, Holmes falls in love and marries in Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series, is re-animated after his death to fight future crime in the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, and is meshed with the setting of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos in Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" (which won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story). An especially influential pastiche was Nicholas Meyer's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, a 1974 New York Times bestselling novel (made into the 1976 film of the same name) in which Holmes's cocaine addiction has progressed to the point of endangering his career. It served to popularize the trend of incorporating clearly identified and contemporaneous historical figures (such as Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, Sigmund Freud, or Jack the Ripper) into Holmesian pastiches, something Conan Doyle himself never did.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/movies/how-the-seven-per-cent-solution-reinvented-sherlock-holmes.html|title=The Holmes Behind the Modern Sherlock|last=Hale|first=Mike|date=25 January 2013|work=The New York Times|access-date=27 December 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227203039/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/movies/how-the-seven-per-cent-solution-reinvented-sherlock-holmes.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|title=The Alternative Sherlock Holmes|last1=Ridgway Watt|first1=Peter|last2=Green|first2=Joseph|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978-0-7546-0882-0|pages=2, 92}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20100118/41642-the-return-of-sherlock-holmes.html|title=The Return of Sherlock Holmes|last=Picker|first=Lenny|date=18 January 2010|website=Publishers Weekly|language=en|access-date=4 January 2020|archive-date=19 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219042733/https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20100118/41642-the-return-of-sherlock-holmes.html|url-status=live}} Another common pastiche approach is to create a new story fully detailing an otherwise-passing canonical reference (such as an aside by Conan Doyle mentioning the "giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared" in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire").{{Cite book|title=The Alternative Sherlock Holmes|last1=Ridgway Watt|first1=Peter|last2=Green|first2=Joseph|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=0-7546-0882-4|pages=3–4}}

The first translation of a Sherlock Holmes story into a Chinese variety was done by Chinese Progress in 1896. That publication rendered the name as 呵爾唔斯, which would be 呵尔唔斯 in Simplified Chinese and Hē'ěrwúsī in Modern Standard Mandarin. Shanghai Civilization Books later issued versions rendering Holmes's name differently, as 福爾摩斯 in Traditional Chinese, which would be 福尔摩斯 in Simplified Chinese and Fú'ěrmósī in Modern Standard Mandarin; this version became the common way of rendering "Holmes" in Chinese languages.{{cite web|url=https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/1907238931/|title=Who gave Sherlock Holmes a 'lucky' Chinese name?|newspaper=Shanghai Daily|place=Shanghai|date=2019-07-23|access-date=2024-04-01|translator=Ye Jun|last=Han|first=Jing}}
Original Chinese version: {{cite web|url=https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3991563|title=福尔摩斯姓"福"不是因为福建人，而是因为这个上海人|newspaper=The Paper|place=Shanghai|date=2019-07-25}} - Original title: "福尔摩斯为何姓“福”？不是因为分不清f和h的福建人，而是因为上海人!" - [https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI2MDYzMTU0MQ==&mid=2247489490&idx=1&sn=7f9dd47b5e64609fdf1aa1f20aa7e324&chksm=ea67e948dd10605e6f8dd57c01dde09889a38fbd7d4239a5eba34154257e0e023b9e43f48afa&scene=27#wechat_redirect Original text here]

{{Main|Sherlock Holmes pastiches}}{{Further|List of authors of new Sherlock Holmes stories}}

File:Chas-05.jpg illustration of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"]]

In addition to the Holmes canon, Conan Doyle wrote other material featuring Holmes, especially plays: 1899's Sherlock Holmes (with William Gillette), 1910's The Speckled Band, and 1921's The Crown Diamond (the basis for "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone").{{Cite book|title=The Theatrical Sherlock Holmes|last=Hayes|first=Paul Stuart|publisher=Hidden Tiger|year=2012|isbn=978-1-291-26421-0|pages=6–12}} These and other Holmes-related but non-canonical works have been collected in several works released since Conan Doyle's death.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/06/classics-of-sherlockiana-apocrypha-of.html|title=Classics of Sherlockiana: the Apocrypha of Sherlock Holmes|last=O'Leary|first=James C.|date=4 June 2014|website=I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-date=2 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102200751/https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/06/classics-of-sherlockiana-apocrypha-of.html|url-status=live}}

In terms of writers other than Conan Doyle, authors as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anthony Burgess, Neil Gaiman, Dorothy B. Hughes, Stephen King, Tanith Lee, A. A. Milne, and P. G. Wodehouse have all written Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Contemporary with Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc directly featured Holmes in his popular series about the gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin, though legal objections from Conan Doyle forced Leblanc to modify the name to "Herlock Sholmes" in reprints and later stories.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Maurice_Leblanc|title=Maurice Leblanc|website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807062600/https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Maurice_Leblanc|url-status=live}} Mystery writer John Dickson Carr collaborated with Arthur Conan Doyle's son, Adrian Conan Doyle, on The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, a pastiche collection from 1954.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Exploits_of_Sherlock_Holmes|title=The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes|website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807131215/https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Exploits_of_Sherlock_Holmes|url-status=live}} In 2011, Anthony Horowitz published a Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, presented as a continuation of Conan Doyle's work and with the approval of the Conan Doyle estate;{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/house-silk-anthony-horowitz-sherlock-holmes|title=The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz – review|last=Sansom|first=Ian|date=27 October 2011|work=The Guardian|access-date=31 December 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807054817/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/house-silk-anthony-horowitz-sherlock-holmes|url-status=live}} a follow-up, Moriarty, appeared in 2014.{{cite news|last1=Flood|first1=Alison|title=Sherlock Holmes returns in new Anthony Horowitz book, Moriarty|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/10/anthony-horowitz-new-sherlock-holmes-book-moriarty|access-date=9 August 2014|publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|date=10 April 2014|newspaper=Guardian|archive-date=11 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811005406/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/10/anthony-horowitz-new-sherlock-holmes-book-moriarty|url-status=live}} The "MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories" series of pastiches, edited by David Marcum and published by MX Publishing, contains fifty-two volumes and features hundreds of stories echoing the original canon which were compiled for the restoration of Undershaw and the support of Stepping Stones School, now housed in it.{{Cite news|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-07-15/largest-ever-collection-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-will-raise-money-to-restore-conan-doyles-house/|title=Largest ever collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories will raise money to restore Conan Doyle's house|date=15 July 2015|work=Radio Times|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714194059/https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-07-15/largest-ever-collection-of-new-sherlock-holmes-stories-will-raise-money-to-restore-conan-doyles-house/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.steppingstones.org.uk/Community/Undershaw-A-school/|title=Stepping Stones School|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=19 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919003159/https://www.steppingstones.org.uk/Community/Undershaw-A-school/|url-status=dead}}

In 1980's The Name of the Rose, Italian author Umberto Eco creates a Sherlock Holmes of the 1320s in the form of a Franciscan friar and main protagonist named Brother William of Baskerville, his name a clear reference to Holmes per The Hound of the Baskervilles.{{cite book |last1=Haft |first1=Adele J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQogJS1WSOYC |title=The Key to "The Name of the Rose" |last2=White |first2=Jane G. |last3=White |first3=Robert J. |author3-link=Robert J. White |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780472086214 |pages=194 |access-date=23 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223040825/https://books.google.com/books?id=SQogJS1WSOYC |archive-date=23 December 2021 |url-status=live}} Brother William investigates a series of murders in the abbey alongside his novice Adso of Melk, who acts as his Dr. Watson. Furthermore, Umberto Eco's description of Brother William bears marked similarities in both physique and personality to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's description of Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ipbOrcd8q9UC&pg=PA257 |title=Reading Eco: An Anthology |date=February 22, 1997 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253112828 |editor-last=Capozzi |editor-first=Rocco |access-date=23 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223040824/https://books.google.com/books?id=ipbOrcd8q9UC&pg=PA257 |archive-date=23 December 2021 |url-status=live}}

Laurie R. King recreated Holmes in her Mary Russell series (beginning with 1994's The Beekeeper's Apprentice), set during the First World War and the 1920s. Her Holmes, semi-retired in Sussex, meets a teenage American girl. Recognising a kindred spirit, he trains her as his apprentice and subsequently marries her. As of 2024, the series includes eighteen base novels and additional writings.{{Cite web |title=Russell & Holmes |url=https://laurierking.com/books/series/russell-holmes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118094338/https://laurierking.com/books/series/russell-holmes/ |archive-date=18 January 2024 |access-date=18 January 2024 |website=Laurie R. King |language=en-US}}

The Final Solution, a 2004 novella by Michael Chabon, concerns an unnamed but long-retired detective interested in beekeeping who tackles the case of a missing parrot belonging to a Jewish refugee boy.{{Cite news |last=Thompson |first=Sam |date=26 February 2005 |title=Review: The Final Solution by Michael Chabon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/26/fiction.arthurconandoyle |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226200647/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/26/fiction.arthurconandoyle |archive-date=26 December 2019 |access-date=26 December 2019 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Mitch Cullin's novel A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005) takes place two years after the end of the Second World War and explores an old and frail Sherlock Holmes (now 93) as he comes to terms with a life spent in emotionless logic;{{Cite web |date=1 February 2005 |title=A Slight Trick of the Mind |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mitch-cullin/a-slight-trick-of-the-mind/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220224907/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mitch-cullin/a-slight-trick-of-the-mind/ |archive-date=20 December 2019 |access-date=26 December 2019 |website=Kirkus Reviews}} this was also adapted into a film, 2015's Mr. Holmes.{{Cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |date=16 July 2015 |title=Review: For Ian McKellen's 'Mr. Holmes,' Retirement Is Afoot |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/movies/review-for-ian-mckellens-mr-holmes-retirement-is-afoot.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102195925/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/movies/review-for-ian-mckellens-mr-holmes-retirement-is-afoot.html |archive-date=2 January 2020 |access-date=2 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Some authors have written tales centred on characters from the canon other than Holmes. Anthologies edited by Michael Kurland and George Mann are entirely devoted to stories told from the perspective of characters other than Holmes and Watson. John Gardner, Michael Kurland, and Kim Newman, amongst many others, have all written tales in which Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty is the main character. Mycroft Holmes has been the subject of several efforts: Enter the Lion by Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright (1979),{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michael-p-sean-m-wright-hodel/enter-the-lion-a-posthumous-memoir-of-mycroft-h/|title=Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes|date=1 July 1979|website=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=4 January 2020|archive-date=19 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219042818/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/michael-p-sean-m-wright-hodel/enter-the-lion-a-posthumous-memoir-of-mycroft-h/|url-status=live}} a four-book series by Quinn Fawcett,{{Cite web|url=https://us.macmillan.com/author/|title=Quinn Fawcett|website=Macmillan Publishers|language=en-US|access-date=4 January 2020|archive-date=5 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105025352/https://us.macmillan.com/author/|url-status=live}} and 2015's Mycroft Holmes, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/kareem-abdul-jabbar-returns-to-his-other-passion-sherlock-holmes/2018/10/02/e1564636-c591-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html|title=Review {{!}} Kareem Abdul-Jabbar returns to his other passion: Sherlock Holmes|last=Dirda|first=Michael|date=3 October 2018|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003124607/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/kareem-abdul-jabbar-returns-to-his-other-passion-sherlock-holmes/2018/10/02/e1564636-c591-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html|archive-date=3 October 2018|access-date=4 January 2020}} M. J. Trow has written a series of seventeen books using Inspector Lestrade as the central character, beginning with The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade in 1985.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mjtrow.co.uk/lestrade/|title=The Lestrade Series|last=Trow|first=M.J.|website=M. J. Trow, Author and Lecturer|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701151145/http://www.mjtrow.co.uk/lestrade/|archive-date=1 July 2016|access-date=26 December 2019}} Carole Nelson Douglas' Irene Adler series is based on "the woman" from "A Scandal in Bohemia", with the first book (1990's Good Night, Mr. Holmes) retelling that story from Adler's point of view.{{Cite web|url=http://carolenelsondouglas.com/book-series/irene-adler/|title=The Irene Adler Series|website=Carole Nelson Douglas|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=26 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226200647/http://carolenelsondouglas.com/book-series/irene-adler/|url-status=live}} Martin Davies has written three novels where Baker Street housekeeper Mrs. Hudson is the protagonist.{{Cite web|url=http://martindaviesauthor.com/the-holmes-%26-hudson-series|title=The Holmes & Hudson Series|website=Martin Davies|access-date=26 December 2019|archive-date=10 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910123913/http://www.martindaviesauthor.com/the-holmes-%26-hudson-series|url-status=dead}}

A popular form of Holmesian pastiche is the parody. "My Evening with Sherlock Holmes", by J. M. Barrie, was released in 1891, four years after Holmes first appearance in print and four months after “A Scandal in Bohemia” appeared in The Strand; it is generally considered a parody.{{Cite web |title=My Evening with Sherlock Holmes - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia |url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/My_Evening_with_Sherlock_Holmes |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=www.arthur-conan-doyle.com}} Many others soon followed, with the protagonists often given thinly veiled names such as Sherlaw Kombs (by Robert Barr),{{Cite web |title=Victorian Short Fiction Project - Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs |url=https://vsfp.byu.edu/index.php/title/detective-stories-gone-wrong-the-adventures-of-sherlaw-kombs/ |access-date=2025-02-05}} Picklock Holes (by R. C. Lehmann), Shamrock Jolnes (by O. Henry), Holmlock Shears, Shylock Homes, and so on.{{Cite web |title=Pastiches & Parodies - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia |url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Pastiches_&_Parodies |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=www.arthur-conan-doyle.com}}

Conan Doyle himself contributed to this style, with 1898's "The Lost Special" featuring an unnamed "amateur reasoner" intended to be identified by his readers as Holmes. The author's explanation of a baffling disappearance argued in Holmesian style poked fun at his own creation. Similar Conan Doyle short stories are "The Field Bazaar", "The Man with the Watches", and 1924's "How Watson Learned the Trick", a parody of the Watson–Holmes breakfast-table scenes.

In 1944, American mystery writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (writing under their joint pseudonym Ellery Queen) published The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of thirty-three pastiches written by various well-known authors, featuring numerous parodies.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/scriblio_test_044/mode/2up |title=The misadventures of Sherlock Holmes |publisher=Little Brown |year=1944 |editor-last=Queen |editor-first=Ellery}}{{Cite book |last=Nevins |first=Francis M. |title=Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection: The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel. |publisher=Perfect Crime Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-935797-47-0 |language=English}}

There have been many scholarly works dealing with Sherlock Holmes, some working within the bounds of the Great Game, and some written from the perspective that Holmes is a fictional character. In particular, there have been three major annotated editions of the complete series. The first was William Baring-Gould's 1967 The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. This two-volume set was ordered to fit Baring-Gould's preferred chronology, and was written from a Great Game perspective. The second was 1993's The Oxford Sherlock Holmes (general editor: Owen Dudley Edwards), a nine-volume set written in a straight scholarly manner. The most recent is Leslie Klinger's The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2004–05), a three-volume set that returns to a Great Game perspective.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/dec/04/classics.arthurconandoyle|title=Review: The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited by Leslie S Klinger|last=Hickling|first=Alfred|date=4 December 2004|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 January 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|archive-date=5 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605213836/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/dec/04/classics.arthurconandoyle|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/books/case-of-the-lawyer-with-a-sherlock-holmes-bent.html|title=Case of the Lawyer With a Sherlock Holmes Bent|last=Weingarten|first=Marc|date=30 December 2004|work=The New York Times|access-date=4 January 2020|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=21 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021033828/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/books/case-of-the-lawyer-with-a-sherlock-holmes-bent.html|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes}}

{{Further|List of actors who have played Sherlock Holmes}}

File:Charles Frohman presents William Gillette in his new four act drama, Sherlock Holmes (LOC var 1364) (edit).jpg by Conan Doyle and actor William Gillette|left]]

In 2012, Guinness World Records listed Holmes as the most portrayed literary human character in film and television history, with more than 75 actors playing the part in over 250 productions.

The 1899 play Sherlock Holmes, by Conan Doyle and William Gillette, was a synthesis of several Conan Doyle stories. In addition to its popularity, the play is significant because it, rather than the original stories, introduced one of the key visual qualities commonly associated with Holmes today: his calabash pipe;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30932322|title=William Gillette: Five ways he transformed how Sherlock Holmes looks and talks|last=de Castella|first=Tom|date=26 January 2015|website=BBC|access-date=10 July 2018|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415233716/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30932322|url-status=live}} the play also formed the basis for Gillette's 1916 film, Sherlock Holmes. Gillette performed as Holmes some 1,300 times. In the early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times.{{cite book |first=Allen |last=Eyles |title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration |year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |page=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/57 57] |isbn=0-06-015620-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/57 }}

File:Rathbone as Holmes - F&R.png as Holmes]]Holmes's first screen appearance was in the 1900 Mutoscope film, Sherlock Holmes Baffled.{{cite book |first=Jon |last=Tuska |title=The Detective in Hollywood |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1978 |page=[https://archive.org/details/detectiveinholly00tusk/page/n43 1] |isbn=978-0-385-12093-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/detectiveinholly00tusk |url-access=registration }} From 1921 to 1923, Eille Norwood played Holmes in forty-seven silent films (45 shorts and two features), in a series of performances that Conan Doyle spoke highly of.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2007/02/27/sherlock_holmes_huddersfield_feature.shtml|title=A star comes to Huddersfield!|last=Haigh|first=Brian|date=20 May 2008|website=BBC|language=en-gb|access-date=25 December 2019|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125121108/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2007/02/27/sherlock_holmes_huddersfield_feature.shtml|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|title=The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes|last=Starrett|first=Vincent|publisher=Otto Penzler Books|year=1933|isbn=1-883402-05-0|publication-date=1993|pages=156}} 1929's The Return of Sherlock Holmes was the first sound title to feature Holmes.{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia Sherlockiana|last=Bunson|first=Matthew|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1997|isbn=0-02-861679-0|page=213|author-link=Matthew Bunson}} From 1939 to 1946, Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen US films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) and in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes radio show. While the Fox films were period pieces, the Universal films abandoned Victorian Britain and moved to a then-contemporary setting in which Holmes occasionally battled Nazis.{{Cite book|title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration|last=Eyles|first=Allen|publisher=Harper & Row|year=1986|isbn=0060156201|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/89 89–98]|url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/89}}

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}}The character has also enjoyed numerous radio adaptations, beginning with Edith Meiser's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,{{Cite news |date=1993-09-27 |title=Edith Meiser, 95, Dies; Actress and a Writer |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/27/obituaries/edith-meiser-95-dies-actress-and-a-writer.html |access-date=2022-10-25 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=18 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618160808/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/27/obituaries/edith-meiser-95-dies-actress-and-a-writer.html |url-status=live }} which ran from 1930 to 1936. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce continued with their roles for most of the run of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, airing from 1939 to 1950. Bert Coules, having dramatised the entire Holmes canon for BBC Radio Four from 1989 to 1998,{{cite web |title=Cult Presents: Sherlock Holmes – Bert Coules Interview |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/coules.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=25 December 2019 |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528151532/https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/coules.shtml |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Prepolec |first=Charles |title=Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Reviewed |url=http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com/furtheradvent.html |publisher=BBC Radio |access-date=9 March 2016 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201611/http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com/furtheradvent.html |url-status=live }} penned The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes between 2002 and 2010. This pastiche series also aired on Radio Four and starred Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams and then Andrew Sachs as Watson.{{cite web |title=Bert Coules: writer, director, speaker |url=http://www.bertcoules.co.uk/holmes.php |access-date=9 March 2016 |archive-date=10 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310080500/http://www.bertcoules.co.uk/holmes.php |url-status=live }}

File:Sherlock Holmes figure at Madame Tussauds London.jpg as Holmes on display at Madame Tussauds London]]

The 1984–85 Italian/Japanese anime series Sherlock Hound adapted the Holmes stories for children, with its characters being anthropomorphic dogs. The series was co-directed by Hayao Miyazaki.{{cite book|last = Clements|first = Jonathan|author-link = Jonathan Clements|author2=McCarthy, Helen |author-link2=Helen McCarthy |title = The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917|publisher = Stone Bridge Press|edition = 2nd edition (Revised & Expanded Edition)|year = 2006|pages = [https://archive.org/details/animeencyclopedi00clem_0/page/580 580]–581|isbn = 978-1-933330-10-5|title-link = The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917}} Between 1979 and 1986, the Soviet studio Lenfilm produced a series of five television films, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The series were split into eleven episodes and starred Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson. For his performance, in 2006 Livanov was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire.{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6607249.stm|title=Moscow honours legendary Holmes|date=30 April 2007|work=BBC|access-date=31 December 2019|language=en-GB|archive-date=6 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706030630/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6607249.stm|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/2817/sherlock-holmes-in-russia|title=Curious incidents: the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Russia|last1=Kinchin-Smith|first1=Sam|last2=Gryspeerdt|first2=Nancy|date=10 July 2014|website=The Calvert Journal|access-date=31 December 2019|archive-date=31 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231161516/https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/2817/sherlock-holmes-in-russia|url-status=live}}

Jeremy Brett played the detective in Sherlock Holmes for Granada Television from 1984 to 1994. Watson was played by David Burke (in the first two series) and Edward Hardwicke (in the remainder).{{Cite web |last=Tillerson |first=Bethany |date=2022-06-03 |title='Sherlock Holmes': 8 Things That Make The 1984 TV Show The Best Adaptation |url=https://collider.com/sherlock-holmes-eighties-tv-show-best-adaptation/ |access-date=2024-07-07 |website=Collider |language=en}} Brett and Hardwicke also appeared on stage in 1988–89 in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Patrick Garland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Secret_of_Sherlock_Holmes|title=The Secret of Sherlock Holmes|website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-date=15 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615214440/https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Secret_of_Sherlock_Holmes|url-status=live}}

In the 2004–2012 Fox's show House, the titular character Gregory House is an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes in a medical drama setting. The two characters share many parallels and House's name is a play on Holmes' one.{{Cite news |last=O'Hare |first=Kate |date=January 5, 2005 |title=Builder keeps adding on to 'House' for Fox |url=http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/builder-keeps-adding-on-to-house-for-fox/ |access-date=February 20, 2016 |periodical=The Seattle Times}}{{cite news |date=January 2006 |title=House and Holmes parallels |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/content/show-features/house/house-and-holmes-parallels/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090909035454/http://www.radiotimes.com/content/show-features/house/house-and-holmes-parallels/ |archive-date=September 9, 2009 |work=Radio Times |publisher=BBC Magazines |page=57}}

The 2009 film Sherlock Holmes earned Robert Downey Jr. a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Holmes and co-starred Jude Law as Watson.{{cite web|url=http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/year/2009/ |title=HFPA – Nominations and Winners |publisher=Goldenglobes.org |access-date=10 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311184059/http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/year/2009/ |archive-date=11 March 2010 }} Downey and Law returned for a 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a modern version of the detective and Martin Freeman as a modern version of John Watson in the BBC One TV series Sherlock, which premiered in 2010. In the series, created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the stories' original Victorian setting is replaced by present-day London, with Watson a veteran of the modern War in Afghanistan.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/jul/18/sherlock-holmes-is-back-bbc|title=Sherlock Holmes is back... sending texts and using nicotine patches|last=Thorpe|first=Vanessa|date=18 July 2010|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=4 January 2020|archive-date=30 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030175252/http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/jul/18/sherlock-holmes-is-back-bbc|url-status=live}} Similarly, Elementary premiered on CBS in 2012 and ran for seven seasons until 2019. Set in contemporary New York City, the series stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as a female Dr. Joan Watson.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbs.com/shows/elementary/about/|title=About ELEMENTARY – TV Show Information|website=www.cbs.com|language=en|access-date=4 April 2019|archive-date=14 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914192705/https://www.cbs.com/shows/elementary/about/|url-status=live}} The series was filmed primarily in New York City, and, by the end of season two, Miller became the actor who had portrayed Sherlock Holmes the most in television and/or film.{{cite book|title=From Holmes to Sherlock|title-link=From Holmes to Sherlock|last=Boström|first=Mattias|publisher=Mysterious Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-8021-2789-1|page=483}}

The 2015 film Mr. Holmes starred Ian McKellen as a retired Sherlock Holmes living in Sussex, in 1947, who grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman. The film is based on Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/18/mr-holmes-review-peter-bradshaw-film-of-the-week-ian-mckellen|title=Mr Holmes review – Ian McKellen gets more fascinating with age|last=Bradshaw|first=Peter|date=18 June 2015|website=The Guardian|access-date=9 April 2019|archive-date=3 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603215546/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/18/mr-holmes-review-peter-bradshaw-film-of-the-week-ian-mckellen|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/mr-holmes-every-generation-gets-a-sherlock-it-deserves/article25533399/|title=Mr. Holmes: Every generation gets a Sherlock it deserves|last=Atkinson|first=Nathalie|date=17 July 2015|work=The Globe and Mail|access-date=30 December 2019|archive-date=7 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807070802/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/mr-holmes-every-generation-gets-a-sherlock-it-deserves/article25533399/|url-status=live}}

The 2018 television adaptation, Miss Sherlock, was a Japanese-language production and the first adaptation with a woman (portrayed by Yūko Takeuchi) in the signature role. The episodes were based in modern-day Tokyo, with many references to Conan Doyle's stories.{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/151011/irreverent-joys-japanese-sherlock-holmes|title=The Irreverent Joys of a Japanese Sherlock Holmes|last=Livingstone|first=Josephine|date=31 August 2018|magazine=The New Republic|access-date=18 November 2019|issn=0028-6583|archive-date=18 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118061716/https://newrepublic.com/article/151011/irreverent-joys-japanese-sherlock-holmes|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/04/26/tv/yuko-takeuchi-steps-iconic-role-miss-sherlock-elementary-ease/|title=Yuko Takeuchi steps into an iconic role on 'Miss Sherlock' with elementary ease|last=Smith|first=Alyssa I.|date=26 April 2018|website=The Japan Times|language=en-US|access-date=18 November 2019|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416011812/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2018/04/26/tv/yuko-takeuchi-steps-iconic-role-miss-sherlock-elementary-ease/|url-status=live}}

Holmes has also appeared in video games, including the Sherlock Holmes series of eight main titles. According to the publisher, Frogwares, by 2017 the series sold over seven million copies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-04-05-the-secret-success-of-the-sherlock-holmes-video-games|title=The secret success of the Sherlock Holmes video games|last=Dring|first=Christopher|date=5 April 2017|website=gamesindustry.biz|access-date=3 September 2018|archive-date=3 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903215204/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-04-05-the-secret-success-of-the-sherlock-holmes-video-games|url-status=live}}

The copyright for Conan Doyle's works expired in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia at the end of 1980, fifty years after Conan Doyle's death.{{cite web|last=Litwak|first=Mark|date=12 March 2013|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Public Domain|url=http://www.ifp.org/resources/sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-public-domain/|access-date=15 September 2016|website=Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP)|archive-date=16 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916040702/http://www.ifp.org/resources/sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-public-domain/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last=Itzkoff|first=Dave|date=19 January 2010|title=For the Heirs to Holmes, a Tangled Web|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19sherlock.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=12 February 2017|archive-date=6 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180706021107/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19sherlock.html?pagewanted=all|url-status=live}} In the United Kingdom, it was revived in 1996 due to new provisions harmonising UK law with that of the European Union, and expired again at the end of 2000 (seventy years after Conan Doyle's death).{{Cite web |title=Locating U.K. Copyright Holders: The WATCH File |url=https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/watch/uk/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=Harry Ransom Center |archive-date=16 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221216171437/https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/watch/uk/ |url-status=live }} The author's works are now in the public domain in those countries.{{Cite web|title=Ownership of the Sherlock Holmes Stories|url=https://www.sherlockian.net/teaching/ownership/|access-date=8 November 2020|website=Sherlockian.net|language=en-US|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416014136/https://www.sherlockian.net/teaching/ownership/|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last=Malekos Smith|first=Jessica L.|date=27 June 2016|title=Sherlock Holmes & the Case of the Contested Copyright|url=https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=ckjip|journal=Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property|volume=15|issue=2|pages=537–554|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=9 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709165714/https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=ckjip|url-status=live}}

In the United States, all works published before 1923 entered public domain by 1998, but, as ten Holmes stories were published after that date, the Conan Doyle estate maintained that the Holmes and Watson characters as a whole were still under copyright.{{r|NYTcopyright}}{{cite web|last=Masnick|first=Mike|date=26 May 2015|title=Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Never Ending Copyright Dispute|url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150524/17521431095/sherlock-holmes-case-never-ending-copyright-dispute.shtml|access-date=26 December 2019|website=Techdirt|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227042630/https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150524/17521431095/sherlock-holmes-case-never-ending-copyright-dispute.shtml|url-status=live}} In 2013, Leslie S. Klinger (lawyer and editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes) sued the Conan Doyle estate in order to have the characters of Holmes and Watson declared public domain in the United States. Klinger was successful: as a result, the only stories still under copyright in the US due to the ruling, as of that time, were those collected in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes other than "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" and "The Problem of Thor Bridge": a total of ten stories.{{cite web |url=http://free-sherlock.com/ |title=Holmes belongs to the world |publisher=Free Sherlock! |date=14 February 2013 |access-date=15 April 2013 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327102530/https://free-sherlock.com/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news|last1=Stempel|first1=Jonathan|title=Sherlock Holmes belongs to the public, U.S. court rules|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sherlockholmes-lawsuit-idUKKBN0ER2BP20140616|access-date=16 June 2014|work=Reuters|date=16 June 2014|archive-date=10 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310004822/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sherlockholmes-lawsuit-idUKKBN0ER2BP20140616|url-status=live}}

In 2020, although the United States court ruling and the passage of time meant that most of the Holmes stories and characters were in the public domain in that country, the Doyle estate legally challenged the use of Sherlock Holmes in the film Enola Holmes in a complaint filed in the United States.{{cite web |last1=Britt |first1=Ryan |date=26 June 2020 |title=Conan Doyle Estate Sues Netflix Enola Holmes |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/conan-doyle-estate-sues-netflix-enola-holmes/ |website=Den of Geek |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030140223/https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/conan-doyle-estate-sues-netflix-enola-holmes/ |url-status=live }} The Doyle estate alleged that the film depicts Holmes with personality traits that were only exhibited by the character in the stories still under copyright.{{Cite web|last=Mahdawi|first=Arwa|date=7 October 2020|title=The curious case of Sherlock Holmes' evolving emotions|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/07/the-curious-case-of-sherlock-holmes-evolving-emotions|access-date=11 November 2020|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=15 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115004712/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/07/the-curious-case-of-sherlock-holmes-evolving-emotions|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/conan-doyle-estate-sues-netflix-coming-movie-sherlock-holmes-sister-1300108 |title=Conan Doyle Estate Sues Netflix Over Coming Movie About Sherlock Holmes' Sister |website=The Hollywood Reporter |last=Gardner |first=Eriq |date=24 June 2020 |access-date=8 November 2020 |archive-date=24 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200624232025/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/conan-doyle-estate-sues-netflix-coming-movie-sherlock-holmes-sister-1300108 |url-status=live }} On 18 December 2020, the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation of all parties.{{cite web|first=Alison|last=Flood|date=22 December 2020|title=Lawsuit over 'warmer' Sherlock depicted in Enola Holmes dismissed|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/22/lawsuit-copyright-warmer-sherlock-holmes-dismissed-enola-holmes|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124024730/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/22/lawsuit-copyright-warmer-sherlock-holmes-dismissed-enola-holmes|archive-date=24 January 2021|access-date=23 December 2020|website=The Guardian}}{{cite web|first=Aaron|last=Moss|date=20 December 2020|title="Enola Holmes" Copyright Lawsuit Dismissed: Unsolved, Yet Resolved|url=https://copyrightlately.com/enola-holmes-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201220180827/https://copyrightlately.com/enola-holmes-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed/|archive-date=20 December 2020|access-date=23 December 2020|website=Copyright Lately|quote=That means the case was probably settled, although we don't know for sure.}}

The remaining ten Holmes stories moved out of copyright in the United States between 1 January 2019 and 1 January 2023, leaving the stories and characters completely in the public domain in the US as of the latter date.{{Cite web |date=2022-12-30 |title=2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes work |url=https://apnews.com/article/public-domain-2023-5c30746553953b5accffcbaa9e860de0 |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=AP News |language=en |archive-date=1 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101053156/https://apnews.com/article/public-domain-2023-5c30746553953b5accffcbaa9e860de0 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Jenkins |first=Jennifer |title=January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all! |url=https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/ |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=Duke University School of Law |language=en |archive-date=2 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102212202/https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Nevala-Lee |first=Alec |date=2025-01-07 |title=How Sherlock Holmes Broke Copyright Law |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/01/how-sherlock-holmes-broke-copyright-law/681223/ |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

{{Main|Canon of Sherlock Holmes}}

• A Study in Scarlet (published November 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual)
• The Sign of the Four (published February 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised 1901–1902 in The Strand)
• The Valley of Fear (serialised 1914–1915 in The Strand)

The short stories, originally published in magazines, were later collected in five anthologies:

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (stories published 1891–1892 in The Strand)
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (stories published 1892–1893 in The Strand)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (stories published 1903–1904 in The Strand)
• His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (stories published 1908–1917)
• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (stories published 1921–1927)

• List of Holmesian studies
• Popular culture references to Sherlock Holmes
• Sherlock Holmes fandom
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• Professor Moriarty
• Jack the Ripper

{{notelist}}

• Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). {{ISBN|0-393-05916-2}} ("Klinger I")
• Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume II (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). {{ISBN|0-393-05916-2}} ("Klinger II")
• Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume III (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006). {{ISBN|978-0393058000}} ("Klinger III")

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Accardo|first=Pasquale J.|title=Diagnosis and Detection: Medical Iconography of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=Madison, NJ|year=1987|isbn=0-517-50291-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Baring-Gould|first=William|author-link=William S. Baring-Gould|title=The Annotated Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Clarkson N. Potter|location=New York|year=1967|isbn=0-517-50291-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Baring-Gould|first=William|author-link=William S. Baring-Gould|title=Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: The Life of the World's First Consulting Detective|title-link=Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street|publisher=Clarkson N. Potter|location=New York|year=1962|oclc=63103488}}
• {{Cite book|last=Blakeney|first=T. S.|title=Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?|publisher=Prentice Hall & IBD|location=London|year=1994|isbn=1-883402-10-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bradley|first=Alan|title=Ms Holmes of Baker Street: The Truth About Sherlock|publisher=University of Alberta Press|location=Alberta|year=2004|isbn=0-88864-415-9|url=https://archive.org/details/msholmesofbakers00brad}}
• {{Cite book|last=Campbell|first=Mark|title=Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Pocket Essentials|location=London|year=2007|isbn=978-0-470-12823-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Dakin|first=David|title=A Sherlock Holmes Commentary|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|year=1972|isbn=0-7153-5493-0}}
• {{Cite book|last=Duncan|first=Alistair|title=Eliminate the Impossible: An Examination of the World of Sherlock Holmes on Page and Screen|publisher=MX Publishing|location=London|year=2008|isbn=978-1-904312-31-4}}
• {{Cite book|last=Duncan|first=Alistair|title=Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|publisher=MX Publishing|location=London|year=2009|isbn=978-1-904312-50-5}}
• {{Cite book|last=Duncan|first=Alistair|title=The Norwood Author: Arthur Conan Doyle and the Norwood Years (1891–1894)|publisher=MX Publishing|location=London|year=2010|isbn=978-1-904312-69-7}}
• Fenoli Marc, Qui a tué Sherlock Holmes ? [Who shot Sherlock Holmes ?], Review L'Alpe 45, Glénat-Musée Dauphinois, Grenoble-France, 2009. {{ISBN|978-2-7234-6902-9}}
• {{Cite book|last=Green|first=Richard Lancelyn|title=The Sherlock Holmes Letters|publisher=University of Iowa Press|location=Iowa City|year=1987|isbn=0-87745-161-3}}
• {{Cite book|last=Hall|first=Trevor|title=Sherlock Holmes: Ten Literary Studies|publisher=Duckworth|location=London|year=1969|isbn=0-7156-0469-4}}
• {{Cite book|last=Hall|first=Trevor|title=Sherlock Holmes and his Creator|publisher=St Martin's Press|location=New York|year=1977|isbn=0-312-71719-9}}
• {{Cite book|last=Hammer|first=David|title=The Before-Breakfast Pipe of Mr. Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Wessex Pr.|location=London|year=1995|isbn=0-938501-21-6}}
• {{Cite book|last=Harrison|first=Michael|title=The World of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Frederick Muller Ltd.|location=London|year=1973}}
• {{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Kelvin|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Kent Railways|publisher=Meresborough Books|location=Sittingborne, Kent|year=1987|isbn=0-948193-25-5}}
• {{Cite book|last=Keating|first=H. R. F.|title=Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World|publisher=Castle|location=Edison, NJ|year=2006|isbn=0-7858-2112-0|url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesma0000keat}}
• {{Cite book|last=Kestner|first=Joseph|title=Sherlock's Men: Masculinity, Conan Doyle and Cultural History|publisher=Ashgate|location=Farnham|year=1997|isbn=1-85928-394-2}}
• {{Cite book|last=King|first=Joseph A.|title=Sherlock Holmes: From Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham, US|year=1996|isbn=0-8108-3180-5}}
• {{Cite book|last=Klinger|first=Leslie|author-link=Leslie S. Klinger|title=The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library|publisher=Gasogene Books|location=Indianapolis|year=1998|isbn=0-938501-26-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Knowles|first=Christopher|title=Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes|location=San Francisco|year=2007|publisher=Weiser Books|isbn=978-1-57863-406-4|title-link=Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes}}
• {{Cite book|last=Lester|first=Paul|title=Sherlock Holmes in the Midlands|publisher=Brewin Books|location=Studley, Warwickshire|year=1992|isbn=0-947731-85-7}}
• Lieboe, Eli. Doctor Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1982; Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-87972-198-5}}
• {{Cite book|last=McClure|first=Michael|title=Sherlock Holmes and the Cryptic Clues|publisher=Baskerville Productions|location=Chester, IL|year=2020|isbn=978-0-9981084-7-6}}
• {{Cite book|last=Mitchelson|first=Austin|title=The Baker Street Irregular: Unauthorised Biography of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Ian Henry Publications Ltd|location=Romford|year=1994|isbn=0-8021-4325-3}}
• {{Cite book|last=Payne|first=David S.|title=Myth and Modern Man in Sherlock Holmes: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Uses of Nostalgia|publisher=Gaslight's Publications|location=Bloomington, Ind|year=1992|isbn=0-934468-29-X}}
• {{Cite book|last=Redmond|first=Christopher|title=In Bed with Sherlock Holmes: Sexual Elements in Conan Doyle's Stories|publisher=Players Press|location=London|year=1987|isbn=0-8021-4325-3}}
• {{Cite book|last=Redmond|first=Donald|title=Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Sources|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|location=Quebec|year=1983|isbn=0-7735-0391-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesst0000redm}}
• {{Cite book|last=Rennison|first=Nick|title=Sherlock Holmes. The Unauthorized Biography|publisher=Grove Press|location=London|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8021-4325-9}}
• {{Cite book|last=Richards|first=Anthony John|title=Holmes, Chemistry and the Royal Institution: A Survey of the Scientific Works of Sherlock Holmes and His Relationship with the Royal Institution of Great Britain|publisher=Irregulars Special Press|location=London|year=1998|isbn=0-7607-7156-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bedsidecompanion0000rile}}
• {{Cite book|last=Riley|first=Dick|title=The Bedside Companion to Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books|location=New York|year=2005|isbn=0-7607-7156-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bedsidecompanion0000rile}}
• {{Cite book|last=Riley|first=Peter|title=The Highways and Byways of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=P.&D. Riley|location=London|year=2005|isbn=978-1-874712-78-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Roy|first=Pinaki|title=The Manichean Investigators: A Postcolonial and Cultural Rereading of the Sherlock Holmes and Byomkesh Bakshi Stories|publisher=Sarup and Sons|location=New Delhi|year=2008|isbn=978-81-7625-849-4}}
• {{cite book|last1=Sebeok|first1=Thomas|year=1984|last2=Umiker-Sebeok|first2=Jean|chapter='You Know My Method': A Juxtaposition of Charles S. Peirce and Sherlock Holmes|pages=11–54|title=The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce|editor-last=Eco|editor-first=Umberto|editor-link=Umberto Eco|editor2-last=Sebeok|editor2-first=Thomas|editor2-link=Thomas Sebeok|location=Bloomington, IN|publisher=History Workshop, Indiana University Press|chapter-url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/b_resources/abduction.html|isbn=978-0-253-35235-4|oclc=9412985|access-date=22 January 2012|archive-date=11 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211194603/http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/b_resources/abduction.html|url-status=live}} Previously published as chapter 2, pp. 17–52 of {{cite book|last=Sebeok|first=Thomas|year=1981|title=The Play of Musement|url=https://archive.org/details/playofmusement0000sebe|url-access=registration|location=Bloomington, IN|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-39994-6|lccn=80008846|oclc=7275523}}
• {{Cite book|last=Shaw|first=John B.|title=Encyclopedia of Sherlock Holmes: A Complete Guide to the World of the Great Detective|publisher=Pavilion Books|location=London|year=1995|isbn=1-85793-502-0}}
• {{Cite book|last=Sova|first=Dawn B.|title=Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z|publisher=Checkmark Books|location=New York|year=2001|edition=Paperback|isbn=0-8160-4161-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoetoz0000sova}}
• {{Cite book|last=Starrett|first=Vincent|title=The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Prentice Hall & IBD|location=London|year=1993|isbn=978-1-883402-05-1}}
• {{Cite book|last=Tracy|first=Jack|title=The Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia: Universal Dictionary of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Crescent Books|location=London|year=1988|isbn=0-517-65444-X}}
• {{Cite book|last=Tracy|first=Jack|title=Subcutaneously, My Dear Watson: Sherlock Holmes and the Cocaine Habit|publisher=Gaslight Publications|location=Bloomington, Ind.|year=1996|isbn=0-934468-25-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Wagner|first=E. J.|title=La Scienza di Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Bollati Boringheri|location=Torino|year=2007|isbn=978-0-470-12823-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Weller|first=Philip|title=The Life and Times of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Bracken Books|location=Simsbury|year=1993|isbn=1-85891-106-0}}
• {{Cite book|last=Wexler|first=Bruce|title=The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes|publisher=Running Press|location=London|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7624-3252-3}}

{{Refend}}

{{Sister project links|d=Q4653|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|b=no|species=no|n=no|s=Author:Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes}}

{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes}}

• {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/collections/sherlock-holmes}}
• [http://www.Sherlock-Holmes.co.uk The Sherlock Holmes Museum] 221b Baker Street London NW1 6XE England.
• {{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/SherlockHolmes_201702|title=Sherlock Holmes|date=8 July 1930|work=Internet Archive}}
• [http://openplaques.org/people/2196 Sherlock Holmes plaques] on openplaques.org
• [http://dickens.stanford.edu/sherlockholmes/index.html Discovering Sherlock Holmes] at Stanford University
• [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/holmes.html Chess and Sherlock Holmes] essay by Edward Winter
• [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704240504574585840677394758 "The Burden of Holmes"] – 23.12.09 article in The Wall Street Journal
• [http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/author/d/doyle.html Sir Arthur Conan Doyle audio books] by Lit2Go from the University of South Florida

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