Description
Book SynopsisEver since Arthur Conan Doyle created the pipe-smoking, deer-stalkered character, Sherlock Holmes, he has become a part of popular culture for generations, and here every aspect of the legendary detective is investigated. Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide variety of subjects makes it the perfect book to dip in to. The amazing and extraordinary facts series presents interesting, surprising and little-known facts and stories about a wide-range of topics which are guaranteed to inform, absorb and entertain in equal measure.
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Doyle Family - Background of the author Literary beginnings - Conan Doyle at school Dr Joseph Bell - Mentor and model for Holmes The doctor who wanted to write - Conan Doyle sets up practice in Southsea Who came before? - Other literary detectives A Study in Scarlet - How Sherlock Holmes was born A slow birth process - Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 Holmes described - Appearance, character and background Watson described - Appearance, character and background Holmes' Baker Street - Numbers and complications So many choices - The search for 221B The Sign of (the) Four - The story of the follow-up novel Evocative of its time - Conan Doyle's London The Strand Magazine - Reading for the masses Sidney Paget - The first great Holmes illustrator The human side - Re-introduction of Holmes Central attraction - Why Holmes still works today Deduction - It's a science Mycroft Holmes - Sherlock's big brother Mrs Hudson - The long-suffering landlady Scotland Yarders - Lestrade and all the rest Professor Moriarty - The Napoleon of Crime Women and Holmes - What he really thought of them Holmes' literary tastes - What he reads and what he recommends Holmes' musical tastes - The detective takes time to relax A rare actor - Sherlock Holmes in disguise Town versus country - Holmes, the city-dweller Expert monographs - Holmes, the writer Great quotations - Holmes, the brilliant conversationalist The early plots - Short story breakdown, Part 1 Holmes is critical - Watson's writing analysed Increasing returns - Conan Doyle and his considerable earnings Reichenbach beckoned - The killing of Sherlock Holmes Start of something - The Holmes phenomenon First parodies - Sherlock Holmes becomes a copied man The footlights - Holmes takes to the stage Sherlock Holmes - The play that became Gillette's great success The Hound looms - The return of the detective It was inevitable - The story of the real return The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Short story breakdown, Part 2 The start of scholarship - Something new in detective fiction The bright Ronald Knox - 'Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes' Baffled! - Holmes in the silent film era Output dwindles - The story of writing His Last Bow His Last Bow - Short story breakdown, Part 3 Post Gillette's masterpiece - More Holmes on stage, Part 1 Spiritualism dominates - Conan Doyle and his religious beliefs The final demise - Conan Doyle's last decade of writing The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes - Short story breakdown, Part 4 Mystery stories - And yet another three? The 'talkies' - The arrival of film with sound Rathbone arrives - A triumph before typecasting Rathbone runs away - The Rathbone-Bruce partnership ends Up to date - More Holmes on stage, Part 2 The birth of societies - With their roots firmly in scholarship An insatiable appetite - Holmes and modern media Enduring appeal - Holmes in the 21st century Epilogue - Remembering Conan Doyle Bibliography Index
