Sherlock Holmes
- The phrase ‘Elementary my dear Watson’ was never mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes books
- Sherlock means blonde, but the main characters are all dark haired
- Holmes is modeled after the Scottish physician Joseph Bell
- Holmes’ famous deerstalker cap was not created by Doyle, but by the illustrator, Sidney Paget
- “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” is the most famous true quote written by Conan Doyle
- Watson has a bullet wound that was first described as being in the shoulder, but in another story the wound had moved to the leg
- The only woman to have beaten Holmes was Irene Adler
- Sherlock Holmes’ creator ironically believed in and was committed to spiritualism, fairies and ghosts
- There are more than 260 movies, 2 musicals and a ballet based on the book
- In 1964, Sherlock Holmes books were the best sellers second only to the Bible
- Sherlock abused cocaine and morphine in “The Sign Of Four”
Comments
Comment from 40 year old mum
My kids will love some of these trivia. Thank you for collecting them
Comment from Kirk
Sherlock Holmes didn’t believe in Spiritualism, fairies and ghosts, just like his creator and author. That is not in any of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Do you have a reference to back that up?
Comment from debrain
Kirk, Conan Doyle was in fact committed to spiritualism. http://artshumanities.blogs.ie.edu/2009/06/the-odd-spiritualism-of-sherlock-holmes.html
Have a read of that
Comment from Kayla
I have read every story of Sherlock Holmes, (and there are quite a few) and he uses cocaine and/or morphine in almost all of them. The phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson” originated, I believe in the 1929 film ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes”.
Comment from Lucy
Kirk, De Brain didn’t say that Sherlock Holmes believed in it. He said his “creator ironically” believed in it. The article he references agrees with his statement.
Comment from Andy
Excellent! I cried, “Elementary.” said he.
This is the passage that started it all. Its from ‘The Crooked Man’
Comment from Valerie
Kirk, if you want some proof, I’ve got four books on Spiritualism written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sitting on my bookshelf.
The type of dropstem pipe often pictured with Sherlock Holmes was not available at his time. It was popularized by William Gillette, an actor who played Holmes, who used a dropstem pipe so he could deliver his lines with the pipe in his mouth.
Sherlock Holmes’ use of cocaine is a little overblown. He wasn’t using it in “almost all of them,” Kayla, and in fact in one story (The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter), he is said to have recovered from his cocaine addiction. It was mentioned occasionally, and really only explicitly used once.
Comment from Abdulaziz
Thank you this helped me with my homework
Comment from jade
this helped me a lot with my homework thanks
Comment from Gonefishing
Thank you so much for these facts. It makes reading the books so much more interesting when you know a bit of trivia or history behind the stories itself. I’ve always enjoyed trying to imagine what the authors would have gone through or felt when they were writing the stories. It is a bit like ‘behind the scenes’ isn’t it.