Sherlock Holmes

It's time to discover more about this famous detective...

SHERLOCKED

The author

His novels

London

The author

His novels

London

Arthur Conan Doyle

The original Holmes appeared in 60 works – four novels and five volumes of short stories – written by Conan Doyle between 1887 and 1927. Although his detective lived in London, the author himself was a Scot, born in Edinburgh in 1859. Arthur Conan Doyle trained as a doctor at Edinburgh University, where he met Joseph Bell, a doctor with an incredible ability to diagnose diseases by observing details. He could guess a person’s job by observing tiny details most people didn’t see. He was the inspiration for Holmes. Conan Doyle completed his first stories as a medical student and carried on writing while trying to start his career in medicine. He achieved his breakthrough* as an author in 1886, with ‘A study in Scarlet’, the novel that introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The logical, cold, and eccentric detective met a huge success because Holmes was one of the first characters to use forensic science: he used footprints and other clues to solve mysteries. Conan Doyle died in 1930 and his creation is still adapted in numerous films and series. The BBC series for example is set in the present day but the detective is still basically the Sherlock Holmes his fans love: an eccentric master of deduction.

Quiz on Conan Doyle

1/ When did he live?

2/ What was his nationality?

3/ What did he study? and where?

4/ Who was his inspiration for Sherlock Holmes?

5/ In which book did his hero appear for the first time?

6/ Why were his stories an incredible success?

His novels

His novels

Set in 1888, the plot involves the Indian Mutiny of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four prisoners and two corrupt prison guards. It presents Holmes's drug habit. It also introduces Dr. Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

Based on a local legend of a spectral dog that haunted Dartmoor in England, the story is set in the moors, and the action takes place mostly at night, when the terrifying hound howls for blood.

When Sherlock Holmes receives an encrypted message from an informer that something bad will happen soon, no one can guess that a murder has already been committed. A man has died in his manor. What does a strange symbol on his arm, a missing dumbbell and the initials V. V. have in common?

The detective’s first case is quite violent: two Americans are murdered: one in an empty house, the other in his hotel room. The crime scenes are full of evidence: a wedding ring, a box of pills, tobacco ash, footprints, and the German word RACHE, written in blood on the walls. Scotland Yard calls Holmes.

His novels

Set in 1888, the plot involves the Indian Mutiny of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four prisoners and two corrupt prison guards. It presents Holmes's drug habit. It also introduces Dr. Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

Based on a local legend of a spectral dog that haunted Dartmoor in England, the story is set in the moors, and the action takes place mostly at night, when the terrifying hound howls for blood.

When Sherlock Holmes receives an encrypted message from an informer that something bad will happen soon, no one can guess that a murder has already been committed. A man has died in his manor. What does a strange symbol on his arm, a missing dumbbell and the initials V. V. have in common?

The detective’s first case is quite violent: two Americans are murdered: one in an empty house, the other in his hotel room. The crime scenes are full of evidence: a wedding ring, a box of pills, tobacco ash, footprints, and the German word RACHE, written in blood on the walls. Scotland Yard calls Holmes.

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (1890)

Learn more about Sherlock Holmes and evidence of him in London!

Sherlock Holmes in London