Sherlock Holmes Essay Sample

Telling stories is an inseparable part of every culture. From generation to generation mothers tell their children different stories, thereafter children grow up and tell these stories to the infants. What is more, some of them start creating their own stories, which are published as books and read by thousands and millions of people. Some stories are more successful, some less, but only few of them become great and remain popular for many years. One of such stories is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The first story about this smart and snobbish detective appeared in 1887 and since this time is has been published numerous times in many countries. Guinness World Records consider Sherlock Holmes the most portrayed movie character ever (Fox).

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It is important to mention that The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes have inspired not only film directors, but other writers as well. Among the writers who were influenced by Arthur Conan Doyles short stories are Dorothy B. Hughes, A. A. Milne, Neil Gaiman and Anthony Burgess. They all the authors of pastiches on Sherlock Holmes. In 1954 a pastiche collection of stories called The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes was published by John D. Carr, a famous American author of mystery stories. This collection was created in cooperation with the son of Arthur Conan Doyle, Adrian and contained 12 stories, each named the Adventure of and ended with the quotation from the original text. Thus the reference to Sherlock Holmes, which became the source for inspiration, is made.

Another work, closely related to Sherlock Holmes is The House of Silk, a novel published by Anthony Horowitz in 2011. This text was approved by the estate of Conan Doyle and was presented the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes continuation. The book tells the story of the new case which Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson investigate. The name of the case is The Flat Cape case and it covers the story of an art dealer Edmund Carstairs and his destroyed paintings. The novel is divided into 20 chapters with prologue and epilogue, there are two intrigues, which are closely interconnected. It is the first person narration from Doctor Watson and, according to the plot, this story was written only after Holmess death and published 100 years after (Greene). The novel was warmly accepted by the critics and was followed by a sequel, Moriarty in 2014.

There are some novels, inspired by Sherlock Holmes, but containing other characters from Conan Doyles stories except the title character, such as The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade 17 books by M. J. Trow, Good Night, Mr. Holmes by Carole N. Douglas, featuring Irene Adler and Enter the Lion by Sean M. Wright and Michael P. Hodel, telling the story of Sherlocks brother Mycroft.

However, there are books, in which have their original main characters, somehow connected with l Sherlock Holmes stories, though they were inspired by the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle. One of them is the series of novels about Mary Russel by the American writer Laurie R. King. These are the stories about the self-titled character who accidently meets Sherlock Holmes, who had retired and keeps bees in Sussex. Not being the main character of the novels, Holmes plays an important role in the development of Mary as personality and detective, thereafter they become good friends and end up marrying each other seven years afterwards. As the author Laurie R. King herself admitted, the stories about Sherlock Holmes were one of the sources for her inspiration while creating her own novels (Sansom).

Another example of the great influence of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle is a novella The Final Solution, created by Michael Chabon, which tells the story of an old detective, who has to investigate the case of a nine-year-old boy, Jewish refugee from Germany, and his lost parrot. A Slight Trick of the Mind, novel by Mitch Cullin, is one more story greatly inspired by the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as it presents ninety-three-year old Mr. Holmes, who is in hurry to tell the story of his life to somebody before he finally forgets everything due to ageing. There is a film based on this book, starring Ian Mckellen as Sherlock Holmes. Moreover, Sherlock Holmes has become the source for such mystery stories writers as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers

References

Fox, C. (n.d.). Sherlock Holmes: Pipe dreams. Retrieved May 19, 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6789921/Sherlock-Holmes-pipe-dreams.html

Greene, D. G. (1995). John Dickson Carr: The man who explained miracles. New York: Otto Penzler.

Sansom, I. (2011). The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz review. Retrieved May 19, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/house-silk-anthony-horowitz-sherlock-holmes