Who was the prototype of Sherlock Holmes. sherlock holmes fictional character or not sherlock holmes real character

“There were living prototypes of both Holmes and Watson. Doyle always said that the model for Sherlock Holmes was Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Edinburgh Hospital, but Bell once admitted that Doyle "owed me a lot less than he thinks." By all accounts, Bell sparked Doyle's imagination, which went on to far surpass the original. Bell, a thin, wiry, swarthy man, had a sharp, penetrating gaze, an aquiline nose, and a high, harsh voice. Sitting back in his chair, hands folded, he quickly noted the characteristics of the patients whom Doyle, assigned to him as outpatient clerk, ushered into his room, and reported to students and assistants something like: “Gentlemen, I can’t say exactly who this the man is a cork cutter or a roofer. I see a slight callus or induration on one side of his index finger and a slight thickening on the outside of his thumb. And this is an exact sign of both professions.

Another case was simpler: “I see you are abusing alcohol. You even carry a flask in the inside pocket of your coat.” A third patient listened with his mouth open as Bell, remarking "You, I see, a shoemaker," turned to the students and drew their attention to the fact that the patient's trousers were torn at the back of the trouser leg under the knee, where he clamped the punch, which is typical only for shoemakers. One diagnosis of Bell made such an impression on Doyle that he remembered him all his life.

So, you served in the army.
- Yes, sir.
- Demobilized recently?
- Yes, sir.
- Scottish regiment?
- Yes, sir.
- Non-commissioned officer?
- Yes, sir.
- Did you serve in Barbados?
- Yes, sir.

You see, gentlemen," Bell explained to the students. - This is a polite man, but he did not take off his hat. In the army, they don’t take off their headgear, but he would get used to civilian life if he had been demobilized a long time ago. There is a sense of authority in him, and he is clearly Scottish. As for Barbados, he came about elephantiasis, and this is a disease peculiar to the West Indies, not England.

Bell describes his methods in Holmesian fashion: “The most important factor in any successful medical diagnosis is accurate and careful observation and appreciation of the smallest details ... Eyes and ears that see and hear, a memory that instantly remembers to recreate what the organs noticed on demand feelings, and an imagination capable of weaving a theory, or reconnecting a broken chain, or unraveling the intricacies of information - these are the requirements that his profession makes of a good diagnostician.

But several literary heroes can also be called the fathers of Holmes, and his method of investigation first appeared, probably in Voltaire's Zadig. The man who lost his camel asks Zadig if he has seen him. “You are talking about a one-eyed camel with teeth that have fallen out, perhaps? says Zadig. “No, I didn’t see him, but he went west.” But if he did not see the camel, how does he know about its physical defects, not to mention which way the camel went? Elementary, my dear Watson. “I realized that he had one eye because he only ate grass on one side of the road. I knew that some of his teeth had fallen out because the blades of grass had not been bitten. I realized that he went west, in his footsteps. D "Artagnan restores the circumstances of the duel in Louise de la Vallière, also in Holmes's way.

Some find the ancestors of the greatest detective of all Dickens and Wilkie Collins. "Because I was raised on Inspector Bucket Dickens, Sergeant Carre Wilkie Collins and Dupin Edgar Poe, I had a low opinion of Sherlock Holmes, - told me Bernard Show- but the stories about Brigadier Gerard are first-rate. Doyle himself has repeatedly admitted that he owes a lot to By, but some people made comparisons with Dupin not in favor of Holmes and made unsupported statements. For example, Miss Dorothy Sayers, who argues that Doyle's stories lack the "purity of the analytical method" By. She writes about the "strict rule By show the reader all the clues" to unraveling the mystery. However, the detective Edgar Poe, Dupin, shows his friend the most important piece of evidence after solving the crime, when all the facts have already become known. “I barely pulled this little tuft of hair out of Madame L'Espane's convulsively clenched fingers,” he says. looks like the kind sailors use to tie their hair." He picked up the tape at the crime scene. But his friend and readers must have seen him pick it up. This is about Poe's "strict rules" and if, as Ms. Sayers assures us , there is no "purity of analytical method" in Doyle's stories Edgar Poe, then Edgar Allan Poe does not have it either.

Doyle, however, was the first to admit that he had taken some small things from By. Dupin, like Holmes, loves to smoke a pipe; he has bouts of "sad pensiveness"; sometimes he refuses to discuss the matter he is thinking about; continues aloud the other person's thoughts; traps a person who can shed light on a crime by placing an advertisement in a newspaper; organizes a commotion on the street and, while the attention of the satellite is distracted, manages to replace one letter with another; and, like Holmes, a rather low opinion of his professional colleague who is "too cunning to be smart".

But all this is irrelevant and irrelevant to the essence of the matter, which is that Doyle was the first writer to endow the detective with a living human character. , and, probably, will be the last writer who gave readers stories that are as interesting and exciting as his main characters are reliable and believable. Dupin is a stillborn, just a talking machine, the longest story he appears in, "The Mystery-Marie Roger", is simply boring and none of the characters By so not revived. In fact, Doyle's followers were influenced By much more than Doyle himself.

The scientific approach to the problem, the mass of details, the careful reconstruction of events, the verbosity and professional techniques of modern detectives - all this, fortunately, is not in the Holmes saga, because in this case Doyle did not confuse entertainment with cognition. And while he messed up his historical novels by making history more important than romance, he didn't make the same mistake with detective stories, where the story is always more important than the detective story. It even seems that he wrote the story with the pen of Holmes, who preferred a scientific treatise to an interesting story; but about Holmes he wrote with the pen of Watson, who preferred an interesting story to a scientific treatise. Very dissimilar, finally understand, the Heroes of the story and their creator, - Doyle wrote a critic, who suggested that Holmes' views on Dupin were similar to the writer's point of view. We must be careful not to make the same mistake and assume that Dr. Watson is Dr. Doyle. Nevertheless, there is enough of Doyle in Watson that we need not look further for a prototype. He often and unconsciously portrayed himself in it. “Your fatal habit of looking at everything from the point of view of a story rather than a scientific work has spoiled what could have been an informative and even a classic series of evidence,” Holmes says to Watson, and this emphasizes what we just talked about. Doyle was a born storyteller, and whenever he sacrifices action for accuracy, his power over the reader is weakened. Doyle thinks of himself again when he makes Holmes say to Watson: "You must understand that among your many talents there is no room for pretense." And again: “My dear Watson, you are by nature a man of action. The ability to pretend is not one of your many talents. And when in the story "Murder at Abbey Grange" Sherlock Holmes decides to let the killer go, he resolutely unites Watson and Doyle: "You, Watson, are the English jury - I do not know a person who would be more worthy of this role," - Doyle's character is outlined in one sentence."

Hesketh Pearson, Conan Doyle: His Life and Works, in: D.D. Carr, H. Pearson, Writers on Writers: Arthur Conan Doyle, M., The Book, 1989, p. 282-284.

Sherlock Holmes entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular literary character. The number of films about the inexorable detective is amazing: the only one who overtakes this hero in the number of film adaptations is the vampire -.

Holmes not only won the love of a multi-million army of detective fans, but also helped the real police. Keepers of the law often use the methods presented in the stories: they say that it was the invented hero who taught the investigators to take fingerprints.

Story

Such speculation by the fans is erroneous, because in the books there is no information about the fierce confrontation between Sherlock and a gifted criminal. This character is found in the works once (except for a fleeting appearance in the "Valley of Horrors"): in the story "The Last Case of Holmes" (1893), where the deadly fight between the detective and "Napoleon in the field of crimes" took place.

Bibliography

The tobacco lover appears in 56 stories and 4 novellas, but at the request of fans, Doyle listed the best works, selecting 12 manuscripts:

• 1891 - "Redhead Union"
• 1891 - "Five orange seeds"
• 1892 - "Motley Ribbon"
• 1893 - "The Last Case of Holmes"
• 1893 - "Rite of the House of the Musgraves"
• 1893-1894 - "Reiget Squires"
• 1903 - "The Empty House"
• 1903 - "A case in a boarding school"
• 1904 - "The Second Spot"
• 1905 - "Dancing little men"
• 1910 - "The Devil's Leg"

Screen adaptations

Eminent directors did not pass by the talented detective and his colleague: at the moment, more than 240 films about Sherlock Holmes have been shot, including TV shows, cartoons and anime. In addition, separate series were made with the investigator, for example, in Tom and Jerry. Therefore, we list the popular works:

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939, USA)

The film, directed by Alfred L. Werker, tells of a cunning plan by Professor Moriarty, who has developed a scheme to steal the precious crown.

But Sherlock Holmes bursts into the brilliant game of the villain, in whom actor Basil Rathbone reincarnated - his name became strongly associated with a detective living in London: film adaptations where this actor appeared instantly became box office giants.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson" (1979-1986, USSR)

Films about the character of Arthur Conan Doyle have been filmed since 1900, but the canonical images of the main characters were created only in 1980, when the television series started.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1984-1994, UK)

The British multi-part film was to the taste of connoisseurs of detective stories. This time, Jeremy Brett appeared in the image of Sherlock, who starred in many films, but was unreasonably afraid of becoming an actor in one role.

Jeremy stated that his role is romantic and heroic characters, and not a cold and prudent detective. Nevertheless, the Brit managed to get used to the role, and he became a cult Holmes for his time.

Sherlock (2010, UK)

Doyle's fans began to follow all the seasons of the TV series "", in which the main roles went to and: these actors do not look like the characters described by the writer, but still fell in love with the audience.

The new Sherlock Holmes of Cumberbatch exceeded all expectations: the character turned out to be unemotional, prudent, but the actor admitted that it was difficult to play the detective because of the amount of information.

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (2011, USA, UK)

The director was inspired by detective novels and presented two free interpretations about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: first, the 2009 film was released, and then the audience saw The Shadow Game.

The film plunges moviegoers into 1891, when a series of terrorist attacks and a wave of shocking murders take place. The role of the detective went to, whose hero gave rise to stereotypes. The fact is that the actor's investigator appears before the audience in a sloppy look, but, judging by the stories, Holmes was concerned about personal hygiene, despite the mess in the room.

• The Russian television series "Sherlock Holmes" (2013), where the roles were played by and, is positioned as the largest budget project in the history of Russian television. Also auditioned for the role of a detective in this series.

• A smoking pipe and a deer hunter's cap are the most recognizable attributes of a detective, but this combination was used on the stage of the theater: Arthur Conan Doyle did not present these items to the detective. Holmes prefers to smoke strong cigarettes and cigars.

• In Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasures of Agra (1983), viewers see a chest of gold on which Indian text flaunts. The actors said that this inscription is not translated in any way and was invented at random.
• In the Soviet film Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: Bloody Inscription (1979), actors Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin play real chess, playing the defense of two knights.

In the spring of 1886, the young English writer Arthur Conan Doyle completed A Study in Scarlet, the first work about the adventures of the detective Sherlock Holmes. The editor of one of the publishing houses, J. Bettany, became interested in the story, and offered the author 25 pounds sterling, provided that all rights to this work were transferred to the publishing house. The editor even remarked that he could not offer any other options: the market was already inundated with cheap literature.

Then no one could even imagine that soon the whole world would know about Sherlock Holmes, and readers would look forward to continuing his amazing adventures. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, of course, but he has a prototype, Professor of Medicine Joseph Bell, who taught at the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle studied in his youth.

The professor possessed amazing powers of observation, he assured that in order to establish a diagnosis, it was not necessary to question the patient, it was enough just to look at him. Once an elderly patient came to see Bell, looking at him, the professor said that he served in the mountain rifle battalion in Barbados, and at present the financial affairs of the former warrior are far from good, he even has to earn extra money as a shoemaker. In addition, this man's wife is also sick and is currently in the hospital.

The professor explained to the surprised students: his patient was polite, but, entering the room, he did not take off his headgear: a clear sign that the person had served in the army for a long time. He has elephantism, and this disease affects the inhabitants of Barbados, where there is only one unit of the British army, the mountain rifle battalion. There are calluses on the patient's thumb, evidence that he often has to deal with fights. A hospitalization ticket is visible from his pocket, and a wedding ring is on his hand.

These testimonies led to the conclusion that the wife was ill and was being treated in a hospital. A watch chain hangs on the vest, but the watch itself is not there: it has been sold or pawned. A clear sign of a difficult financial situation. There is fluff on clothes - which means you have to make the bed yourself.

Another sign that the wife is not at home. After graduating from university, Arthur Conan Doyle decided to go into private medical practice, but there were few clients. In order to somehow earn a living, the young doctor begins to write short stories and submit them to magazines. That's when he remembered his teacher. True, the literary hero was no longer a physician, but a detective. And Joseph Bell himself never became a detective, despite his amazing abilities. For the rest of his life he remained faithful to medicine. The professor died in 1911 at the age of 74 in his native Edinburgh.

In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, a physician from Portsmouth, England, published A Study in Scarlet. It features Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for the first time. In addition, for the first time in a detective text, a magnifying glass was used as a research tool. "A Study in Scarlet" did not attract much attention of readers, in fact, like the next story with Holmes - "The Sign of the Four". But in July 1891, Doyle began publishing short detective stories about the adventures of a detective in The Strand Magazine (in 1892, these stories would be published in the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes).

It was then that the reading public began to get involved in the London detective story, whose popularity eventually reached phenomenal proportions. But even at the beginning of the hero's journey to world fame, readers were interested in who was the prototype of this extraordinary personality? Couldn't the author have come up with such an eccentric and at the same time brilliant detective story "just out of thin air"?

More than a century after the appearance of the first work about Sherlock Holmes, we can say that this is a collective image of two real people. And as a "third component", perhaps, the features of Arthur Conan Doyle himself were used.

Arthur Conan Doyle. (Photo by George Grantham Bain Collection/The Library of Congress.)

In 1877 Doyle studied to be a doctor at the University of Edinburgh. At this age, everything surprises and is remembered. One of the teachers of 18-year-old Arthur was Professor Joseph Bell (Joseph Bell), who immediately attracted the attention of the future writer. Dr. Bell's lectures were unusual, exciting and even entertaining. Using his amazing deductive powers, Bell made immediate inferences about patients that he often didn't even see!

“Professor Bell's forte was diagnosing. But I am talking not only about the disease, but also about the nature of the patient and his occupation, ”the writer recalled. Doyle's autobiography describes an incident in which a man walked out in front of an audience, and Bell gave him a comprehensive - and, of course, correct - description, although he had never seen him before: “You served in the army ... Recently retired ... Scottish regiment. .. They rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer ... Were in Barbados ... "

Accurate hit on all counts! Dr. Bell explained it this way: “Please note, gentlemen, despite the fact that the man looks respectable, he did not take off his hat. The military and should not take off their caps indoors, that is, our experimental subject has not yet abandoned the old habit. It shows the confidence of the man giving orders, it is also clear that he is a Scot. As for Barbados ... The reason he went to the doctor is elephantiasis, and this is a disease from the West Indies, and it is in Barbados that the Scottish Regiment is now stationed.

“To our audience full of Watsons, at first - until he explained the course of his thought - it seemed that Bell was a telepath ...” - said Conal Doyle.

In the second year of study, Bell made Doyle his assistant in the outpatient clinic: the future writer pre-interviewed patients and reported the results to Bell. That is, in fact, he was Watson with his teacher! Ten years later, when Doyle took up his pen, it was this amazing ability to notice little things and, based on them, come to the solution of a riddle, that formed the basis of the world-famous character.

Doyle openly admitted that the famous detective had a prototype in life. In one of the interviews, the writer said so: “Sherlock Holmes is a literary embodiment, so to speak, of my memories of a professor of medicine at the University of Edinburgh.” In addition, in a letter to Bell, Doyle admitted: "Undoubtedly, it is you I have to thank for Sherlock Holmes."

Joseph Bell. Who do you think he looks more like: the actor Livanov or the artist Cumberbatch? (Photo by Wikimedia Commons.)

However, although the main elements of the character were taken from the personality of Professor Bell, he was not the only source of inspiration. The famous Edinburgh medical examiner, pathologist, public health inspector Henry Littlejohn also took part in the creation of Sherlock Holmes. Littlejohn was involved in every accident, tragic death or murder that happened daily in Edinburgh. He was the first to use fingerprints and photographs in solving crimes. Littlejohn revolutionized investigative methods during the very years that Conan Doyle was creating his hero.

In 1893, Conan Doyle wrote Holmes' Last Case; at the same time ended the famous investigation of the Ardlamont murder. Alfred John Monson was accused of killing his 20-year-old student Cecil Hambrough while hunting. The defense argued that Hambro accidentally shot himself in the head. But Littlejohn, from the trail of the bullet, the location of the wound, the damage to the skull, and even the smell of the victim, proved that it was a murder.

Curiously, Dr. Bell also participated in this case (as an expert witness) and, using his deductive methods, ultimately agreed with Littlejohn's conclusions. This is how the two prototypes of Sherlock Holmes once met to work together, and Doyle used Littlejohn's forensic methods as another character trait of a book detective.

Finally, we have Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Professor Bell once stated in a letter to a writer: "You yourself are Sherlock Holmes and you know it well." In December 1908, Marion Gilchrist was beaten to death during an armed robbery. Oscar Slater, a Jew, an immigrant from Germany, was accused of the murder, and then convicted. In 1909 he was sentenced to death. Scottish lawyer William Roughead wrote an essay, "The Oscar Slater Case," which argued convincingly that Slater was innocent. This did not help free Oskar, but the execution was delayed.

In 1912, Conan Doyle wrote his own pamphlet, The Oscar Slater Affair, arguing for Slater's innocence. Despite the persuasiveness of his arguments (thus, he pointed out that the hammer found in Slater's belongings and considered the murder weapon was a very light and fragile instrument, and therefore could not cause the wounds that were found on the victim's head), it was not possible to achieve a review of the case. succeeded. “When I got acquainted with the facts, I realized that this unfortunate man had the same attitude to the murder as I did,” recalled Conan Doyle in his autobiography. The writer launched a press campaign. And again nothing happened. Slater was released only in November 1927, 18 years after his conviction.

Although here, of course, it is difficult to say with all certainty: either Doyle's own abilities inspired him to create Sherlock Holmes, or Holmes pushed Doyle to investigate real criminal cases...

As for the name and surname of the most famous fictional detective, these are also believed to be borrowings. Holmes is a gift from a good friend of writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, while Sherlock comes from Doyle's favorite musician, Alfred Sherlock.

In the spring of 1886, the still unknown young English writer Arthur Conan Doyle completed work on the story A Study in Scarlet. It was his debut work about the adventures of a detective...

In the spring of 1886, the still unknown young English writer Arthur Conan Doyle completed work on the story A Study in Scarlet. It was his debut work about the adventures of the detective Sherlock Holmes.

The editor of one of the publishing houses, J. Bettany, became interested in the story, and offered the author 25 pounds sterling, provided that all rights to this work were transferred to the publishing house. The editor even remarked that he could not offer any other options: the market was already inundated with cheap literature.

Then no one could even imagine that soon the whole world would know about Sherlock Holmes, and readers would look forward to continuing his amazing adventures. Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, of course, but he has a prototype, Professor of Medicine Joseph Bell, who taught at the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle studied in his youth.

The professor possessed amazing powers of observation, he assured that in order to establish a diagnosis, it was not necessary to question the patient, it was enough just to look at him.

Once an elderly patient came to see Bell, looking at him, the professor said that he served in the mountain rifle battalion in Barbados, and at present the financial affairs of the former warrior are far from good, he even has to earn extra money as a shoemaker. In addition, this man's wife is also sick and is currently in the hospital.

The professor explained to the surprised students: his patient was polite, but, entering the room, he did not take off his headgear: a clear sign that the person had served in the army for a long time. He has elephantism, and this disease affects the inhabitants of Barbados, where there is only one unit of the British army, the mountain rifle battalion.

There are calluses on the patient's thumb, evidence that he often has to deal with fights. A hospitalization ticket is visible from his pocket, and a wedding ring is on his hand.

These testimonies led to the conclusion that the wife was ill and was being treated in a hospital. A watch chain hangs on the vest, but the watch itself is not there: it has been sold or pawned. A clear sign of a difficult financial situation. There is fluff on clothes - which means you have to make the bed yourself.

Another sign that the wife is not at home. After graduating from university, Arthur Conan Doyle decided to go into private medical practice, but there were few clients. In order to somehow earn a living, the young doctor begins to write short stories and submit them to magazines.

That's when he remembered his teacher. True, the literary hero was no longer a physician, but a detective. And Joseph Bell himself never became a detective, despite his amazing abilities. For the rest of his life he remained faithful to medicine. The professor died in 1911 at the age of 74 in his native Edinburgh.