Literary analysis of “A Study in Scarlet.” Arthur Conan Doyle “A Study in Scarlet” (1887) See what “A Study in Scarlet” is in other dictionaries
Literary analysis of “A Study in Scarlet”
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John Watson, M.D. “A Study in Scarlet”
For many years, Holmes became the literary example of the heroic scientist. With his practical application of observation and deduction to the noble cause of investigation, he provides a perfect counterpoint to the early Victorian aversion to science and affirms that “science does not produce monsters and fantastic heresies; it is a normal tool, easily applicable to moral problems everyday life” (Van Dover, 38-9). Indeed, morality seems to play a significant role in Holmes's motivation - while Poe's hero is driven by a desire for pure and abstract truth, Conan Doyle's is driven by a desire to expose evil and restore goodness. Holmes “proclaims a new moral dimension scientific approach”; in his efforts to solve the crime, he “devotes himself to restoring the intelligibility of morality to his world” (Van Dover, 40).
And yet, Sherlock Holmes owes much of his popularity to his personal flaws and qualities, his “unforgettably eccentric character” (Van Dover, 47). He can be angry, which becomes noticeable when the conversation involves his junior colleagues in the detective business, such as Gregson and Lestrade. “Gregson,” he declares, “is the most intelligent detective in Scotland Yard... He and Lestrade stand out among other nonentities” [Doyle, cit. ed., p. 54].
His disdain for these detectives' inadequacy of the profession can be interpreted as evidence of arrogance - but in Holmes's case his overconfidence is certainly justified. His skill is unparalleled, and he complains about the lack of truly difficult tasks that suit his abilities:
There is not and has never been a person in the world who would devote as much innate talent and hard work to solving crimes as I do. So what? There is nothing to uncover, no crimes, at best some crudely executed fraud with such simple motives that even the police from Scotland Yard see right through everything” [Doyle, cit. ed., p. 52].
Conan Doyle goes so far as to include criticism of Dupin into Holmes' tirade against incompetence. When Watson naively remarks, “You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin,” and “I thought such people only existed in novels,” Holmes begins to refute the comparison:
But in my opinion, your Dupin is a very narrow-minded fellow. This technique of confusing your interlocutor with some phrase “on occasion” after fifteen minutes of silence is really a very cheap ostentatious trick. He undoubtedly had some analytical abilities, but he cannot in any way be considered a phenomenon, which Poe apparently considered him to be [Doyle, cit. ed., p. 51].
However, it should be noted that this criticism does not contain comments about Dupin’s technique itself - Holmes challenges only the “ostentatious” use of induction to amaze a friend. Indeed, this passage seems to be delivered in a tone of playful teasing. While the two detectives' methods are decidedly different—Dupin's use of induction and creative intuition versus Holmes's use of expert observation and deduction—Conan Doyle clearly respects Poe's work as well as his achievements as a pioneer of detective fiction.
The eccentric character of Sherlock Holmes has other specific manifestations. Although he is not a “closed nocturnal creature like Dupin Poe,” he certainly has traits of personal isolation and reflection (Van Dover, 47). His laboratory is his haven of peace, a place where he can explore the unlimited possibilities of his scientific endeavors. However, Holmes is not exclusively obsessed with science. And, as many critics have pointed out, the two most obvious evidence of Holmes's unusual habits are his addiction to cocaine and his love of the violin:
Within the walls of his famous apartments at 221-B Baker Street, he balances the laboratory bench with bohemian furnishings, precise methodology with casual habits... Holmes's bohemian habits flesh out him as an individual - he is not just a typical scientist - and prove that even the extreme defender of the experienced the scientific method does not require one to be completely absorbed in one's profession (Van Dover, 48).
These decidedly “unscientific” habits provide a sort of balancing influence, making Holmes a more realistic and humane hero. The violin confirms that “the artistic impulse... coexists in Holmes with the character of the scientist” (Van Dover, 48).
There have been criticisms of the extent to which the role of science is argued in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Many critics point out that references to Holmes's scientific talents - his ability to detect traces, distinguish between types of tobacco ash - exist without discussion of how they are realized:
These scientific achievements exist more as declarations than as practices. Conan Doyle does not... write several pages of a technical dissertation devoted to the original and verifiable methods of his detective-scientist. He is content to make Holmes mention his laboratories and monographs, demand scientific precision, and practice from time to time with a magnifying glass and tape measure” (Van Dover, 42).
In addition, many of Holmes's conclusions are “pseudoscientific—for example, when Holmes deduces a person's intelligence from the size of his hat” (Van Dover). Yet these same critics point out that for Conan Doyle's purposes - which seem to have been to entertain the public - occasional references to science are sufficient. “In literature, although not in lectures for workers, there is enough of a ‘general sense’ - an assertion of the power of science” (Van Dover, 42). The core of detective fiction remains solving the crime - although science is the main tool of detectives like Holmes, it does not need to be the main focus of the story. Regardless of the specifics of his scientific achievements, Holmes destroys the barriers erected by Victor Frankenstein and Henry Jekyll, and appears as “the heroic antitype of the antiheroic type of scientist in XIX literature century" (Van Dover, 49).
Philosophy essay
“The Philosophy of Creation” was Poe’s attempt to illuminate the creative process through the writing of one of his most beloved poems, “The Raven.” The presentation of Poe's inductive process in the essay is explanatory and somewhat unexpected. Just as Dupin began with the end result—the crime—and worked backward to establish the chain of cause and effect, Poe began with the last word—“Never”—to develop the rest of the poem. According to Poe, all literary creation, whether in poetry or prose, must begin with a denouement and proceed from this point to form everything that led to it:
It is absolutely clear that any plot worthy of the name must be carefully worked out to its conclusion before putting pen to paper. Only by not losing sight of the denouement for a moment will we be able to give the plot the necessary consistency or causality and force events and especially intonations at any point in the narrative to contribute to the development of the plan [Text quoted from the publication: Po E. Philosophy of Creativity. Per. V. Rogova. // By E. Favorites: Poems; Prose; Essay. M.: Fiction, 1984, p. 639–640].
The benefits of this philosophy are clear. If the ending is worked out, the beginning and middle of the story can be skillfully crafted so that the story logically leads to the end result. The proper manner of presentation of the beginning and middle parts can be easily maintained once the idea of the ending has been developed. The characters' actions can be carefully planned in a sequence that leads to an already accepted climax. Significant pretexts and background can be sketched and implemented with the need for economy of words and pages. These, along with many others, are the advantages of inductive writing.
In writing this essay, Poe wanted to portray the process of writing as scientific, completed through method and the logical sequence of cause and effect. “My goal is to prove immutably that not a single moment in its creation can be attributed to chance or intuition, that the work, step by step, went to completion with the precision and rigid sequence with which mathematical problems are solved” [Po, cit. ed., p. 641]. Just as Dupin's chain of logic was absolutely and strictly defined, every step taken in writing the poem was “imposed in the course of construction” [Poe, op. ed., p. 646]. Like Dupin's conclusions, the inevitability of the result leaves no room for doubt.
The process of creating “The Raven” forced Poe to take a number of steps. At every step he made a decision that fundamentally affected the flow of the poem.
Length 100 lines
Tone Sadness
Refrain “Never”
Pretext Talking Raven, Death of a Lover
Rhythm Chorey
Meter Octalectic acatalectic, alternating with seven-foot
catalectic, at the end - catalectic tetrameter.
Place Lover's room
Since the essence of Poe's inductions is best expressed in his own words, we present several important excerpts from his essay:
On the choice of the word “Never” as a refrain: “Having thus determined the volume, scope and intonation, I decided, by induction, to find something sharp in an artistic sense, capable of serving me as a key note in the construction of the poem, some axis capable of rotating everything construction... The fact that such an ending must be sonorous and capable of emphasizing and stretching for the power of impact was beyond doubt; all these considerations inevitably led me to the long “o” as the most sonorous vowel in combination with “r” as the most compatible consonant” [Po, op. ed., p. 644-645].
On the choice of a raven as the person pronouncing the refrain (I recall Dupin’s induction leading to the conclusion about the existence of an orangutan): “... I could not help but notice that I was experiencing difficulties solely from the initial idea that this word would be constantly or monotonously uttered by a person... ” [According to, cit. ed., p. 645].
On the choice of pretext: “...I asked myself: ‘Of all the sad subjects, which, in the concepts of all humanity, is the saddest?’ “Death,” was the obvious answer. ‘And when,’ I asked, ‘is this saddest of all subjects most poetic?’ … ‘When is it most closely connected with the beautiful: therefore, the death of a beautiful woman is without a doubt the most poetic subject in the world; there is equally no doubt that the lips of her grief-stricken lover are best suited for this subject.’” [Ibid].
On the choice of location (I am reminded of the use of enclosed space in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”): “... the enclosure of space is absolutely necessary for the effect of an isolated episode; it's like a picture frame. Such boundaries undeniably and powerfully concentrate attention and, of course, should not be confused with the simple unity of place” [Poe, op. ed., p. 648].
Closing the case
What is the conclusion? What image appears before you?
Auguste Dupin “Murder in the Rue Morgue”
Observations are made and conclusions are drawn. By examining the available evidence - Dupin's use of induction and Holmes's use of deduction - the bare facts were arrived at. Science, in fact, plays a prominent role in the adventures of these fictional detectives. To what extent? Unfortunately, the investigation into this case can never be closed. For more than a century, critics have wondered about the validity of Poe's constructions of the cold, logical hero, taking into account the author's well-known inclinations associated with the categories of the mystical and imaginary. They pointed out gaps and inconsistencies in Sherlock Holmes's scientific knowledge. In short, they doubted whether these detectives could be trusted as scientists.
And yet, the methods and skills of the two detectives are based on the true principles of logic and reason. The relationship between the different philosophies of Dupin and Holmes has been equated with the relationship between two other innovators in the annals of history:
Dupin describes his approach as a combination of the skills of a poet and a mathematician, skills whose essential nature naturally removes them from direct applicability to the practical world. Sherlock Holmes owes a lot to Dupin, but his attitude towards the latter is reminiscent of the attitude of Aristotle, the great scientist, towards Plato, another great mathematical poet. The Platonic tradition in investigation continues... Its method - logical reasoning - remains an esoteric gift of individual geniuses. Holmes's scientific method... like Aristotle's, was empirical, based on the study of the earthly world and giving synthetic conclusions about the nature of this world (Van Dover, 43-4)
Regardless of the extent to which scientific theory developed in the writings of Poe and Conan Doyle, its presence in the philosophy of Dupin and Holmes cannot be denied. And despite doubts that may arise regarding the role of science in detective fiction, the position of Dupin and Holmes as archetypes of the scientifically oriented detective hero continues to be accepted without controversy.
Bibliography
Beegel, Susan F. “The Literary Histrio as Detective,” Massachusetts Studies in English, Amherst, MA, 1982, 8(3):1-8.
Conan Doyle, Arthur. A Study in Scarlet, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Engel, Leonard W. “Truth and Detection: Poe’s Tales of Ratiocination and His Use of the Enclosure,” Clues: A Journal of Detection, Bowling Green, OH, Fall-Winter 1982, 3(2):83-86.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. Darwiniana, Collected Works, Macmillan, London, 1893, p. 369.
Irwin, John T. “Reading Poe's Mind: Politics, Mathematics, and the Association of Ideas in ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’,” American Literary History, Cary, NC, Summer 1992, 4(2):187-206.
Jeffers, H. Paul. “You Have Been in Peshawar, I Perceive,” The Baker Street Journal: an Irregular Quarterly of Sherlockiana, Hanover, PA, June 1991, 41(2):82-84.
Martin, Terry J. “Detection, Imagination, and the Introduction to ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’” Modern Language Studies, Providence, RI, Fall 1989, 19(4):31-45.
Moss, Robert A. “Brains and Attics,” The Baker Street Journal: an Irregular Quarterly of Sherlockiana, Hanover, PA, June 1991, 41(2):93-95.
Nygaard, Loisa. “Winning the Game: Inductive Reasoning in Poe’s ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue,’” Studies in Romanticism, Boston, MA, Summer 1994, 33(2):223-54.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays, Literary Classics of the United States, New York, NY, 1984. pp. 397-431.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Philosophy of Composition,” Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry, Tales, & Selected Essays, Literary Classics of the United States, New York, NY, 1984, pp. 1373-1385.
Trapp, David James. “Holmes the Graphologist,” The Baker Street Journal: an Irregular Quarterly of Sherlockiana, Hanover, PA, March 1981, 31(1):20-21.
Van Dover, J. K. “Huxley, Holmes, and the Scientific Detective,” The Baker Street Journal: an Irregular Quarterly of Sherlockiana, Hanover, PA, December 1988, 38(4):240-41.
Van Dover, J. K. “The Lens and the Violin: Sherlock Holmes and the Rescue of Science,” Clues: a Journal of Detection, Bowling Green, OH, Fall-Winter 1988, 9(2):37-51.
Translation by P.A. Moiseev
___________________________________________
Richard Ho
Through the Magnifying Glass:
The Role of Science in Nineteenth Century Detective Literature
Introduction
Literary Tradition
Historical References
Scientific Disciplines
Dupin's Methodology
Literary Analysis of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
Holmes's Methodology
Literary AnalysisA Study in Scarlet
Philosophy of Composition
Closing the Case
Bibliography
Introduction
“There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorful skein of
life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”
Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet
A mysterious figure, cloaked in a long dark overcoat, arrives at the scene of a crime. In the deep recesses of his pockets, he carries two items: a simple tape measure and a magnifying glass with a rounded lens. His only other tool is his mind.
Pacing about the room, the stranger quietly hunts for invisible clues between motes of dust and particles of dirt. Sight, smell, touch... all of his senses are called into service, not a single one neglected. Every faculty is devoted to observation and assimilation. The confident manner in which he carries out his investigations suggests an intense, almost obsessive intellect.
The evidence is collected and systematically analyzed. His focus is impenetrable, his technique infallible. The result is inevitable. Within the hour, the case is cracked. The unsolvable crime is solved. The mysterious stranger unveils the solution with a triumphant flourish, then promptly exits the scene, leaving dozens of professional police officers scratching their heads.
The stuff of fiction? Yes.
For nearly two centuries, characters such as C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes have captivated readers with their unparalleled intellects and incomparable crime-solving ability. The genre of crime fiction had come into its own in the nineteenth century, amidst a time of great intellectual advancement. Thanks to the influences of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, advances in science, technology, and rational thought began to find their way into contemporary literature. Victorian writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle incorporated these modern ideas into their fictional works, lending the credibility of science to the practical tasks of criminal detection and investigation.
Thus was established the model of the scientist-detective. Poe's short story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” introduced the brilliant but introverted Dupin to the world, and Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was the inaugural adventure of the renowned Sherlock Holmes. Each detective displays a remarkable penchant for observation , analysis, and logical deduction, and each chooses to apply his skill to the unraveling of criminal acts. These were the pioneers who paved the way for the convergence of science, criminology, and literature.How much of a role does science actually play in the investigations of these esteemed detectives? How valid is the scientific foundation for the methods of Dupin and Holmes, and what is the extent of the relationship between science and literature in these works? These are the mysteries we must attempt to unravel. roots of scientific deduction in crime solving - its origins, its influences, and its ramifications - we may be able to deduce some answers. Just as Dupin and Holmes constructed chains of causality in their investigations of crime, we will attempt to construct a chain of causality tracing the steps that led to the creation of the scientifist-detective's niche in literary history.
So, in the words of Dupin: “I will explain... and that you may comprehend all clearly, we will first retrace the course of mediations...”
Literary tradition
“The face of science in English popular literature of the nineteenth century was
an unenviable one. The craft of Daedalus seemed inherently united with the folly
It has been remarked that “one of the frequent aims of literary criticism itself... is to trace a work back to its originary ideas or principles” (Martin 34). As such, the detective writings of Poe and Conan Doyle can be traced to the intellectual innovations brought on by the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, which inevitably began to find expression in nineteenth century Victorian literature.
Enlightenment writers like Voltaire and Rousseau popularized the application of reason and rational thought, while the Industrial Revolution brought about advances in all aspects of scientific knowledge, from technology to medicine to chemistry. In the beginning, the literary reaction to this wave of scientific and intellectual advancement was one of cautious skepticism, if not downright rejection. The revolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and other scientists were attacked by many as an affront to the entrenched dogmas of Christianity - for these traditionalists, “devotion to an empirical method meant abandonment of traditional pieties” (Van Dover 37). This aversion was based in part on a pervasive fear regarding the implications of science on the very notion of humanity. In the eyes of the religion’s supporters, the advancements in science and medicine were seen as humanity’s attempt to impinge on the authority of God, and could only lead to disastrous consequences. Writers like Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson captured the fears and uncertainties of society and gave them creative expression in works like Frankenstein (1818) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). Those stories were hugely popular, in part because they reflected “an understandable suspicion of a way of thinking that had, within the century, first refuted the biblical time scale and then contradicted Genesis’s account of the origin of species” (Van Dover 37). The creation of monsters became the literal manifestation of the dangers inherent in the pursuit of forbidden knowledge, and each of the scientists responsible for these monstrosities was painted as “an anti-humanist heretic,” obsessive, unstable and misguided (Van Dover).
Of course, such feelings were hardly universal, and the rising current of nineteenth century scientific thought was gaining both strength and acceptance. The fears of the earlier half of the century were transformed into a budding “utilitarian confidence in the powers of man,” as advances in technology and medicine began to have perceptible positive impacts on ordinary lives (Van Dover 37-8). The image of the mad scientist in popular literature was gradually replaced by a model of the scientist as hero and protagonist, which reflects the trend towards a more cerebral society:
In the modern world, when the days of hand-to-hand combat, of monsters and dragons have passed, and when... the problems confronting human beings are increasingly those of knowledge and cognition, the appropriate hero would seem to be the analyst , the detective, the individual who is able to penetrate deceptive appearances and to cut through reams of contradictory evidence and conflicting testimony to arrive at the truth. (Nygaard 226)
However, while a new conception of the fictional scientist was beginning to take shape, the literature of the period remained slow in abandoning its previous reluctance to embrace the rise of science:
Victorian novelists generally failed to celebrate the achievements of the scientists and few - George Eliot being the outstanding exception - even attempted to understand and to portray their methods and their motives (Van Dover 38).
Still, Eliot's The Lifted Veil provided a strong case for the exploration of science in literature, and the genre of detective fiction was on the very edge of the horizon.
Historical references
The texts of both “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and A Study in Scarlet are rich in allusions to important scientific and intellectual figures from throughout history. These allusions serve to add credibility to the concepts discussed by the characters. For example, Dupin's reference to the Greek philosopher Epicurus simultaneously invokes his philosophy of atomism based on empiricism, mechanism, and causality, characteristics which appear in Dupin's philosophy on analysis: “Something of the same mechanistic bias is observable in Dupin"s reading of the reporter's thoughts... Dupin's analysis reduces the narrator to a curious machine whose inner workings are to be charted solely for the scientific interest of the activity” (Martin 37). Likewise, the reference to the French biologist Georges Cuvier in “The Murders in.” the Rue Morgue” serves to support the notion of reconstruction in relation to the Just as Cuvier reconstructed whole skeletons from fossil remains, Dupin “works backward from the evidence he has gathered to puzzle out how the murders actually occurred;” these reconstructions “have since become a stock feature of detective fiction” (Nygaard 246-7). In effect, the references to such historical luminaries as Epicurus and Cuvier introduce an element of validity to an otherwise fictional account.
There are, of course, many more examples, a few of which can be found below.
Thomas Henry Huxley
“If finches could speak to Darwin, might not the marks of hands and the impress
of shoes speak to Holmes?”
T. H. Huxley, the renowned biologist, writer, public debater, and famous bulldog of Charles Darwin, is often cited as one of the primary influences on the development of detective literature in general, and the character of Sherlock Holmes specifically. In 1862, he gave a series of six lectures defending Darwin's Origin of Species - in his third lecture, entitled “The Method by Which the Causes of the Present and Past Conditions of Organic Nature Are to Be Discovered,” he lays the groundwork for Holmes's philosophy of detection. In examining the methodology utilized by Darwin in his discovery of the evolutionary theory, Huxley compared it to the process of detecting a crime, in which the causes are determined from a process of reverse construction based on the end result. Huxley argues that the scientific method is “nothing more than common sense,” and thereby applicable to any of life’s practical endeavors (Van Dover 240). He goes on to illustrate the notion of induction, or backward reasoning, with an example:
I will suppose that one of you, on coming down in the morning to the parlour of your house, finds that a tea-pot and some spoons which had been left in the room on the first evening are gone, - the window is open, and you observe the mark of a dirty hand on the window-frame, and perhaps, in addition to that, you notice the impress of a hob-nailed shoe on the gravel outside. All these phenomena have struck your attention instantly, and before two seconds have passed you say, “Oh, somebody has broken open the window, entered the room, and run off with the spoons and the tea-pot!” (Huxley 369)
According to Huxley, this practical example follows the same steps as the formation of a scientific hypothesis. Himself an “observer and inferrer,” Huxley recognized the integral roles played by observation and inference in the application of the scientific method. He also recognized the benefits of employing this method in other areas of investigation, and his insightful use of the criminal example foreshadowed the career of the greatest scientific investigator in history. “Huxley was arguing that the scientific method was like that used in the detection of crime; Conan Doyle embodied in Sherlock Holmes the argument that the detection of crime is the scientific method” (Van Dover 40).
Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859, the year Origin of Species took the world by storm. Darwin’s theories revolutionized the conception of organismic evolution and turned the global scientific community on its ear - in the realm of criminal investigation, Holmes would be no less important. “What Darwin was to biology, Holmes would be to criminology” (Van Dover 241).
Oliver Wendell Holmes
One of the most interesting instances of fact intersecting fiction can be found in Chapter 2 of A Study in Scarlet. In justifying his ignorance of the Copernican Theory to Watson, Holmes launches into an illustrative explanation of his conception of the human mind:
I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain. -attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. 15)
According to an article by Robert A. Moss, the brain-attic simile is remarkably similar to a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, which describes the brain as “an attic where old furniture, bric-a-brac and other odds and ends are stored away; and, in order to make room for more things, some of those previously stored must be discarded” (Moss 93). Conan Doyle was a great admirer of the real-life Holmes, who was a writer of popular poems and essays and professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard Medical School from 1847-1882 - the fact that Conan Doyle's most famous character shares a name with his creator's literary hero is no accident. Moss originally stumbled across the O.W. Holmes quote while reading a review of The Merck Manual in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article was written by M. Hauser, and cites Loewenberg’s Medical Diagnosis and Symptomatology as another instance in which the quote appears. Moss notes that “there is no question that the two Holmes dicta, those of Oliver and Sherlock, are too similar for chance,” and endeavors to find the “chain of circumstances” that connects them (Moss 93). Though he ultimately fails in his attempts to trace the quote to its original source, he draws on the available evidence - much as Holmes himself would have done - and creates a hypothesis: “Keeping in mind Doyle’s admiration for O.W. Holmes, I suggest that Doyle simply put Oliver’s brain-attic simile into Sherlock’s mouth, inserting it into Watson’s text at an appropriate point” (Moss 93). In any case, the use of the brain-attic simile in A Study in Scarlet introduction... In literatureXIXcentury value... under magnifyingglass: ... science". Doyle decides to write the series detective ...
Michael Cremo Richard Thompson the unknown history of mankind unknown archeology
Document... detective novel. Only in roles ... science and that worldview, the main provisions of which are formulated in Indian Vedic literature. It is in the Vedic literature ... Richard Thompson. Richard ... introduction ... magnifyingglass ... through ... XIXcentury. ... Ho ...
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... introduction ... magnifyingglass ... science literature. It is in the Vedic literature ... Richard Thompson. Richard ... through... years XIXcentury. ... Ho ... detective novel. Only in roles ...
Michael Cremo Richard Thompson The Unknown History of Humanity Complete Edition Moscow 2004
Document... introduction ... magnifyingglass ... science and that worldview, the main provisions of which are formulated in Indian Vedic literature. It is in the Vedic literature ... Richard Thompson. Richard ... through... years XIXcentury. ... Ho ... detective novel. Only in roles ...
27-year-old Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the story in just three weeks. After a number of refusals, the story was first published by Ward and Lock in the magazine Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887. The author received £25 in exchange for all rights to the story (Doyle himself insisted on a royalty). The very next year, 1888, the same publishing house published the story as a separate book, and a year later the second edition of the work was published.
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Plot
Part 1. “From the Memoirs of Dr. John H. Watson, Retired Army Medical Officer”
The action takes place in 1881 in Victorian London. Due to circumstances, two gentlemen settle in the same apartment - retired military surgeon John Watson, wounded in the Battle of Maiwand, and private detective consultant Sherlock Holmes.
Watson tries to study the character of Holmes, and he amazes him both with the depth of his knowledge in highly specialized issues and with the abyss of ignorance regarding generally known things. Holmes talks in detail about his method of solving crimes and complains that he cannot put it into practice, since there are supposedly no real criminals left in London. It was at this moment that he received news from his acquaintance from Scotland Yard Gregson about an extraordinary incident - a strange murder in an empty house...
Part 2. “Land of Saints”
The story moves 30 years into the past. A group of 21 people wandered in search of a better life in the Wild West. As a result, only two remain alive - a certain John Ferrier and a little orphaned girl Lucy, whom Ferrier now considers his daughter. A Mormon convoy discovers Ferrier and the girl in the desert. The travelers were tired of long wanderings without water and food and were already desperate to find a way out of their hopeless situation. The Mormons promise to take the unfortunates with them to the colony if they accept the Mormon faith. Ferrier agrees, not suspecting that many years later this will lead to a drama that ends with mysterious murders in London...
1. Knowledge in the field of literature - none.
2. Philosophy - none.
3. Astronomy - none.
4. Politicians are weak.
5. Nerds are uneven. Knows the properties of belladonna, opium and poisons in general. Has no idea about gardening.
6. Geology - practical but limited. Identifies different soil samples at a glance. After walking, she shows splashes of dirt on her trousers and, based on their color and consistency, determines what part of London she is from.
7. Chemistry - deep.
8. Anatomies - accurate, but unsystematic.
9. Criminal chronicles are huge; it seems to know all the details of every crime committed in the nineteenth century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Excellent fencing with swords and espadrons, an excellent boxer.
12. Thorough practical knowledge of English laws.
In subsequent works, Holmes will repeatedly refute Watson's low assessments, especially with regard to philosophy, politics and literature.
- In a conversation with Watson, Holmes criticizes the methods of work of other literary detectives - Auguste Dupin, described by Edgar Poe, and the hero of the works of Emile Gaboriau Lecoq. In particular, he considers it a “cheap show trick” when Dupin followed his friend’s train of thought and answered them as if they were having a conversation. However, later, in the story “The Cardboard Box,” Holmes does exactly the same thing in relation to Watson, while appealing specifically to Poe’s story.
- One of the reviewers of the story was... Holmes himself. In the novel “The Sign of Four,” he criticized the work, the author of which, in the realities of the epic, is Watson.
I saw your story. And I must admit, I cannot congratulate you on your success. Crime investigation is an exact science, or at least it should be. And this type of activity must be described in a strict, dispassionate manner. And you have sentiments there. It’s like including a spicy love story in a discussion about Euclid’s fifth postulate.<…>Some things could have been kept silent, or at least observed in moderation in the presentation of facts. The only thing that deserves attention in this matter is the chain of reasoning from effect to cause. This led to the successful solving of the case.
"Study in Scarlet"(English) A Study in Scarlet listen) is a detective story by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1887. It is in this work that Sherlock Holmes first appears. The first edition of the book was illustrated by Arthur's father, Charles Doyle, and the second by George Hutchinson.
Plot
Part 1. “From the memoirs of Dr. John G. Watson, retired military medical officer”
A body is found in an empty house. This man is one Enoch Drebber, an American. Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, at the request of his “colleagues” Lestrade and Gregson, easily establishes the cause of death of the unfortunate man: it is poison. In the dead man's pockets they find a telegram "J. X. in Europe "(a wedding ring was found at the crime scene), and on the wall next to the body there was a message left in blood - rache(German for “revenge”).
Lestrade soon gets on the trail of the deceased's secretary, Stangerson, and pays him a visit, during which it turns out that he was killed - stabbed to death in his hotel room. Two pills are also found in the room. The experiment carried out by Holmes showed that one of the pills was harmless, and the second was poisonous, so the killer wanted to give equal chances to himself and the deceased.
Holmes advertises the missing ring in the newspaper (in the name of his companion John Watson) in the hope of finding the criminal, but the detective is cleverly deceived by the killer's accomplice, disguised as an old woman. During surveillance, Holmes misses an accomplice. As a result, with the help of hired street urchins, he finds out that the killer works as a cabman and, under the guise of moving from home, calls him to his house. With a request to help bring things in, he invites the unsuspecting killer to his place, where at that moment two of Holmes’s comrades (Lestrade and Gregson) are investigating this case, Dr. Watson and Holmes himself. When the cabman bends down for Holmes's suitcase, he handcuffs him and announces to those present - Lestrade, Gregson and Watson: "Gentlemen, allow me to present to you Mr. Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson!" The killer tries to get out through the window, but four friends subdue the criminal.
Part 2. “Land of Saints”
A group of 22 people wandered in search of a better life in the Wild West. As a result, only two remain alive - a certain John Ferrier and a little orphaned girl Lucy, whom Ferrier now considers his daughter. A Mormon convoy discovers Ferrier and the girl in the desert. The travelers were tired of long wanderings without water and food and were already desperate to find a way out of their hopeless situation. The Mormons promise to take the unfortunates with them to the colony if they accept the Mormon faith. Ferrier agrees. Soon a group of Mormons reaches Utah, where they build their own city. Ferrier becomes a famous and rich man, raising his adopted daughter alone, remaining a bachelor, for which he often receives reproaches from fellow polygamists.
One day, Lucy is saved by a young man, Jefferson Hope, a respectable Christian, the son of an old acquaintance of Ferrier. He stays at his house. Hope mines silver in the mountains and sells it in Salt Lake City to earn money for the development of the deposits he discovered. Soon, Hope announces to Lucy that he needs to leave for two months, but first he asks her to marry him. The girl agrees, her father is also very happy with his daughter’s decision, because he would never have decided to marry her to a Mormon - John Ferrier considers polygamy a shameful matter. When Hope leaves, the elder of the colony, Brigham Young, comes to Ferrier. He obliges Ferrier to marry his daughter to either Drebber's son or Stangerson's son. After talking with his daughter, Ferrier decides to wait for Hope’s return and the three of them escape from the colony. The next day, Stangerson and Drebber's son come to Ferrier to woo him. Ferrier rudely sends them both away, which according to the customs of the colony is considered a deadly offense. Soon Young sends Ferrier a note:
You are given twenty-nine days to atone for your guilt, and then...
The day before the end of the allotted period, Hope returns. The fugitives manage to pass the guard, supposedly having permission from the Council of Four (Drebber, Stangerson, Kemball and Johnston). They go in pursuit. On the second day, food supplies are depleted and Hope goes hunting. At night he returns to camp with the loot. Neither Ferrier nor Lucy are there. Hope realizes that something irreparable has happened. He finds a grave with the inscription:
Hope returns to the colony, where she learns from the Mormon Cowper that Lucy was forcibly married to Drebber. A month after the wedding, Lucy dies. During the funeral, a feral, ragged Hope makes his way to the coffin and removes the wedding ring from her finger. He goes to the mountains, wanders, leads a wild life. After some time, Hope returns to his previous activities, but only to save up some money and take revenge on the scoundrels who killed his fiancée and her father. In Nevada, he learns that the younger members of the Mormon colony, including the sons of Drebber and Stangerson, rebelled, abandoned the Mormon faith and left. For years he wandered around the cities. He knew that Drebber and Stangerson had left America and moved to Europe. They were in St. Petersburg and Copenhagen, and soon the unfortunate hero finds them in London and commits his act of revenge.
Without waiting for the trial, Jefferson Hope dies from an aortic aneurysm (the fact of the presence of the disease was certified by Dr. John Watson during the capture of the criminal at 221 B Baker Street).
Translations into Russian
The first edition of the novel in Russian appeared in 1898 in the December issue of the magazine “Svet” under the title “Late Revenge (Doyle’s Criminal Novel)”; it was translated from German by Vl. Bernasconi. Since then, more than 10 translations have been made.
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content:
After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Watson goes to fight in Afghanistan. After being wounded, he returns to London. Being on a budget, Watson is looking for an inexpensive apartment. A paramedic acquaintance introduces him to Sherlock Holmes, an employee of the chemical laboratory at the hospital, who has rented an inexpensive apartment and is looking for a companion, since he cannot afford to pay alone. Holmes is characterized as a decent man, but somewhat eccentric. He is a first-class chemist, but is an enthusiastic student of other sciences.
The Doctor finds Sherlock Holmes examining blood stains. Thanks to its discovery, it is possible to determine the type of stain, and this is important for forensic medicine.
For several weeks Holmes has been leading a quiet life. He spends whole days in the hospital, and then goes for walks. His personality piques Dr. Watson's interest. A variety of people come to see Holmes, including Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade.
One day at breakfast, Watson reads an article that says that you can determine a person’s profession and his character by his clothes and hands. He tells Holmes that this is nonsense, to which he replies that he wrote the article, and, being a one-of-a-kind consulting detective, puts this method into practice. He applies his theory to Dr. Watson, saying that he served in Afghanistan. Holmes determines by his bearing that Watson is a military doctor, and by his dark face and white wrists that he has been in the tropics. Watson is unwell and injured, therefore he was in the war that is currently going on in Afghanistan.
Holmes receives a letter in the mail from Police Inspector Gregson. The body of a man is found in an abandoned house. He has a business card with the inscription: “Enoch Drebber, Cleveland, USA.” There are no signs of robbery or violence, although there are blood stains on the floor. Taking Watson, Holmes arrives at the crime scene.
First, the detective examines the sidewalk, the neighboring house, and the soil. Then he enters the house and examines the corpse, whose face is disfigured by a grimace of horror and hatred. Near the corpse, Holmes finds a woman's wedding ring, and in the pockets a book with an inscription from Joseph Stengerson and letters: one to Drebber, the other to Stengerson. Inspector Lestrade arrives and discovers “RACHE” written in blood on the wall. The police come to the conclusion that this is Rachel's unfinished name, but Holmes examines the inscription, the dust on the floor and smiles mysteriously. He says the killer is a tall man with small legs. The detective also tells what kind of shoes he wears, what cigars he smokes, and adds that the killer has a red face and long nails. He arrived in a cab with a horse with three old horseshoes and one new. The killer used poison, and "RACHE" is German for revenge.
On the way home, Holmes explains to Watson that he guessed about the cab and horse from the tracks on the sidewalk. Since a person usually writes at eye level, height can be determined from the inscription. Seeing that the plaster near the inscription was scratched, Holmes realized that the killer had long nails. And having found ashes on the floor, he identified the type of cigars, since he was studying the ashes.
The constable on duty that night says that, seeing a light in an empty house, he went into it, discovered a corpse and came out. At this time, a red-faced drunk was hanging around the street near the gate. Holmes realizes that it was the killer who decided to return to the house for the ring. He advertises in the newspaper about the discovery of the ring. An ancient old woman comes to Baker Street and in a rough male voice declares that this is her daughter’s ring. Holmes gives her the ring and follows, but loses sight of her. He tells Watson that it is not an old woman, but a young actor in disguise.
The police put a note in the newspaper that Enoch Drebber arrived in England with his secretary Joseph Stengerson, and the murder was politically motivated. Lestrade's rival Gregson tells Holmes that he has arrested a certain Arthur Charpentier for murder. Having found a top hat near the corpse, he went to the shop where the headdress was purchased and found out the address of the buyer. Drebber rented an apartment from Arthur Charpentier's mother, behaved inappropriately towards his sister, and Arthur kicked him out. Inspector Gregson met with Arthur and before he could ask anything, he asked if the police suspected him of Drebber's murder. Gregson suggests that Arthur hit Drebber in the stomach with a stick, leaving no mark on his body. Drebber died immediately, and Arthur dragged him into the house, leaving an inscription and a ring to confuse his tracks. Meanwhile, Lestrade appears with news of Stengerson's murder at the hotel.
Arriving at the crime scene, Holmes and Watson see that death was caused by a stab in the side, and there was the same bloody inscription on the wall. Lestrade reports that the killer was seen, his appearance matches the description of Holmes. In the dead man's pocket they find a telegram from America with the text “J. X. in Europe,” but without a signature, and on the table there is a box with two pills, upon seeing which Holmes perks up. He tries the pills on a terminally ill dog. One of them turns out to be harmless, the second - poisonous. Holmes says he knows who the killer is. A gang of street urchins finds a cab for him, and Holmes handcuffs the cabman, presenting him as a murderer.
Aortic aneurysm sufferer Jefferson Hope tells his story. He loved a girl who lived among the Mormons, although neither she nor her father followed their religion. Hope dreamed of marrying her, but the Mormons Drebber and Stengerson wanted her to marry their sons. They killed her father, and the girl was forcibly married. The unfortunate woman died of grief a month later, and Hope vowed revenge. For many years he tracked them down and finally found them in London. Having got a job as a cabman, he lured the drunken Drebber into an empty house and offered him a choice of two pills. One was harmless, the second was poisonous. Frightened, Drebber grabbed the poison pill and died. Hope left the house, but left the ring there. When he tracked down Stengerson, he refused to take the pills and Hope killed him with a knife.
Before his trial, Hope dies in a prison cell. A note appears in the newspapers that police inspectors Gregson and Lestrade cleverly caught the killer. But Dr. Watson keeps a diary in which he records all the facts, and the public finds out who really caught the criminal.
Arthur Conan Doyle. Study in crimson tones.
Tale
* PART I *
From the doctor's memories
John G. Watson, retired officer
military medical service.
CHAPTER I. Mister SHERLOCK HOLMES
In 1878 I graduated from the University of London, receiving the title of doctor, and
immediately went to Netley, where he took a special course for the military
surgeons After finishing my studies, I was appointed assistant surgeon at
5th Northumberland Fusiliers. At that time the regiment was stationed in India, and
Before I could reach him, the second war with Afghanistan broke out.
Having landed in Bombay, I learned that my regiment had crossed the pass and
advanced far into enemy territory. Together with others
officers who found themselves in the same position, I set off in pursuit of my
shelf; I managed to reach Kandahar safely, where I finally
found him and immediately began his new duties.
This campaign brought honors and promotions to many, but I did not get it
nothing but failure and misery. I was transferred to the Berkshire Regiment, with
with whom I participated in the fatal battle of Maiwand. rifle bullet
hit me in the shoulder, broke the bone and hit the subclavian artery.
Most likely I would have fallen into the hands of the merciless ghazis if it had not been for
the devotion and courage of my orderly Murray, who transferred me
over the back of a pack horse and managed to deliver it safely to
location of English units.
Exhausted by the wound and weakened by prolonged hardships, I, along with
many other wounded sufferers were sent by train to the main
hospital in Peshawer. There I began to gradually recover and was already so
became so strong that he could move around the ward and even go out onto the veranda to
bask in the sun a little, when suddenly I was struck down by typhoid fever, the scourge of our
Indian colonies. For several months I was considered almost hopeless, and
Having finally returned to life, I could barely stand on my feet from weakness and
exhaustion, and the doctors decided that I needed to be sent to England immediately.
I sailed on the military transport "Orontes" and a month later I went to the pier
in Plymouth with irreparably damaged health, but with permission
paternally caring government to restore it within nine
In England I had neither close friends nor relatives, and I was
free like the wind, or rather, like a person who is supposed to live on
eleven shillings and sixpence a day.
Under such circumstances I,
Naturally, he strove to London, to this huge dustbin, where
inevitably there are idlers and lazy people from all over the empire. I'm in London
lived for some time in a hotel in the Strand and lived out an uncomfortable and
a meaningless existence, spending your pennies much more freely than
should have. Finally my financial situation became so dire
that I soon realized: it was necessary either to flee the capital and vegetate
somewhere in the village, or radically change your lifestyle. By selecting
Lastly, I first decided to leave the hotel and find myself some
more casual and less expensive housing.
The day I came to this decision, in the Criterion bar someone
tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around, I saw young Stamford, who
once worked for me as a paramedic in a London hospital. How nice
lonely to suddenly see a familiar face in the vast wilds of London! IN
Stamford and I were never particularly friendly in the old days, but now I
greeted him almost with delight, and he, too, apparently was happy
see me. Out of excess feelings, I invited him to have breakfast with me, and we
they immediately took a cab and drove to Holborn.
What have you done to yourself, Watson? - with undisguised curiosity
he asked as the cab's wheels rattled along the crowded London streets. - You
dried up like a sliver and turned yellow like a lemon!
I told him briefly about my misadventures and barely had time to finish
a story about how we got there.
Eh, poor fellow! - he sympathized when he learned about my troubles. - So what
what are you doing now?
“I’m looking for an apartment,” I answered. - I’m trying to solve the question, are there any
light comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.
That’s strange,” my companion remarked, “you are the second person, from
whom I hear this phrase today.
Who's first? - I asked.
One guy who works in the chemical laboratory at our
hospital. This morning he was complaining: he found a very nice apartment and couldn’t
he won’t find a companion, and he can’t afford to pay for her in full.
Damn it! - I exclaimed. - If he really wants
to split the apartment and expenses, then I am at his service! It’s much more pleasant for me too
living alone is better than living alone!
Young Stamford looked at me vaguely
glasses of wine.
“You don’t know yet what this Sherlock Holmes is,” he said. -
Perhaps you don’t want to live in constant proximity with him.
Why? Why is he bad?
I'm not saying he's bad. Just a little eccentric - an enthusiast
some areas of science. But actually, as far as I know, he's human
decent.
He must want to become a doctor? - I asked.
No, I don’t even understand what he wants. I think he knows very well
anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist, but it seems he has never studied medicine
studied systematically. He does science completely haphazardly and
somehow strange, but I have accumulated a lot of seemingly unnecessary knowledge for business,
which would surprise the professors a lot.
Have you ever asked what his goal is? - asked
No, it’s not so easy to get anything out of him, although if he
If he’s passionate about something, sometimes you can’t stop him.
“I wouldn’t mind meeting him,” I said. - If you have a neighbor
around the apartment, then it’s better if it’s a quiet person and busy with his own business.
I am not strong enough to endure noise and all sorts of strong impressions. U
I had so much of this and that in Afghanistan that I’ve had enough until the end
my earthly existence. How can I meet your friend?
Now he’s probably sitting in the laboratory,” my companion answered. -
He either doesn’t look there for weeks at a time, or hangs out there from morning to evening.
If you want, we'll go to him after breakfast.
Of course I want to,” I said, and the conversation moved on to other topics.
While we were driving from Holborn to the hospital, Stamford managed to tell me
some more characteristics of the gentleman with whom I was about to settle down
“Don’t be mad at me if you don’t get along with him,” he said.
I only know him from random meetings in the laboratory. You yourself
decided on this combination, so don't hold me responsible for
further.
If we don’t get along, nothing will stop us from parting,” I answered.
That for some reason you want to wash your hands of it. Well, this one
Little terrible character, or what? Don't be secretive, for God's sake!
Try to explain the inexplicable,” Stamford laughed. - On
my taste. Holmes is too obsessed with science - this already borders on
soullessness. I can easily imagine what he would say to his friend
a small dose of some newly discovered plant alkaloid, not
malice, of course, but simply out of curiosity, to have a visual
idea of its action. However, we must give him justice, I
I am sure that he will just as willingly give this injection to himself. He has a passion for
accurate and reliable knowledge.
Well, that's not bad.
Yes, but even here you can go to extremes. If it comes down to it
that he beats corpses in the anatomy with a stick, you must agree that it looks
quite strange.
Does he beat up corpses?
Yes, to check whether bruises can appear after death. I
I saw it with my own eyes.
And you're saying he's not going to become a doctor?
Apparently not. Only God knows why he is studying all this. But
Here we are, now you can judge it for yourself.
We turned into a narrow corner of the yard and entered through a small door.
an outbuilding adjacent to a huge hospital building. Everything was here
familiar, and I didn't need directions as we climbed
darkish stone staircase and walked along a long corridor along
endless whitewashed walls with brown doors on both sides. Almost in
at the very end a low vaulted corridor went off to the side - it led to
chemical laboratory.
In this high room, on the shelves and everywhere, glittered
countless bottles and vials. There were low, wide tables everywhere, thickly
filled with retorts, test tubes and Bunsen burners with fluttering
tongues of blue flame. The laboratory was empty, and only in the far corner
bent over the table, a young man was fiddling with something intently
Human. Hearing our steps, he looked back and jumped up.
Found it! Found it! - he shouted jubilantly, rushing towards us with a test tube in
hands. - I finally found a reagent that is precipitated only by hemoglobin and
nothing else! - If he found gold placers, then, probably, his face
would not shine with such delight.
Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, introduced us to each other
Stamford.
Hello! - Holmes said affably, shaking my hand forcefully,
which I could not possibly suspect of him. - I see you lived in Afghanistan.
How did you guess? - I was amazed.
Well, it’s nothing,” he said, grinning. - This is hemoglobin
another matter. You, of course, understand the importance of my discovery?
As a chemical reaction, this is, of course, interesting,” I answered, “but
practically...
Lord, this is the most practically important discovery for the judicial
medicine for decades. Don't you understand that this gives an opportunity
accurately detect blood stains? Come on, come here! - In the heat
impatient, he grabbed me by the sleeve and dragged me to his desk. - Let's take
“a little fresh blood,” he said and, pricking his finger with a long needle,
I pulled out a drop of blood with a pipette. - Now I will dissolve this drop in a liter
water. Look, the water seems completely clear. Quantity ratio
blood to water is no more than one in a million. And yet, I guarantee you that
we will get a characteristic reaction. - He threw a few into a glass jar
white crystals and dripped some colorless liquid into it. Content
the jars instantly turned a dull purple color, and at the bottom appeared
brown sediment.
Ha, ha! - He clapped his hands, beaming with joy like a child,
received a new toy. - What do you think about this?
“This is apparently some kind of very strong reagent,” I noted.
Wonderful! Wonderful! The old method with guaiac resin is very
cumbersome and unreliable, as is the study of blood cells under
microscope - it is generally useless if the blood has been shed for several hours
back. And this reagent works equally well whether the blood is fresh or not.
If it had been opened earlier, then the hundreds of people who are now walking around
freedom, they would have paid for their crimes long ago.
That's how! - I muttered.
Solving crimes always comes up against this problem. Human
begin to suspect murder, perhaps a few months after
how it was done. They look through his underwear or dress and find
brownish spots. What is it: blood, dirt, rust, fruit juice or something else?
anything? This is the question that has puzzled many experts: why?
Because there was no reliable reagent. Now we have Sherlock's reagent
Holmes, and all difficulties are over!
His eyes sparkled, he put his hand to his chest and bowed as if
responding to the applause of an imaginary crowd.
“We can congratulate you,” I said, quite amazed at his
with enthusiasm.
A year ago, the complicated case of von Bischoff was being investigated in Frankfurt. He,
Of course, I would have been hanged if my method had been known then. And the Mason case from
Bradford, and the famous Muller, and Lefevre from Montlelier, and Samson from
New Orleans? I can name dozens of cases in which my reagent would play a role
decisive role.
“You’re just a walking chronicle of crime,” Stamford laughed. - You
should publish a special newspaper. Call it "Police News"
past."
And it would be a very fascinating read,” Sherlock said.
Holmes, covering a tiny wound on his finger with a piece of plaster. - We have to
be careful,” he continued, turning to me with a smile, “I often
I tinker with all sorts of toxic substances. - He extended his hand and I saw
that his fingers are covered with the same pieces of plaster and stains from caustic
We came on business,” said Stamford, sitting down on a high
a three-legged stool and with the tip of a shoe pushing another one towards me. - My
a friend is looking for housing, and since you complained that you couldn’t find
companion, I decided that it was necessary to bring you together.
Sherlock Holmes obviously liked the prospect of sharing with me
apartment.
You know, I had my eye on an apartment on Baker Street,” he said, “
which will suit you and me in all respects. I hope you don't mind
the smell of strong tobacco?
“I smoke “ship” myself,” I answered.
Well, great. I usually keep chemicals at home and from time to time
I perform experiments. Will this bother you?
Not at all.
Wait a minute, what other shortcomings do I have? Yes, sometimes on me
The blues set in, and I didn’t open my mouth for days on end. Don't think that I
I'm sulking at you. Just ignore me and it will pass soon.
Well, what can you repent of? We haven't moved in together yet, okay
to find out the worst about each other.
This mutual interrogation made me laugh.
“I have a bulldog puppy,” I said, “and I can’t stand any
noise, because my nerves are upset, I can fall into bed
half a day and generally incredibly lazy. When I'm healthy, I have more
a number of vices, but now these are the most important.
Do you also consider playing the violin to be noise? - asked with concern
“It depends on how you play,” I answered. - A good game is a gift from the gods,
bad...
Well, then everything is in order,” he laughed cheerfully. - I think it’s possible
When will we see them?
Come pick me up tomorrow at noon, we'll go from here together and
Let's all agree.
“Okay, then, exactly at noon,” I said, shaking his hand.
He went back to his chemicals, and Stamford and I walked
to my hotel.
By the way,” I suddenly stopped, turning to Stamford, “
How did he manage to guess that I came from Afghanistan?
My companion smiled a mysterious smile.
This is its main feature,” he said. - Many would give dearly,
to find out how he guesses everything.
So, does that mean there’s some kind of secret here? - I exclaimed, rubbing my hands. -
Very interesting! Thank you for introducing us. You know, after all
“To know humanity, one must study man.”
Therefore, you must study Holmes,” said Stamford, saying goodbye.
However, you will soon see that this is a hard nut to crack. I bet
that he will see through you faster than you will see through him. Farewell!
“Goodbye,” I answered and walked towards the hotel, a lot
interested in his new acquaintance.
^ CHAPTER II. THE ART OF MAKING CONCLUSIONS
The next day we met at the agreed time and went to look
the apartment at No. 221-b Baker Street, which Holmes had spoken about the day before. IN
the apartment had two comfortable bedrooms and a spacious, bright, cozy
furnished living room with two large windows. We liked the rooms
taste, and the fee, divided between two, turned out to be so small that we are here
They agreed on the lease and immediately took possession of the apartment. On that
That evening I moved my belongings from the hotel, and the next morning Sherlock Holmes arrived
with several boxes and suitcases. We spent a day or two fiddling with unpacking.
and the arrangement of our property, trying to find the best for each thing
place, and then began to gradually settle into their home and adapt to
new conditions.
Holmes was certainly not a difficult person to get along with. He led
a calm, measured lifestyle and was usually true to his habits.
He rarely went to bed after ten in the evening, and in the mornings, as a rule,
managed to have breakfast and leave while I was still lying in bed. Sometimes he
spent the whole day in the laboratory, sometimes in the anatomy, and sometimes
went for a long walk, and these walks, apparently, turned him into
the most remote corners of London. His energy knew no bounds when he
found a working verse, but from time to time a reaction occurred, and then he
spent whole days lying on the sofa in the living room, not saying a word and hardly
moving. These days I noticed something so dreamy, so absent
the look in his eyes that would have suspected him of being addicted to drugs,
if the regularity and chastity of his lifestyle did not refute
similar thoughts.
Week after week passed, and I became more and more interested in him.
personality, and became increasingly curious about his goals in
life. Even his appearance could strike the imagination of the most superficial
observer. He was over six feet tall, but with his extraordinary
in his thinness he seemed even taller. His gaze was sharp, piercing, if not
his nose gave his face an expression of lively energy and determination. Square,
a slightly protruding chin also spoke of a decisive character.
His hands were always covered in ink and stains from various chemicals, but he
had the ability to handle objects with amazing delicacy - I didn’t
I noticed this once when he was fiddling with his fragile alchemical instruments in front of me.
devices.
The reader will probably consider me an inveterate hunter of other people's affairs if I
I confess what curiosity this man aroused in me and how often I
tried to break through the wall of restraint with which he fenced off everything that
concerned him personally. But before you judge, remember how aimless
was my life then and how little there was around that could take
my idle mind. My health did not allow me to go out in cloudy or
cool weather, friends didn’t visit me because I didn’t have them,
and nothing brightened up the monotony of my daily life. That's why I even
rejoiced at some of the mystery that surrounded my companion, and greedily
tried to dispel it, spending a lot of time on it.
Holmes did not practice medicine. He himself once answered this question
negative, thereby confirming Stamford's opinion. I didn't see either
so that he systematically read any scientific literature that
would be useful for obtaining an academic title and would open the way for him into the world
science. However, he studied some subjects with amazing zeal, and in
some rather strange areas had such extensive and accurate
knowledge that sometimes I was simply stunned. Man reading what
haphazardly, he rarely boasts of the depth of his knowledge. Nobody will
burden your memory with small details if there is not enough to do so
good reasons.
Holmes' ignorance was as amazing as his knowledge. ABOUT
modern literature, politics and philosophy he had almost no
presentations. I happened to mention the name of Thomas Carlyle, and Holmes naively
asked who he was and what he was famous for. But when it turned out that he was exactly
knows nothing about the Copernican theory or the structure of the solar system, I
I was simply taken aback with amazement. So that a civilized person living in
nineteenth century, did not know that the Earth revolves around the Sun - this is why I
I just couldn't believe it!
“You seem surprised,” he smiled, looking at my confused expression.
face. - Thank you for enlightening me, but now I’ll try my best
rather forget all this.
Forget?!
You see,” he said, “it seems to me that the human brain
is like a small empty attic that you can furnish however you want.
A fool will drag in there all sorts of junk he can get his hands on, including useful ones.
there will be nowhere to put the necessary things, or at best among them
You'll get all this stuff down and you won't be able to get to the bottom of it. And a smart person carefully selects
something he will put in his brain attic. He will only take the tools
which he will need for work, but there will be many of them, and he will all
laid out in an exemplary order. It is in vain that people think that this little
The rooms have elastic walls and can be stretched as much as you like. I assure you
you, the time will come when, acquiring something new, you will forget something from
former. Therefore, it is extremely important that unnecessary information is not crowded out.
necessary ones.
Yes, but I didn’t know about the solar system!.. - I exclaimed.
Why the hell do I need her? - he interrupted impatiently. - Well, okay, let it be
as you say, we revolve around the sun. What if I found out that we
orbiting the Moon, how much would that help me or my work?
I wanted to ask what kind of work this was, but I felt that he
will be unhappy. I thought about our short conversation and tried
draw some conclusions. He does not want to clutter his head with knowledge that is not
needed for his purposes. Therefore, he intends to use all the accumulated knowledge in one way or another.
otherwise use. I listed in my mind all the areas of knowledge in which he
showed excellent knowledge. I even took a pencil and wrote it all down
on paper. After re-reading the list, I couldn't help but smile. "Certificate"
looked like this:
^ SHERLOCK HOLMES - HIS CAPABILITIES
1. Knowledge in the field of literature - none.
2. --//-- --//-- philosophy - none.
3. --//-- --//-- astronomy - none.
4. --//-- --//-- politicians are weak.
5. --//-- --//-- botanists - uneven. Knows the properties of belladonna,
opium and poisons in general. Has no idea about gardening.
6. --//-- --//-- Geology - practical but limited. From the first
glance determines the image of different soils. After walking he shows me
splashes of dirt on trousers and by their color and consistency determines which
she is part of London.
7. --//-- --//-- chemistry - deep.
8. --//-- --//-- anatomy - accurate, but unsystematic.
9. --//-- --//-- criminal chronicles - huge, seems to know everything
details of every crime committed in the nineteenth century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Excellent fencing with swords and espadrons, an excellent boxer.
12. Thorough practical knowledge of English laws.
Having reached this point, I threw the “certificate” into the fire in despair.
“No matter how hard I list everything he knows,” I said to myself, “
it is impossible to guess why he needs it and what kind of profession requires
such a combination! No, it’s better not to rack your brains in vain!” I already
said that Holmes played the violin beautifully. However, there was something here too
strange, as in all his activities. I knew he could perform
violin pieces, and quite difficult ones: more than once, at my request, he played
"Songs" of Mendelssohn and other things I love. But when he stayed
alone, it was rare to hear a piece or anything like
melody. In the evenings, placing the violin on his lap, he leaned back
chair, closed his eyes and casually moved his bow along the strings. Sometimes
sonorous, sad chords were heard. Another time there were sounds
which could be heard frantic merriment. Obviously they matched it
mood, but either the sounds gave birth to this mood, or they themselves were
the product of some bizarre thoughts or just a whim, I can’t
couldn't understand. And, probably, I would rebel against these scrapers
nerves of "concerts", if after them, as if rewarding me for
long-suffering, he did not play several of my favorites one after another
things. During the first week, no one came to see us, and I began to think:
that my companion is as lonely in this city as I am. But soon I
I became convinced that he had many acquaintances, from very different backgrounds
society. Once three or four times in one week a frail man appeared
a little man with a yellow-pale rat face and sharp black
eyes; he was introduced to me as Mr. Lestrade. Came one morning
elegant young girl and sat with Holmes for at least half an hour. On that
the same day a gray-haired, shabby old man appeared, looking like a Jewish ragpicker,
it seemed to me that he was very excited. Came almost right behind him
old woman in worn out shoes. Once I had a long conversation with my roommate
an elderly gentleman with gray hair, then a station porter in
uniform jacket made of corduroy. Every time someone appeared
these strange visitors, Sherlock Holmes asked permission to occupy
living room, and I went to my bedroom. "We have to use this
room for business meetings,” he once explained, asking as usual
forgive him for the inconvenience caused. "These people are my clients." And again
I had a reason to ask him a direct question, but again, out of delicacy, I didn’t
wanted to forcefully find out other people's secrets.
It seemed to me then that he had some compelling reasons to hide
his profession, but he soon proved me wrong by talking about it in
on my own initiative.
On the fourteenth of March - I remember this date well - I got up
earlier than usual and found Sherlock Holmes at breakfast. Our mistress is so
I'm used to the fact that I get up late, which I haven't had time to give yet
device and make coffee for my share. Offended by all humanity, I
called and said in a rather defiant tone that I was waiting for breakfast. Grabbing
there was some magazine on the table, I started leafing through it to kill time,
while my roommate silently chewed toast. The title of one of the articles was
marked out in pencil, and, quite naturally, I began to run through it
The article was titled somewhat pretentiously: “The Book of Life”; author
tried to prove how much a person can learn systematically and
observing in detail everything that passes before his eyes. In my opinion this is
there was an amazing mixture of rational and delusional thoughts. If in reasoning and
there was some logic and even persuasiveness, then the conclusions seemed to me
very deliberate and, as they say, made up from thin air. Author
claimed that by a fleeting facial expression, by an involuntary movement
a muscle or a glance can reveal one’s innermost thoughts
analyze, it is simply impossible to deceive. His conclusions will be unmistakable,
like Euclid's theorems. And the results will be so amazing that people
the uninitiated will consider him almost a sorcerer until they understand what process
inferences preceded this.
logically, can conclude about the possibility of the existence of the Atlantic
the ocean or Niagara Falls, even if he has not seen either one or the other
and never heard of them. Every life is a huge chain of causes and
consequences, and we can know its nature one by one. The art of making
conclusions and analysis, like all other arts, is comprehended over a long period of time and
diligent work, but life is too short, and therefore no mortal
can achieve complete perfection in this area. Before turning to
moral and intellectual aspects of the matter, which represent
greatest difficulties, let the researcher begin by solving the simpler ones
tasks. Let him, looking at the first person he meets, learn to immediately determine
his background and his profession. This may seem childish at first, but
Such exercises sharpen observation skills and teach how to look and what to look for.
look. By a person's nails, by his sleeves, shoes and the fold of his trousers
knees, by the thickenings on the thumb and index finger, by expression
his face and the cuffs of his shirt - from such trifles it is not difficult to guess his profession.
And there is no doubt that all this taken together will tell the knowledgeable
correct conclusions for the observer."
What wild nonsense! - I exclaimed, throwing the magazine on the table. - In life
I haven’t read such nonsense.
What are you talking about? - asked Sherlock Holmes.
Yes, about this article,” I pointed at the magazine with a teaspoon and
started eating his breakfast. - I see you've already read it, since it's marked
pencil. I don’t argue that it’s written famously, but it all just makes me angry. Fine
to him, this slacker, lounging in an easy chair in the silence of his office,
create elegant paradoxes! I wish I could squeeze him into a third class carriage.
subway and make you guess the professions of passengers! I'll bet a thousand against
one thing is that nothing will work out for him!
And you will lose,” Holmes noted calmly. - And I wrote the article.
Yes. I have a penchant for observation - and analysis. Theory,
which I have outlined here and which seems so fantastic to you,
is in fact very vital, so vital that I owe my
a piece of bread with butter.
But how? - I burst out.
You see, I have a rather rare profession. I guess I
one of a kind. I'm a consulting detective, if only you
imagine what it is. There are many detectives in London, and
public and private. When these fellows reach a dead end, they
rush towards me, and I manage to direct them on the right track. They
acquaint me with all the circumstances of the case, and know the history well
forensics, I can almost always tell them where the error is. All the atrocities
have a strong family resemblance, and if the details of a thousand cases you
You know it like the back of your hand, it would be strange not to solve the thousand and first.
Lestrade is a very famous detective. But recently he was unable to figure out
one case of forgery and came to me.
What about others?
Most often they are sent to me by private agencies. These are all people
those in trouble and seeking advice. I listen to their stories, they
they listen to my interpretation, and I pocket the fee.
“Do you really mean to say,” I couldn’t bear it, “that without leaving
rooms, you can unravel the tangle over which those who
Do you know all the details better than you?
Exactly. I have a kind of intuition. True, from time to time
something more complicated comes across. Well, then it takes a little
run around to see something with your own eyes. You see, I have
special knowledge that I apply in each specific case, they
They make things amazingly easier. The rules of deduction that I set out in the article are about
to which you responded so contemptuously, are simply priceless to my
practical work. Observation is second nature to me. You seem
were surprised when, at the first meeting, I said that you came from
Afghanistan?
Of course, someone told you about this.
Nothing of the kind, I immediately guessed that you came from
Afghanistan. Thanks to a long-standing habit, a chain of inferences arises in me
so quickly that I came to the conclusion without even noticing the intermediate premises.
However, they were there, these parcels. My train of thought was: “This man
Tipu is a doctor, but he has a military bearing. So, a military doctor. He just
that he came from the tropics - his face is dark, but this is not a natural shade
his skin, since his wrists are much whiter. The face is haggard, -
Obviously, he suffered a lot and suffered from illness. He was wounded in the left hand -
holds her motionless and a little unnaturally. Where is it under the tropics?
Could an English military doctor endure hardships and get wounded? Certainly
same, in Afghanistan." The whole train of thought did not take even a second. And so I said,
that you came from Afghanistan, and you were surprised.
“It’s very simple to listen to you,” I smiled. - You
reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I thought that such people
exist only in novels.
Sherlock Holmes stood up and began to light his pipe.
You, of course, think that by comparing me with Dupin you are doing me
“compliment,” he remarked. - And in my opinion, your Dupin is a very narrow-minded fellow.
This technique is to confuse your interlocutor’s thoughts with some phrase “to
case" after fifteen minutes of silence, really, very cheap
ostentatious trick. He undoubtedly had some analytical skills.
abilities, but it cannot in any way be called a phenomenon, which, apparently,
Poe considered him.
Have you read Gaboriau? - I asked. - Do you think Lecoq is real?
Sherlock Holmes chuckled ironically.
Lecoq is a pathetic brat,” he said angrily. - All he has is
that energy. This book just makes me sick. Think about it, what a problem -
identify the criminal who has already been imprisoned! I would do it
in twenty-four hours. And Lecoq has been digging for almost six months. According to this book
You can teach detectives how not to work.
He so arrogantly debunked my favorite literary heroes that I
started to get angry again. I went to the window and turned my back to Holmes,
looking absentmindedly at the bustle of the street. “Let him be smart,” I said to myself, “
but, for mercy’s sake, you can’t be so self-confident!”
Now there are no real crimes, no real
criminals,” Holmes continued grumpily. - If you were at least seven spans in size
forehead, what is the use of this in our profession? I know I could
become famous. There is not and never was a person in the world who would devote
solving crimes requires as much innate talent and hard work as
I. So what? Nothing to reveal, no crimes at best
some crudely executed scam involving such simple
motives that even the cops from Scotland Yard see right through everything.
I was positively offended by this boastful tone. I decided to change
topic of conversation.
I wonder what he's looking for there? - I asked, pointing to
a stalwart, simply dressed man who walked slowly along the other side
streets, peering at the house numbers. In pCHAPTER III. THE MYSTERY OF LAURISTON GARDENS
I must confess that I was quite amazed at how the
actually the theory of my companion. My respect for his abilities immediately
has increased. And yet I could not rid myself of the suspicion that all this was
arranged in advance to stun me, although why, in fact, this
I just couldn't understand. When I looked at him he was holding in his hand
read the note, and his gaze was absent-minded and dull
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