Who Was Sherlock Holmes? – Sherlockians on a Mission for the Truth

Sherlockian Methods and Their Results

In two previous articles, our detectives already reported on the history of the Sherlockians and their game of uncovering the “true” Sherlock Holmes hidden between the lines, as well as on the viral marketing of the Sherlock “brand” on the World Wide Web. In this – for now – final part of the series on the Sherlockian game, we focus on the reading habits and methods of the Sherlockians. While many enthusiastic fiction readers identify closely with the protagonists of their favourite books and try to recognise their own traits and quirks in these beloved characters, the Sherlockians deliberately and consciously approach the London forefather of our detectives in Cologne with objectivity. Simply having opinions or beliefs is not appreciated in Sherlock Holmes societies; every statement must be substantiated and detailed using texts from the original Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle – or from Dr Watson.

 

In the previous article, we already mentioned that Christopher Morley researched an exact birth date for the master detective, and of course the Sherlockians possess far more knowledge than the classic canon texts reveal during a casual, non-Sherlockian reading. Like our private detectives from Cologne, the enthusiastic Holmes fans study the original texts as if they were solving a case themselves – namely, the search for Sherlock’s identity. At times, they resemble a collaboratively investigating detective team, yet they also display the traditional traits of members of a literary faculty in terms of textual analysis and extended discussion. While older Sherlock Holmes societies often insist on using only the 60 original Doyle/Watson texts as source material, clubs founded by younger members, frequently active online in forums or communal blogs, also incorporate sequels, adaptations, film versions, and other interpretations into their analyses.

Own Deduction Instead of Simple Reading and Summarising

As Asher-Perrin makes clear in her article, the fascination with the idiosyncratic London detective and his faithful friend Dr Watson is fed in part by the sometimes inconsistent and even contradictory details in the stories. Thus Watson is commonly called John, yet in one story (The Man With the Twisted Lip) his wife Mary refers to him as James; everyone knows that he walks with a stick because of a war wound and sometimes suffers pain, but where exactly he sustained the wound is unclear: it shifts from story to story, from leg to shoulder — a fact that sets Sherlockians’ noses twitching with excitement. Had the Holmes tales — which continue to inspire our detective agency in Cologne in their approach to new cases — been published as a single continuous book rather than episodically over some forty years, Doyle — or, in the Sherlockian universe, Watson — would have had to strive for greater continuity, depriving readers of much scope for creative deduction. After all, imagination is the greatest strength of enthusiastic readers, and nothing would constrain it more than an excess of predetermined detail. Or, in Christopher Morley’s words: “What other body of modern literature is esteemed as much for its errors as its felicities?”

 

Because the Holmes tales are episodic, readers often do not know the precise chronological order of events; although dates are sometimes given, in other cases only a sentence or even a single word lays the groundwork for a trail that supposedly leads to the “definitive” truth. That this truth is an unattainable utopia — since Conan Doyle can no longer comment on his invention — is exactly the point of the game: every new reader discovers fresh points that seem important and decisive and can thus rekindle the debate. The fact that Doyle notoriously paid little heed to continuity and precise detail — in prefaces to his short-story collections he often mixed up dates and could not recall the correct titles of stories — plays into the Sherlockians’ hands: contradictory statements in individual stories may, like the anonymisation of some clients, be interpreted as deliberate interventions or manipulations by Watson in the chronology of events, thereby expanding the scope for interpretation. Doyle himself commented on historical continuity as follows:

 

“It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?” (The Straight Dope)

How Are the Books’ Inconsistencies Explained?

If Watson writes that The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge takes place in 1892, even though Holmes supposedly plunged down the Reichenbach Falls and died that year, loyal Sherlockians explain this by attributing the discrepancy to Watson’s poor handwriting being miscopied by his printer. If Holmes in A Case of Identity speaks of conducting chemical experiments with “Bisulfate of Baryta”, chemists are baffled because no such chemical is known, which prompts debate as to the substance actually meant and suggests either that Watson misremembered or that the substance was known under a different name at the time and needs to be “rediscovered” (in the internet age it is easily discoverable that this is an archaic name for hydrogen sulfate). The Sherlockians investigate — like Holmes himself and like our private and corporate investigators in Cologne: for example, if Holmes claims that an annual income of £60 enables a woman to live comfortably, participants in the game examine the cost of living in late-19th-century London.

 

Even the simple disappearance of a man in A Case of Identity on “last Friday”, the 14th of the month, sends Sherlockians such as William S. Baring-Gould into raptures: to pin down the exact Friday and thus the start of the inquiry, he defines a timeframe from March 1881 (when Holmes and Watson first met) to September 1891 (the publication date of that case), in which only four months feature a 14th that fell on a Friday. Of those four months three are excluded because Holmes was involved in other cases at the time. The remaining month must thus be October 1887. Because Watson reads of the case in the morning paper, the investigation could not have begun on a Sunday; likewise the mild weather on the two investigation days leads Baring-Gould to consult the meteorological reports and conclude that the inquiries took place on Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 October 1887.

 

By the way, Dorothy Sayers, the crime novelist, resolves Watson’s Christian name confusion: his name remains John H. Watson, but the middle initial “H.” stands for “Hamish”, a Scottish form of “James”. His English wife therefore calls him James.

Fictional Sleuths and Real Detectives

Like their great exemplar, the Sherlockians examine every seemingly trivial question thoroughly: How many times was Watson married? Did Sherlock study at Cambridge or Oxford? Who were the Baskervilles and where was their estate? What did Sherlock do in the three years after The Final Problem, a period in which Watson believed him dead? Our detectives in Cologne enjoy joining the inquiries into the fictional figure of Sherlock Holmes, but their primary concern remains the wellbeing of real people. If you have developed an interest in the Sherlockian Game, simply google “Sherlockian” or “the Sherlockian Game” and you will be drawn into a world full of mysteries. Those with a good command of English will enjoy it even more. If, however, you have a less fictional problem that our private investigators in Cologne could resolve, contact us free of charge to learn how we would approach your specific case: +49 221 4558 0377.

Bibliography

• Asher-Perrin, Emily. Do Your Own Detecting: Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of Tricky Continuity. Tor.com. http://www.tor.com/2011/12/28/do-your-own-detecting-sherlock-holmes-and-the-adventure-of-tricky-continuity/
• Roylott, Miss. Validity of Interpretation in Sherlockiana: A Philosophy of Art Paper. Archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20050923120827/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8950/holmes/validity.htm
• The Straigt Dope Science Advisory Board. Did Sherlock Holmes really exist? The Straight Dope. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2088/did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist

Author: Maya Grünschloß PhD

 

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