Sherlock Holmes's beloved, Dr. Watson's wife, Mary Morstan, receives very little space in the stories about the adventures of the most famous detective in the world. Why did this happen and what is the fate of this woman?

Mary's early years

Mary Morstan was born in 1860 (according to other sources, in 1861) in the family of the British military man Arthur Morstan. Her exact place of birth is not specified. Most likely, this is India, where Captain Morstan served.

Judging by Mary's appearance, who is described as a pretty, blue-eyed blonde, her mother was European or English, but not Indian. Although such marriages were not uncommon among British military personnel in the 19th century. This woman probably did not have very good health, which was aggravated by the Indian climate: Mrs. Morstan died when Mary was very young. Or it was some kind of hereditary disease that later killed Mary.

The girl's father was a poor man, although his military career in India was going well. And he had no wealthy friends or relatives. After the death of his wife, he had no one to leave his daughter with, so he sent her to Edinburgh, to a private boarding school.

Mary's fate after the death of her mother, before meeting her future husband

Mary Morstan spent all her childhood years, until 1878, in a boarding school. She had not seen her father until that time.

The story does not exactly indicate the reason why, in 1878, Captain Arthur Morstan decided to take a leave of absence and, after many years of absence, return to his homeland and demand his share of the treasure from Major Sholto. Probably his daughter was the culprit. After all, by that time she had turned 17 - and at that age girls leave boarding schools. Most likely, Morstan planned, having received his share of the money, to take care of his daughter during the year's vacation. His telegram to Mary hinted at this. If this happened, Miss Morstan would become one of the richest brides in Britain.

However, fate instantly deprived the girl of all hopes. Arriving at her father's hotel, Mary Morstan learns that he is missing.

Left without her beloved father and without relatives who could provide for the orphan, the girl was forced to take a job as a companion to Mrs. Cecil Forrester. Although the woman treated her sympathetically, she paid Mary very little, which is why the girl was very poor.

4 years after her father disappeared, Mary learned that an unknown person was looking for her through an advertisement in the Times. Having told this man her address, Miss Morstan began to receive a large and very expensive pearl every year.

After 6 years, the same unknown person sent Mary an invitation to meet. However, the girl was afraid to go to the meeting alone and turned to private detective Sherlock Holmes.

The story “The Sign of Four”: the first acquaintance with Miss Morstan

Arriving at 221b Baker Street, the girl met Sherlock Holmes and his biographer, Dr. John Watson. This is where the events of Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “The Sign of Four” begin.

Having learned Mary's story, Sherlock and John agree to help her. It is worth noting that Watson liked Miss Morstan immediately, and Holmes noticed this and reacted rather negatively to it.

Arriving at a meeting with Thaddeus Sholto, Dr. Watson's future wife learned the truth about her father's death. It turns out that while in India, Morstan and Sholto conspired with a prisoner named Jonathan Small. He told them where the treasures of the Rajah of the northern provinces were, and in return asked them to organize an escape for him and his three friends.

However, Sholto was stingy and mean: he single-handedly took possession of the valuables and left with them for England. After some time, Morstan visited him and demanded his share. During the quarrel, the captain became ill and died, and Sholto, fearing that he would be considered a murderer, hid the body and only on his deathbed told his sons about what had happened.

Since the major died before he could tell where the treasure was, his children for 6 years could not find it. At this time they sent Mary pearls so that she would not need anything. When the treasure was found, the Sholto brothers wanted to meet the girl and give her a third of the treasures.

But the deceived convict Jonathan Small managed to return to England. Together with his assistant, a native from the Andaman Islands, Small stole a treasure chest. When Sherlock and the police got on his trail, he threw the jewelry into the Thames.

Thus, Mary lost her chance to get rich for the second time in her life. However, fate had mercy: upon learning that she was poor, Watson confessed his feelings to her and proposed. Soon, Dr. Watson and Mary Morstan got married and began to live separately from Sherlock.

The married life of the Watsons

Little is known about Mary's married years. It is mentioned that she gave birth to Watson's son, and in 1893 (or in 1894) both mother and child died.

After Mary's death, Watson returned to Holmes and continued to be his partner.

As for the mention of this heroine in the works of Conan Doyle, after “The Sign of Four,” Mrs. Watson appeared in two more stories: “The Hunchback” and “The Mystery of Boscombe Valley.” By the time The Norwood Contractor was released, she had died.

Cause of death of Mary Watson

Why the wife and son died is not really explained in the books. A popular version is that the cause of this was some kind of infectious disease. At the same time, the true reason why Conan Doyle “killed” Watson’s young wife is widely known.

The fact is that writing stories about Holmes periodically bored the writer. He was more willing to write fantasy stories a la H. G. Wells. However, detective stories paid significantly more than others. Therefore, although he twice tried to complete the series of stories about Sherlock Holmes, first by killing his hero and then marrying Watson, the writer later returned to him again.

After the wedding, it became necessary to return the doctor to Holmes on Baker Street. And for this, the author had to “bring to the grave” the unfortunate Mary and her child.

The fate of Mary Elizabeth Morstan according to the creators of the series "Sherlock"

Unlike Irene Adler, the character of Mary does not appear in all film adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. But even if they show her, as a rule, the girl’s biography is not particularly changed.

However, in the modern British film adaptation - the series "Sherlock", Mary is given a lot of attention, and her biography is quite changed. What is it like?

As in the original, in the series the heroine is an orphan, only her name is Rosamund Mary. Having matured, the girl chooses the profession of a mercenary, and soon becomes very successful. Together with her 3 colleagues, she formed the AGRA group and performed various tasks to eliminate and save people for money.

One day, while carrying out a mission for the British government, AGRA was betrayed. As a result, only Rosamund managed to survive. She abandoned her past and, taking a new name, “Mary Morstan,” began working as a nurse in a London hospital.

Here she met John Watson and they began an affair. Six months later, the lovers got married, and Mary became pregnant. The all-powerful blackmailer Charles Magnussen found out about Mrs. Watson's past and began to pursue her. But Sherlock and John, having learned the truth, helped Mary escape punishment.

Nine months later she gave birth to Watson's daughter Rosamund. But it soon became clear that one of her comrades from AGRA was also alive and, considering Mary a traitor, wanted to kill her.

Sherlock manages to find out that the culprit was an employee of the British government, Vivian. Unmasked, she tried to kill the detective, but the bullet accidentally hit Mary, and she died.

Thus, as in the book, Watson returned to Baker Street again.

Sherlock Holmes

She first appears in the work “The Sign of Four”, as a client. Until the age of seventeen, she was brought up in a private boarding school in Edinburgh.

She was a very young girl, blonde, fragile, graceful, dressed with impeccable taste and wearing impeccably clean gloves. But in her clothes there was noticeable that modesty, if not simplicity, that suggests straitened circumstances. She was wearing a dress made of dark gray wool, without any trimming, and a small hat of the same gray tone, which was slightly enlivened by a white feather on the side. Her face was pale, and her features were not distinguished by regularity, but the expression of this face was sweet and inviting, and her large blue eyes shone with spirituality and kindness.
Chapter II “We get to know the case”, novel “The Sign of Four”

Mary was supposed to inherit the wealth, but at the last moment it was lost. Immediately after this was revealed, Watson confessed his love to her. Subsequently, they decided to get married, which Holmes was extremely upset about.

Holmes let out a cry of despair. - I was so afraid of this! - he said. - No, I cannot congratulate you.
- Don't you like my choice? - I asked, slightly hurt.
- Like (...) But love is an emotional thing, and, being such, it is the opposite of pure and cold reason.

The death of Mary Morstan is mentioned in passing by Sherlock Holmes in the story “The Empty House” with the words:

Somehow Holmes managed to learn of my wife's death, but his sympathy was expressed more in tone than in words.
“Work is the best antidote to grief, dear Watson,” he said, “and we have such work waiting for you tonight that the person who manages to successfully complete it will be able to safely say that he has not lived his life in vain.”

Before this, Watson himself says that his wife gave birth to a son [ ], however, both the son and Mrs. Watson died. After her death, Watson moves back to Baker Street.

Irene Adler

Film incarnations

Dennis Hoy, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939-1946)
Victor Kamaev, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1971)
Frank Finlay, Murder by Order (1979)
Borislav Brondukov, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson” (1979-1986)
Roger Ashton-Griffiths, "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985)
Geoffrey Jones, Without a Single Evidence (1988)
Eddie Marsan, Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Rupert Graves, Sherlock (TV series, 2010 - present)
Sean Pertwee, “Elementary” (TV series, 2012 - present)
Mikhail Boyarsky, Sherlock Holmes (2013)

Tobias Gregson

Hopkins appears in the story "Pince-nez in a Gold Frame", set in 1894, in which he is described as "a young, promising detective in whose career Holmes took an interest." In the story "Black Peter", set in 1895, there is a description of Hopkins by Dr. Watson:

“A thin, agile man of about thirty came into our room. He wore a modest woolen suit, but his bearing showed that he was accustomed to wearing a military uniform. I immediately recognized Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector who, according to Holmes, showed great promise. Hopkins, in turn, considered himself a student of the famous detective and admired his scientific methods."

He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was twenty-one, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After this, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, in all likelihood, a brilliant future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a hereditary tendency towards cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not moderate, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the university campus where he taught, and in the end he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began preparing young people for the officer exam...

Holmes also describes him as the "Napoleon of the underworld." This phrase was borrowed by Arthur Conan Doyle from one of the inspectors

100 great literary heroes [with illustrations] Eremin Viktor Nikolaevich

Sherlock Holmes

“He was not a great writer; he cannot be compared with such geniuses of English literature as Swift, Defoe, Fielding, Thackeray, Dickens,” said the Russian writer, translator and outstanding literary critic K.I. about Arthur Conan Doyle. Chukovsky (1882–1969). Let us clarify: Conan Doyle could have become a great writer (just remember his wonderful historical novel “The White Company” about the events of the Hundred Years War), but he was ruined by the main literary hero of his work and life - Sherlock Holmes. The paradox, apparently, is that Conan Doyle himself knew about this and tried to get rid of Holmes, and many in his circle - friends, household members - understood this, but all of them together turned out to be powerless in the face of the temptations of that powerful force that today we call mass culture. So, Sherlock Holmes is one of the most solid creations of the literature of mass culture, moreover, he is the cornerstone in the foundation of mass culture, but precisely because he is characterized by all the weaknesses of mass culture - schematicism, lightness and... gradual aging.

Yes, yes! Precisely aging, since today, after a little over a hundred years, books about it are read less and less. And the point is not that the interest of new generations in reading is falling in general. Fiction, especially as printing developed and became cheaper, from the 18th century. largely filled out the second part of the famous cry of the ancient Roman mob “Bread and Circuses” for educated people. But if initially the dominant role in the work was played by the artistry of description and thought, then by the end of the 19th century. The fascination of the plot began to come to the fore. The literature of mass culture has finally moved to the position of “popularity”, pure entertainment for the crowd. Its pioneers and leaders were Alexander Dumas the Father and Arthur Conan Doyle, which is why their works in embryo still bear the remnants of a philosophical and artistic beginning. Entertainment, as we know, requires more and more new updates; the old becomes boring and forgotten. A big role in this is played by the endless number of epigones eager to make quick money, who, with their large numbers and lack of talent, devalue the original source.

K.I. also understood this. Chukovsky, who communicated more than once with Conan Doyle himself. He tried to justify the popular hero with a saving reference: “Sherlock Holmes is loved by children all over the world, and although books about his adventures are written for adult readers, they have long become children’s (read: always in demand - V.E.) books...” Today, this thesis is gradually becoming obsolete. However, Sherlock Holmes' brothers in criminal investigation presented in this book - Hercule Poirot and Commissioner Maigret - age many times faster than the main detective of world literature.

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh into a large Irish Catholic family. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle (1832–1893), was an artist and architect. Mother, born Mary Foley (1838–1921), was a housewife. Arthur Conan is the writer's name, but over time he himself began to use his middle name as part of his surname.

Unfortunately, the father of the future writer was a chronic alcoholic (by the time Arthur came of age, he had gone crazy due to drunkenness), and the family was often in poverty. However, the Doyles' wealthy relatives took charge of the boy's education. For seven years, Arthur studied at a closed Catholic school in Stonyhurst, which belonged to the Jesuit order. After successfully graduating from school, the young man began to prepare to take the priesthood.

But first, Arthur went on a pleasure trip to the continent, where he first became acquainted with the works of the father of the detective genre, Edgar Allan Poe (Auguste Dupin from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” can be considered the first detective in the history of world literature).

Upon returning to Scotland, the young man learned that his father had been admitted to a psychiatric clinic and that worries about supporting the family fell entirely on his shoulders. The solution was the medical faculty of the University of Edinburgh, where you could get a good scholarship.

At the university, Arthur was especially strongly influenced by his teacher Dr. Joseph Bell (1837–1911), an excellent diagnostician, surgeon and pathologist who developed a method of research (mainly diseases), which later became known as deductive. It was Bell who later served as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes.

At the university, Arthur Conan Doyle began his literary career: in 1879, his first story, “Secrets of the Sussex Valley,” was published in Chambers magazine.

And the next year, in order to earn extra money, the young man set out as a surgeon on a voyage to the Arctic Circle on the whaler Nadezhda. The voyage lasted seven months. After graduating from university in 1881, Doyle became a doctor on the merchant ship Mayumba and made a trip to Africa, after which he chose to retire ashore. In 1882, he opened a private practice in the small seaside town of Southsea, where he lived for seven years - until 1890, when he said goodbye to medicine forever. The fact is that initially the young doctor had no clients, and out of boredom he returned to writing stories.

When Conan Doyle married Louise Hawkins (1858–1906) in 1885, he decided to earn money to support his family through literature. Since the stories provided little income, Doyle wrote the novel Girdlestones Trading House, but could not publish it - all publishers refused. The second novel seemed to suffer the same fate, but publishers were found who published it (though only two years after the manuscript was submitted) in Beaton's Christmas Weekly for 1887. It was A Study in Scarlet, where for the first time Private detective William Sherlock Scott Holmes, better known to us as Sherlock Holmes, and his friend and assistant Dr. John Hamish Watson appeared. It is curious that in the same year and for the rest of his life, Conan Doyle became interested in the “study” of life after life - spiritualism.

The name Sherlock Holmes did not arise by chance. Or rather, the detective’s surname - it was borne by Doyle’s favorite American writer and satirist poet, and at the same time medical scientist Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894).

At first, Sherlock Holmes did not interest the reading public. Considering it only an episode in his literary destiny, Conan Doyle became interested in writing historical novels, in particular, he created “The Adventures of Mickey Clark” (1888) and “The White Squad” (1889–1890) (the latter was recognized as the best English historical novel during the author’s lifetime after "Ivanhoe") And suddenly, in the midst of work on “The White Squad,” the writer received an invitation to a meeting from the American editor of Lippincott’s Magazine. The recommender turned out to be Oscar Wilde, who was then unfamiliar with Doyle; one might say, the godfather of the great detective. With his light hand, the young writer was commissioned to write a story about Sherlock Holmes. Thus, in 1890, The Sign of Four appeared, which brought Conan Doyle international fame and made Sherlock Holmes the most popular hero of the detective genre. By the way, the word “detection” translated from English means “discovery”, “discovery”, therefore, the center of a detective work is not the crime or the criminal, but the person solving the crime and his path to solving the crime. Edgar Allan Poe laid the foundations of the genre, and its true creator was Arthur Conan Doyle.

In total, Conan Doyle wrote nine books about Sherlock Holmes - four novels (A Study in Scarlet - 1887; The Sign of Four - 1890; The Hound of the Baskervilles - 1902; The Valley of Terror - 1914-1915 gg.) and five collections combining fifty-six stories (“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” – 12 stories; “Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” – 12 stories; “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” – 13 stories; “His Farewell Bow” – 7 stories”; “ Sherlock Holmes Archive - 12 stories"). In total, Conan Doyle worked on the Holmes series for about forty years - the last work about the brilliant detective, “His Last Bow,” appeared in 1927.

While working on stories about the brilliant detective for the Strand magazine (the writer collaborated with this magazine throughout his life), illustrator Sidney Edward Paget (1860–1908), together with Conan Doyle, developed the appearance of Sherlock Holmes, which became canonical. It's funny, but Paget's model for Holmes was his younger brother Walter Paget (1863–1935), also an artist, who picked up the baton of illustrating works about Holmes after Sidney's death. This is how our domestic illustrators began to portray Holmes.

The stories in The Strand, especially "The Man with the Cleft Lip", brought Doyle worldwide fame. He left medical practice and devoted himself entirely to literature. By the beginning of 1892, the writer was tired of Sherlock Holmes and tried to return to historical topics. However, this was not the case. When he was offered £1,000 for a story about Holmes, the writer did not have the strength to refuse. But even then it was becoming more and more difficult to come up with new stories.

At the beginning of 1893, Conan Doyle and his wife went on vacation to Switzerland. There, at the Reichenbach Falls, the writer came up with the idea to kill his hero in order to close the topic of Sherlock Holmes once and for all. When the story "Holmes's Last Case" was published, twenty thousand subscribers at once abandoned the Strand magazine!

The writer did not agree to revive his hero for almost ten years. But his income gradually decreased - they paid several times less for works on other subjects, readers demanded the return of Sherlock Holmes, and new stories about the adventures of the detective were ripening.

At the beginning of 1901, the writer’s friend, journalist and editor of the Daily Express, Bertram Fletcher Robinson (1872–1907), told Doyle a terrible legend about a 17th-century man. in Devonshire, Sir Richard Cabell, who sold his soul to the devil, for which he was subsequently torn to pieces by wild dogs. This was one of the versions of the ancient legend about a huge ferocious dog that once lived in Norfolk and bore the nickname Black Devil. The idea to write a novel on this topic immediately appeared. The friends agreed on co-authorship, as Conan Doyle announced in a letter to his mother. Fletcher invited Doyle to Dartmouth to show him the places where the events were to take place. A certain Harry Baskerville worked there as a groom for co-author Conan Doyle...

As work on the novel progressed, the idea arose to make not a simple horror novel, but a detective story, that is, to bring back Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. To avoid any discrepancies, the events of the novel had to take place before the death of the detective in the waterfall.

However, Conan Doyle was not going to share his heroes. The Hound of the Baskervilles was published in 1902 in the Strand magazine only under his name, but with thanks to Fletcher Robinson, which subsequently disappeared from reprints. And already in 1902, rumors began to spread that the novel was written by Robinson, and Doyle only allowed him to use the name Holmes. Fifty years after the novel was first published, this gossip was confirmed by Harry Baskerville!

The writer’s biographers have long since refuted it based on facts, but the story of how in 1907 Conan Doyle persuaded his mistress, Mrs. Robinson, to give poison to her typhoid-stricken husband and thus hid the secret of the birth of the “Hound of the Baskervilles” is still being circulated in the tabloid press. .

The publication of The Hound of the Baskervilles spurred a new wave of interest in Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle at first refused to return to his hero, but when the United States received an offer to pay 5 thousand dollars (over 80 thousand dollars at the modern rate) for each story about the detective, the writer gave up. Sherlock Holmes escaped from the waterfall and returned to further investigations. By the way, passionate fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, based on the works of Conan Doyle, clearly calculated the years of life of their favorite heroes: Dr. Watson (1852–1929), Sherlock Holmes (1854–1930). The detective died along with his author.

These dates only confirm the famous words of the writer spoken by Conan Doyle on the day of his seventieth birthday:

“…Don’t you know that I am not the creator of the image of Sherlock Holmes? It was the readers who created it in their imaginations!”

This is the key given to us by Doyle to reveal the true image of Sherlock Holmes. If initially the writer treated his hero with respect and tried to give him as many attractive features as possible - Holmes is an energetic, sympathetic, and disinterested person, ready to come to the aid of the humiliated and insulted to the detriment of the rich and noble, then Doyle later began to openly mock his hero, but it was too late - mass culture did its job and elevated the detective above his creator. But the writer showed him as both a narrow-minded ignoramus - Holmes has no idea that the Earth is round, and a slow-witted person who utters banal truths, and a drug addict - his thought processes are activated mainly under the influence of morphine and cocaine, and in some cases even a complete fool... Everything was justified by the readers, the true creators of Sherlock Holmes! All the evil was attributed to Conan Doyle. But Holmes himself remained, according to K.I. Chukovsky, almost the only “of the characters in children’s world literature whose main occupation is thinking and logic.” Mass culture defeated Conan Doyle, who hated him, Sherlock Holmes - the father of mass culture - triumphed, because he was and remains wise at the level of the crowd.

Suzanne Dean, Odetta Suzanne Holmes, Detta Suzanne Walker, Mia “I am three women... who I was at first; one that had no right to be, but was; and the one you saved." (TB-2) Five-year-old Odette Holmes had a brick fall on her head when the whole family came north for her aunt's wedding.

From the book The Secret of Captain Nemo author Kluger Daniel Museevich

From the book Under the Sign of Four author Tugusheva Maya Pavlovna

The Immortal Sherlock Holmes Joseph Bell, an Edinburgh professor, was a very interesting person. He was distinguished by rare insight, unerring intuition and great powers of observation. His student, the young doctor Arthur Conan Doyle, who practiced in the town of Southsea,

There are movie and book characters so popular, so beloved and alive that we quite sincerely perceive them as real people. There are many of them, all of them are bright individuals, but probably the most “living” and rich story is the character of the writer Arthur Conan Doyle - the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. I tried to put together the different puzzles that make up this phenomenal myth, starting with the prototype and ending with the recognizable deer hunter's hat :)

Sherlock Holmes prototype

Like so many famous people, writer Arthur Conan Doyle began his career in a completely different field of activity. He was a physician by training and practiced in this specialty for quite a long time. And he even gained invaluable life experience while serving as a ship’s doctor on Arctic and African sea expeditions. Working at the Edinburgh Clinic, doctor Doyle becomes an assistant to the famous professor and surgeon Joseph Bell. He was known not only for his professional achievements, but also for his extraordinary powers of observation and logical deductions. Detectives from Scotland Yard themselves turned to him for advice! What a rare stroke of luck for the future writer: he could observe both the professor himself and his unique method of accurately determining the character of patients every day. This is what inspired Conan Doyle to create the detective character. On the occasion of the 50th birthday of his colleague and mentor Joseph Bell, doctor and aspiring writer Arthur Conan Doyle “gave birth” to the famous Sherlock Holmes. This was in 1887, and in 1900 the writer had already become the highest paid author in the world - thanks to the incredibly popular stories about the detective detective.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Joseph Bell

Sherlock Holmes Museum in London

As you know, the address of the London apartment of detective Holmes and his faithful friend and companion Doctor Watson is: 221B Baker Street. The author named this number arbitrarily; at that time it simply did not exist on Baker Street. However, in later times the street was extended and the number “got” to the house occupied by the Abbey National construction company. I don’t know: did the poor employees have time to do their own construction work or did they just have to fend off Holmes fans? :))) In any case, it is known that at Abbey National there was a position of a special secretary who sorted out correspondence addressed to Sherlock Holmes. When the museum-apartment of the famous character was founded in 1990, the builders, presumably, breathed a sigh of relief. The incidents, however, do not end there. In the British Kingdom there is a ritual called the “blue tablet”. That is, a blue plaque marks a place associated with a famous historical person or event. And the process of assigning such a memorial sign is controlled by several high-ranking Societies (Royal, I suppose:)) What do you think? 221B Baker Street has this blue plaque!

Sherlock Holmes appearance

The first stories about the famous detective were illustrated by various artists, including Conan Doyle’s own father. These were not successful illustrations; they did not satisfy either the author or - I dare say! - you and me. And only when the writer’s friend, the artist Sidney Paget, took up the work, the popular detective turned out as it should: a tall, fit and dapper intellectual. It is in Sidney Paget's images that the famous cap with two visors first appears. the so-called deer hunter's hat. The artist himself wore such a cap:

But this headdress undoubtedly gained real fame because it belonged to Sherlock Holmes!

The best Sherlock in the world!

Stories about a detective and his partner are so popular that to this day they inspire the creation of more and more film versions. Fact: the number of film adaptations is included in the Guinness Book of Records, and the list of actors playing the two main roles is very impressive. But the best The tandem of Soviet performers Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin is considered the acting couple of all times. This can also be considered a fact since in 2006 Vasily Livanov was awarded the Order of the British Empire for playing the role of Sherlock Holmes. English film critics confirm that Soviet actors realized the images of their famous compatriots better than anyone else. In addition to this honorable award, other signs of attention speak of recognition. For example, in the Baker Street Museum in London, the portrait of Sherlock Holmes is actually a portrait of Livanov. In Moscow, not far from the British Embassy, there is a monument to the heroes of Conan Doyle; the external resemblance to Livanov and Solomin is beyond doubt :). In New Zealand in 2007, four memorial coins were issued with images of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson performed by Soviet actors. Isn't that worthy of confirmation of your acting merits?

We've all heard of Sherlock Holmes, who is considered by most people to be the greatest fictional detective of all time. His popularity is so great that there is an entire community called the Baker Street Irregulars, whose members develop the Sherlock Holmes universe by writing fan fiction and organizing reconstructions. Such popularity inevitably leads to the emergence of many myths about the character. Mythology becomes distorted over time, and some fictions are accepted as facts. Below are 10 common beliefs about Sherlock Holmes that are actually misconceptions.

10. Innocent people

Misconception: He didn't do bad things to innocent people just to solve another crime.

Sherlock Holmes is considered by many to be the white knight of the detective world: he solves crimes using only his wits, and innocent people are never harmed in the process. He's considered the greatest fictional detective, but Sherlock also had a dark side, and it's not just his addiction to drugs or eccentric habits. Sherlock Holmes was ready to do anything to solve a crime, and he often played with people's destinies just for fun. In The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, he becomes engaged to a maid to get closer to a villain he suspects of committing a crime. After completing the investigation, he simply leaves the woman, which probably was not the most pleasant moment in her life. He didn't even try to explain the situation to her, and there are no more mentions of it in the books. He also hired a small group of street urchins to do his dirty work for him, whom he affectionately called the Baker Street Militia. The boys are mentioned in the following stories: The Sign of the Four, A Study in Scarlet and The Adventure of the Crooked Man.

9. Progressivity

Misconception: Sherlock Holmes' social views were progressive

In the story “The Adventure of the Three Gables,” Sherlock Holmes engages in rude and racist dialogue with blacks. He calls the black boxer stupid just because of the color of his skin and even makes fun of the size of his lips. An excerpt describing Holmes’ dialogue with Steve Dixie, a black boxer: “Yes, it’s me, Steve Dixie. And Mass Holmes will probably feel it the hard way if he tries to fool me. “But that’s what you use least of all,” Holmes replied.” After the boxer leaves, Sherlock says: “Fortunately, you didn’t have to test the strength of his not very intelligent head, Watson. Your maneuvers with the poker were not lost on me. But in reality, Dixie is a pretty harmless guy. Just a hugely powerful, stupid, boastful child. Did you notice how easily it was possible to subdue him?” Sherlock later makes racist remarks about blacks in general. However, it is worth noting an important circumstance. At the time when these stories were written, such attitudes towards blacks were common - this, of course, does not justify racism, but it is also not a feature of Holmes that distinguishes him from the rest of the population of England at that time. It is also interesting that many researchers believe that “The Incident at the Three Skates,” which contains the most racist statements, is a fake that was not written by Arthur Conan Doyle. This would not be surprising, since fan fiction on the theme of Sherlock Holmes began to appear a very long time ago.

8. Withholding information

Misconception: Sherlock Holmes does not give information he has to the police

In the recently released Sherlock Holmes films, there are several scenes in which Holmes takes evidence from a crime scene and hides it from the police. This allows him to always be several steps ahead during the investigation and solve crimes first. But in the books he acted completely differently. Sherlock Holmes always left enough clues for the police to guess what he had already understood - this is mentioned in the story “The Adventure of the Devils Foot”. He also often shared information with the police if he learned that they were on the wrong trail - such a situation happened in the story "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge". Sherlock Holmes was faster than the police only because he was better at deduction than them. Scenes in which Sherlock Holmes deliberately hides evidence damage the image of a detective who has never done such a thing.

7. Best friend

Misconception: Holmes trusts his best friend Doctor Watson

Doctor John Watson is Sherlock Holmes's best friend, who was also his biographer and assistant in particularly dangerous cases. Their friendship is very strong and they remain friends throughout their lives. Holmes even says that he would be "lost without his Boswell," a reference to the famous 18th-century biographer Samuel Johnson. However, although Holmes appreciated Watson's medical knowledge and knew that he would always come to his aid in difficult times, he never completely trusted the doctor. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes asks Watson to observe what is happening in Baskerville Hall, but then heads to the swamp himself because he does not trust his friend. Moreover, he does not even inform Watson that he came to the same place where the Doctor was already. Also, in the story “Sherlock Holmes is Dying” (The Adventure of the Dying Detective), the detective pretends to be sick with a deadly disease, because he believes that Watson would not be able to keep the secret that this is just a pretense. Although Holmes claims that he respects Watson's professional qualities, the fact that he did not believe that the doctor could play along with him does not paint the detective in the best light.

6. Odd manners

Misconception: Holmes dressed eccentrically and was sloppy

Not all film adaptations feature this myth, but the latest film adaptation, starring Robert Downey Jr., portrays this misconception to its fullest extent. Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes wears super eccentric clothes that don't fit him and gives off the image of a man with poor hygiene. However, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes is described as a man who takes care of his hygiene like a cat. He wears traditional, conservative clothing for his time and has always been described as an incredibly clean man. The same story tells that, despite the fact that Sherlock Holmes lived in an old hut on a swamp, during the investigation he remained clean and tidy - he even specially arranged for fresh bed linen and clothes to be brought there for him.

5. Cap and snorkel

Misconception: Holmes is always pictured wearing a deerstalker's hat and smoking a gourd pipe.

The popular image of Holmes wearing a deer hunter's hat and smoking pipe is so common that these accessories are considered an integral part of the detective. However, this is fiction. The cap and pipe combination was invented for the theater and was never used by Sherlock in the books. The gourd pipe (calabash) was first used by the actor in one of the first productions of the play about Sherlock Holmes. The actor chose it because the receiver could be easily held on his chest while he was talking. In the books, Holmes used a completely different pipe. This may seem like a nitpick, but it was worth mentioning because the deerstalker hat/calabash combination has become synonymous with Holmes and detective stories in general.

4. Middle age

Misconception: Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes - middle-aged gentlemen

In popular culture, Sherlock Holmes and his friend Doctor Watson are portrayed as sophisticated, middle-aged men. This mistake can be easily explained, because Dr. Watson had already been in the war and was a skilled doctor, and Holmes managed to gain a brilliant reputation. However, Holmes and Watson were actually quite young - in most stories they are just over 25 years old. Holmes and Watson are close in age: Sherlock is believed to have been born in 1854 and met the Doctor in 1881. Most of their adventures happened in the early years after they became friends, which means they were quite young - they were no more than 30 years old. The explanation for how they could achieve such heights at such a young age is simple: they were both outstanding young men. Although Dr. Watson is overshadowed by his friend, he was a good professional, had a brilliant mind and performed well during the war.

3. Short things

Misconception: Holmes did not spend more than a couple of months solving the case and ended his career at a relatively young age

There is a grain of truth in this: Sherlock did solve most crimes with unimaginable speed. And he planned to end his career at a young age. Holmes "retired" and began studying bees and even published a book, which he called his "great work", containing his observations collected while breeding bees. However, the government had a problem: there were information leaks in the government, they were losing agents and could not understand who was behind it. After several high-ranking officials asked him about it, Holmes finally agreed to take on the investigation of this case, which is described in the story “His Farewell Bow.” As a result, Holmes finds the German secret agent who was causing all the trouble and invites Doctor Watson to the final act. He tells Doctor Watson that his plan to capture a German agent was so complicated that he had to join a secret Irish society in America for two years - all in order to defeat one agent. It's safe to say that Holmes' work was incredibly thorough.

2. Irene Adler

Misconception: Sherlock Holmes loved Irene Adler

The creators of many films and television series believed that in order to make their works more interesting for viewers to watch, it was necessary to add a romantic storyline. You could see a dramatized example of this in films starring Robert Downey Jr., who played a bisexual, eccentric playboy in love with both Irene Adler and his friend Doctor Watson. The storyline about falling in love with Irene Adler is perfect, isn't it? Well, except that there was no love. Irene Adler is only mentioned in one story, A Scandal in Bohemia, and the only thing she says to Sherlock as she passes him is: "Good night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." Sherlock later describes her as a "Woman with a capital W", but only because she was the only woman who in any way surpassed him. He respected her for her intelligence, but did not regard her as a romantic interest, and she was never seen again in the books. If you need further proof, Arthur Conan Doyle described Sherlock Holmes as "inhuman, like Babbage's Analytical Engine" and believed that his famous detective was not interested in love.

1. Professor Moriarty

Misconception: Professor James Moriarty was his nemesis

Despite the popular belief drilled into us by many television series and films, Professor Moriarty was not Sherlock Holmes's worst enemy. Moreover, Moriarty appears in only one story - “The Final Problem”. He was also mentioned in passing in the story "The Valley of Fear" - he provided advice to other criminals for a fee. Apart from their famous battle at the Reichenbach Falls, the books do not record any violent confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty. In fact, Arthur Conan Doyle was tired of the Sherlock Holmes character and wanted to move on to other projects, so he simply created a conflict between Moriarty and Holmes to kill off his most famous hero. However, fans of the books were so outraged by this that the author had to reluctantly resurrect Holmes. It is unlikely that there has ever been another character so beloved by the people that people wore black bands on their arms to mourn his death.