In the annals of popular fiction, no character has escaped the gravitational pull of their creator quite like Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle, a man who grew to resent his own invention, famously attempted to kill the detective at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893. The public outcry was unprecedented: young men wore black mourning bands, a noblewoman allegedly insulted Conan Doyle on the street, and the Strand Magazine lost over 20,000 subscribers. Conan Doyle had created a monster—not a monster of horror, but one of logic. One so vivid, so intellectually seductive, that the real world refused to let him die.
The Holmes canon has been adapted more times than any other character in history (Guinness World Records). From the silent films of 1916 to the BBC’s Sherlock (2010-2017), from Basil Rathbone’s wartime propaganda to Robert Downey Jr.’s action-hero, each era reinvents Holmes in its own image. holmes series
An infamous attempt by Conan Doyle to kill off Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls to focus on "more serious" literature, though public outcry forced his eventual resurrection. Defining "Holmesness": Character and Method In the annals of popular fiction, no character
I was aghast. "You mean to say that you are responsible for this poison?" Conan Doyle had created a monster—not a monster
I smiled, though he could not see me. It was impossible to conceal one's thoughts from Holmes.