Why Sherlock Holmes Endures

Dorothy Sayers, in her introduction to the anthology “Omnibus of Crime,” described the first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet” (1887), as “flung like a bombshell” into the mystery genre.

A very small bombshell, it must be said — the book sold only modestly. This was followed in 1889 by “The Sign of Four,” also only a modest success.

In July 1891, however, an explosion went off that is still felt almost 125 years later.

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The first of a series of 12 short stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson appeared in the Strand Magazine — these would be followed over the years by 44 more stories and two more novels — and the reading public went wild for the Great Detective and the Good Doctor.

It led the way to Western culture’s obsession with the super-sleuth, a mania with no sign of slowing down. We’ll soon see “Sherlock: Chronicles,” a Wednesday book release covering Benedict Cumberbatch’s take on the iconic character and 2015’s indie hit “Mr. Holmes” on Blu-ray Nov. 10.

By 1893, after 24 stories, Sherlock Holmes’s career was apparently over: “The Final Problem,” appearing in December 1893, reported that Holmes had perished at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland at the hands of his arch nemesis Professor James Moriarty.

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With the demise of Holmes, the Strand rushed to fill its pages with imitations of Holmes. These were eccentric detectives of every stripe, amusing but mostly long-forgotten today. This did nothing, however, to slake the public’s appetite for more Holmes.

At nearly the same time as the Strand was informing the public that no more of Dr. Watson’s adventures would appear in its pages, Sherlock Holmes appeared on the London stage, in a one-act burlesque called “Under the Clock.”

To date, well over 200 Sherlock Holmes films and more than 700 radio shows have been produced.

A few months later, the first real Sherlock Holmes play, penned by Charles Rogers, was performed in Glasgow and toured extensively for a few years.

In 1899, however, permission was granted to the American actor William Gillette to write a play based on several published stories. Gillette toured in the role for 30 years, and his visage became the public face of Sherlock Holmes, so much so that when stories began to appear in 1903 in Cosmopolitan in the U.S., the American artist Frederic Dorr Steele drew images of Gillette as Holmes.

Meanwhile, Holmes jumped to another medium. The first serious Holmesian film was the 1905 Vitagraph production entitled “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or Held for a Ransom.” More than 100 additional silent films starring Holmes were produced, and in 1929, Clive Brooks played the detective in the early “talkie” titled “The Return of Sherlock Holmes.”

Holmes was no stranger to radio either, with a recording made in 1930 of “The Speckled Band” (starring Gillette, of course).

To date, well over 200 Sherlock Holmes films and more than 700 radio shows have been produced. There have been five English-language television series, as well as Czech and Russian series.

Holmes and Watson have not been neglected in other media. Scholars estimate that over 7,000 “pastiches” — stories in the style of the originals — and parodies featuring the duo have been published. These include works by authors contemporary with the original adventures, such as Mark Twain, James Barrie, and A. A. Milne, and modern, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Michael Connelly and Sara Paretsky.

They come in the form of mysteries, romance, thrillers, science fiction, Westerns, comedy, horror and even erotica. Hundreds of different comic strips and comic books have portrayed the duo. Manga or anime versions of the Detective and the Doctor are very popular in Japan and elsewhere.

Curiously, the line between fiction and reality blurred almost immediately for Holmes readers. As early as “The Sign of Four,” Arthur Conan Doyle reported receiving a letter from a Philadelphia tobacconist, requesting a copy of Holmes’s monograph on tobacco ashes. In 1901, something must have been in the air, for no less than three separate articles appeared, in England, Canada, and the U.S., from three unrelated writers, taking Holmes—not the author of the tales—to task for mistakes in his handling of certain cases.

Later, a new generation of fans of the stories took this point of view as their credo: Holmes and Watson really lived, and Watson’s stories were true, if distorted, accounts of historical events. This point of view has become known as the “Game,” and Dorothy Sayers averred that it must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord’s.

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Today, interest in Holmes seems to be at a cyclical high. Two television series are airing, with very different takes on the character (though both, curiously, are set in modern day). The BBC “Sherlock” series emphasizes the sexy, aloof detective and his relationship with Dr. Watson. The series draws heavily from Canonical sources, including a nearly maniacal Moriarty, and delights in “Easter eggs” for Sherlockians.

In contrast, CBS’s “Elementary” focuses on Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and examines his ordeal as a recovering drug addict and obsessive-compulsive detective and the painful nature of his relationships with a female Watson (Lucy Liu), other protégés, his family, women and fellow addicts.

Interest in Holmes seems to be at a cyclical high.

The criminous aspects of the show are more in the nature of police procedurals. Occasionally, the series links to the original, but only as almost “inside jokes,” never retelling an actual Doyle story.

In addition to the two fine television shows, there are various films. Ian McKellen’s “Mr. Holmes” is based on Mitch Cullin’s 2004 novel “A Slight Trick of the Mind” and is a loving look at Holmes’s confrontation with his own humanity. Warner Bros.’s “Sherlock Holmes” franchise features a quirky, action-oriented Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and a stalwart Watson (Jude Law). A third film in the saga is in discussion.

Other developing films have been reported, including a remake of 1985’s “Young Sherlock Holmes” and a comedic Holmes project from Judd Apatow.

And of course there continue to be new books. Amidst dozens of pastiches published annually, mostly by small presses, the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd., a company controlled by distant relatives of Conan Doyle, licensed “authorized” sequels to the original stories, written by Anthony Horowitz and published by major publishers.

Why, more than 125 years after Holmes walked into the spotlight, does public interest endure?

Some suggest that the lure is nostalgia for the Victorian age, a time perceived to be calm, orderly, when all was right with the world. Even if this were true — and the Victorian age was messy and contradictory, rank with social injustice — it hardly explains the popularity of modern incarnations of Holmes.

Holmes is a knight-errant, a lone warrior, and we are grateful that he exists.

Others suggest that Holmes is a superhero, able to leap tall buildings (well, not literally) with the power of his brain. He certainly is always the smartest person in the room, in total command of virtually every situation, and that “power” has special appeal, because it seems attainable to all of us — if only we paid attention better, thought a little harder.

My personal view is that we admire, and think we want to emulate, his most prominent feature: his “outsider” status. Holmes is focused solely on the pursuit of justice, even as he dresses up this pursuit as the solution of “problems.” This focus costs him the warmth of family and friends — Watson really is his only companion — and leaves him prickly, difficult, often unhappy.

He stands apart from society, from the pressures of work, the demands of family and friends, and does only what he has to do. Holmes is a knight-errant, a lone warrior, and we are grateful that he exists. That loneliness and his single-minded nature is the center of not only the two current television series but also the McKellen film. Each recognizes that gifted as Holmes is, and as important as what he does may be, he pays a high price for those gifts, with only one real friend (the McKellen film suggests that even Watson does not truly know him) and the constant burden of seeing more than others do.

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“Down these mean streets a man must go,” wrote Raymond Chandler, in defining the ideal private detective.

Many Holmeses have appeared in our books and played on our stages and screens, reassuring us that there is such a man, who will protect us from the beasts and divine the unknown for us. Previous generations have been content with such knowledge, but today, we are no longer satisfied with merely thrilling adventure stories or tantalizing puzzles.

Rather, as Michael Connelly reportedly said about contemporary mysteries, “it’s not about how the cop works the case, but how the case works the cop.” Today, we insist that our Sherlock Holmes be examined as well. Perhaps the current portrayals of Holmes show him to be less than a superhero, but if we see the burdens he bears, is he not an even greater hero?

Leslie S. Klinger is among the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes. He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars and served as the Series Editor for the Manuscript Series of The Baker Street Irregulars. He served three terms as chapter president of the Southern California Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and on its national board.