The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes | Free Documentary History
概要
TLDRThis documentary explores the complex relationship between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes, highlighting how Doyle's own life experiences influenced the character. It discusses Doyle's internal struggles with the character's overwhelming popularity, leading to his decision to kill Holmes off, a choice that provoked public outrage. The film investigates the darker influences of Doyle's childhood, including familial alcoholism and societal issues of the Victorian era, that shaped Holmes's traits. Despite his attempts to move on from Holmes, Doyle's literary legacy endured as Holmes became a cultural phenomenon, reflecting the detective's resonance in society and the celebration of intellect and deduction.
収穫
- 🕵️♂️ Sherlock Holmes emerged from a mix of influences in Conan Doyle's life.
- 📚 Doyle's decision to kill Holmes stemmed from feeling overshadowed by the character's popularity.
- 😱 The public's emotional response to Holmes's death caused widespread outrage.
- 💡 Doyle's personal struggles with addiction and family influenced Holmes's character traits.
- 🏺 The character of Holmes represents a celebration of intellect and deduction.
- 🌍 Holmes has shaped the modern detective genre and remains a cultural icon today.
- 🖊️ Doyle's relationship with Holmes was complex, reflecting both admiration and frustration.
- ⚖️ The detective stories provided a reflection of societal issues in the Victorian era.
- 🤝 Holmes's partnership with Watson set the standard for future detective duos.
- ⚔️ Doyle sought to be remembered for more than Holmes but ultimately found immortality through his creation.
タイムライン
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
Arthur Conan Doyle created the iconic character Sherlock Holmes, becoming the highest paid author of his time. However, despite Holmes's immense popularity, Doyle abruptly ended the series in 1891, raising questions about his motivations for killing off a character that had become a national obsession.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Doyle's personal experiences and troubled relationship with his own life may have influenced his decision. Observations suggest he embedded inconsistencies into the stories, potentially as a form of emotional expression or self-revelation about his life.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Doyle's love-hate relationship with Holmes is explored, as well as the recognizable traits Holmes shared with various people in Doyle's life, hinting at deeper truths about Doyle's character and inspirations for Sherlock Holmes beyond literary invention.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
While Holmes is famously associated with London, it is Edinburgh where Doyle grew up, and the influences of his life there likely shaped his ideas. The darker aspects of Doyle's family background bear resemblance to elements present in Holmes's stories.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
Doyle's early life, marked by instability due to his father's alcoholism and his family's socio-economic struggles, left a significant imprint on his writing, especially concerning themes of addiction and violence that recur throughout Holmes's tales.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The character of Holmes is further shaped by Doyle’s experiences in medical school, particularly by Dr. Joseph Bell, whose keen observation skills served as a model for Sherlock's deductive reasoning. Bell's authoritative presence greatly influenced how Holmes's character was constructed.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
While Dr. Bell provided inspiration, darker figures, like Dr. Brian Charles Waller, also left a mark on Holmes's character, suggesting a blend of various influences that created the complex detective we know today.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Holmes embodies struggles with addiction and mood disorders that reflect Doyle's early life challenges, including familial instability and the societal pressures of Victorian England.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
The Victorian era’s tension between stability and fear of social upheaval framed the stories, where Holmes serves as a reassuring figure for readers amidst a rapidly changing world, made worse by tragedies like the Jack the Ripper murders.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:00
Doyle's writing process led to his fame and fortune but came with frustration as he sought to pursue more serious literature beyond detective fiction. Ultimately, Doyle found himself overwhelmed, which influenced his desire to end Holmes's narrative seemingly in a bid for creative liberation.
- 00:50:00 - 00:58:05
Despite Doyle’s attempts to dispose of Holmes, the detective’s popularity surged, causing public outcry when Doyle initially killed him off. This phenomenon led to Doyle unwittingly becoming a prisoner of his own creation, resulting in the resurrection of Holmes to satisfy public demand.
マインドマップ
ビデオQ&A
Why did Arthur Conan Doyle kill off Sherlock Holmes?
Doyle was overwhelmed by Holmes's popularity and sought to pursue more serious literary ambitions.
What influenced the creation of Sherlock Holmes?
Holmes was influenced by several people from Doyle's life, including his medical professor Dr. Joseph Bell and others with darker traits.
How did the public react to Holmes's death?
The public was distraught, some wearing black armbands in mourning as they believed Holmes was real.
What led to the revival of Sherlock Holmes?
Doyle later revived Holmes due to public demand and the success of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
What elements from Doyle's life appear in the Holmes stories?
Elements like alcoholism, drug addiction, and family dynamics are reflected in Holmes's character.
What is the legacy of Sherlock Holmes?
Holmes remains one of the most iconic literary figures, influencing modern detective fiction and pop culture.
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- 00:00:04sherlock holmes was a phenomenon of his
- 00:00:06age
- 00:00:08his creator arthur conan doyle became
- 00:00:10the highest paid author of his
- 00:00:12generation
- 00:00:13and from the stories forged a new form
- 00:00:16of popular fiction
- 00:00:18and yet having produced such a character
- 00:00:20beloved by a nation
- 00:00:22in 1891 at the height of his popularity
- 00:00:25his creator brought the series to an
- 00:00:27abrupt end
- 00:00:34[Music]
- 00:00:39why get rid of sherlock holmes the
- 00:00:42stories were actually reflecting
- 00:00:44his own life much more perhaps
- 00:00:47than we realized and he may have been a
- 00:00:50little worried that he was giving away
- 00:00:51rather too much
- 00:00:52the character of sherlock holmes
- 00:00:54undoubtedly um took over canada's life
- 00:00:56and it irritated condole immensely he
- 00:00:59decided he would do the ultimate
- 00:01:01to his character and well kill him off
- 00:01:05it has been suggested more than once
- 00:01:08that the inconsistencies in the stories
- 00:01:11were deliberately put in by the author
- 00:01:14as a sort of code leading to
- 00:01:17some sort of revelation
- 00:01:21an investigation of conan doyle's
- 00:01:23relationship with sherlock holmes
- 00:01:25asks more questions than it answers was
- 00:01:28there something disturbing behind the
- 00:01:30story of his
- 00:01:31invention what made a young doctor from
- 00:01:34edinburgh
- 00:01:34produce this giant of a literary
- 00:01:36character a character that has been
- 00:01:38performed
- 00:01:39and portrayed more than any ever created
- 00:01:43this is a journey into the world of
- 00:01:45conan doyle
- 00:01:47to discover the truth behind his
- 00:01:49love-hate relationship for the detective
- 00:01:51creation that would become his most
- 00:01:53valuable meal ticket
- 00:01:55we'll investigate the untold story of
- 00:01:58the relationship between the man
- 00:01:59and his creation and asked the question
- 00:02:02what was it that made him determined to
- 00:02:04kill off the character who had dominated
- 00:02:06his life for so long in one dramatic
- 00:02:12[Music]
- 00:02:20episode
- 00:02:22[Music]
- 00:02:23we're going to track down the people and
- 00:02:25the influences that lay behind the
- 00:02:27creation
- 00:02:28of what is without doubt literature's
- 00:02:30most enduring
- 00:02:32fictional character and we're going to
- 00:02:35ask the question
- 00:02:36why having created such a successful and
- 00:02:39acclaimed detective
- 00:02:41why does his creator sir arthur conan
- 00:02:43doyle
- 00:02:44become anxious to kill off his creation
- 00:02:49why would conan doyle want to rid
- 00:02:51himself of the character of sherlock
- 00:02:53holmes
- 00:02:54didn't he in fact give away more of
- 00:02:56himself than he meant to
- 00:02:58through the adventures of his famous
- 00:03:00character what was he revealing about
- 00:03:02his own life
- 00:03:03and does this fictional murder reveal a
- 00:03:06darker side
- 00:03:07to an untold story behind the legend
- 00:03:11it's possible that the world's greatest
- 00:03:13detective is based on a cocktail of
- 00:03:16disturbing influences in the author's
- 00:03:18early life
- 00:03:19well i'm absolutely convinced myself
- 00:03:20that yes indeed sherlock holmes is based
- 00:03:23on a real
- 00:03:24character to a large extent when you're
- 00:03:26doing your first novel
- 00:03:28you generally want to base it on either
- 00:03:30yourself or somebody you know very well
- 00:03:32he's also been described as not so much
- 00:03:34a character as a collection of
- 00:03:36characteristics
- 00:03:37but it's those characteristics which
- 00:03:39bring him to life
- 00:03:41dr watson does write of him in
- 00:03:44convincing detail does this therefore
- 00:03:47mean
- 00:03:47that there's a lot of a real person in
- 00:03:50him well
- 00:03:52actually yes it probably does the sense
- 00:03:54of a real person in the sherlock holmes
- 00:03:57character
- 00:03:57is what leads many to this day to
- 00:03:59believe that he really existed
- 00:04:01[Music]
- 00:04:06well i've just left faker street station
- 00:04:07and i'm walking along one of the most
- 00:04:09famous streets in the world
- 00:04:10baker street in london and here on the
- 00:04:13left is one of the world's best known
- 00:04:14addresses
- 00:04:15221b baker street
- 00:04:19this is the address conan doyle gave to
- 00:04:21his character and where people
- 00:04:23despite him being fictional still come
- 00:04:26today caught up in the myth
- 00:04:30condole once said that he'd never been
- 00:04:32to london when he started writing the
- 00:04:34sherlock holmes stories
- 00:04:36in fact he had been to london when he
- 00:04:39was a boy of about
- 00:04:40seven or eight as a child he visited
- 00:04:44family in london and they went
- 00:04:47to visit he records it in letters to his
- 00:04:49mother they went to visit madame
- 00:04:51tussauds
- 00:04:52which at that time was not in marylebone
- 00:04:54road it was in baker street
- 00:04:57if you go to his library you will find
- 00:04:59tourist map of london
- 00:05:01and from that i very much suspect he
- 00:05:03just picked a street at random
- 00:05:05and said this is where my my character
- 00:05:07will live
- 00:05:10in truth there never actually was a 221b
- 00:05:12baker street albeit today
- 00:05:14here on the west side of the street
- 00:05:15there is a museum dedicated to sherlock
- 00:05:17holmes
- 00:05:18but in all honesty the address the
- 00:05:21location
- 00:05:22the rooms even the bay window from which
- 00:05:24homes and watson would look down
- 00:05:26on the daily traffic along baker street
- 00:05:28were a pure fiction
- 00:05:29created by dr arthur conan doyle
- 00:05:35the story of conan doyle's own life and
- 00:05:38his path to the creation of homes
- 00:05:40is in itself something of an enigma and
- 00:05:43one which leads
- 00:05:44400 miles north of london where the
- 00:05:46stories are set
- 00:05:47to edinburgh scotland's capital city
- 00:05:52the thing is everyone thinks of sherlock
- 00:05:54holmes as being a london character
- 00:05:57obviously these adventures are written
- 00:05:59for the streets of london but it's in
- 00:06:00fact these streets that we're walking in
- 00:06:02now
- 00:06:02the streets of edinburgh that really did
- 00:06:04provide in many ways
- 00:06:06the original back cloth against which
- 00:06:08conodor wrote the adventures
- 00:06:11these streets the streets of the
- 00:06:13infamous murderers burke and hare of
- 00:06:14deacon brody
- 00:06:15of major weir characters who influenced
- 00:06:19robert lewis stevenson's creation of dr
- 00:06:21jekyll and mr hyde
- 00:06:23so it's here in the streets of edinburgh
- 00:06:26that sherlock holmes was born
- 00:06:31vernon doyle's early life was turbulent
- 00:06:34and unsettled
- 00:06:35and more little resemblance to the
- 00:06:37well-off ordered world of his london
- 00:06:39gentleman detective
- 00:06:43cannondale was born here in edinburgh in
- 00:06:45piketty place where we're now standing
- 00:06:47on the 22nd of may 1859. he was the
- 00:06:50third child and eldest son
- 00:06:51of charles and mary conan doyle
- 00:06:57his family were of anglo-irish catholic
- 00:06:59descent
- 00:07:00and not particularly well off his father
- 00:07:03charles ultimate doyle a talented artist
- 00:07:06was a chronic alcoholic
- 00:07:08suffering from depression and epilepsy
- 00:07:11charles anthony was a fantastic artist
- 00:07:16wonderful drawings like all sorts of
- 00:07:19fairies and spirits emanating from the
- 00:07:22spire of saint giles cathedral
- 00:07:25he was epileptic and alcohol had a very
- 00:07:29fast and very debilitating effect upon
- 00:07:31him
- 00:07:32sometimes quite frightful he would try
- 00:07:34to sell his clothes
- 00:07:36he would sell anything at the house to
- 00:07:38get drink the mother would find herself
- 00:07:40bringing home
- 00:07:42virtually an inert corpse who sometimes
- 00:07:45could become violent
- 00:07:48you do find the theme of drunkenness
- 00:07:51constantly
- 00:07:52coming into the stories sometimes
- 00:07:54drunkenness accompanying great brutality
- 00:08:00one story in particular which turns on
- 00:08:02an alcoholic husband who murders his
- 00:08:04wife
- 00:08:05and her lover may have been all too
- 00:08:08closely reminiscent
- 00:08:09of the tragedy of common doyle's own
- 00:08:11early life from that of his parents
- 00:08:21in short mr holmes you would go far
- 00:08:30[Music]
- 00:08:33the alcoholic husband
- 00:08:37turns up time and again in the sherlock
- 00:08:40holmes stories
- 00:08:41it's possibly the most obvious
- 00:08:44effect of his own family life on
- 00:08:48the sherlock holmes stories
- 00:08:51charles doyle ended his days in
- 00:08:54a sanatorium
- 00:09:00throughout his childhood the family
- 00:09:02moved from address to address as their
- 00:09:03financial situation
- 00:09:04and charles's condition are deteriorated
- 00:09:11doyle's mother mary was desperate to
- 00:09:13keep the young arthur away from his
- 00:09:15father's destabilizing influence
- 00:09:18in 1868 the nine-year-old doyle was sent
- 00:09:22to a jesuit boarding school in england
- 00:09:24his family
- 00:09:25were devout catholics he grew up
- 00:09:29with the catholic faith ringing in his
- 00:09:31ears and he was educated
- 00:09:33at harder and stonyhurst which would
- 00:09:36jesuit schools
- 00:09:39but another particular influence on him
- 00:09:43was his mother's tales of
- 00:09:46chivalry she regaled her children with
- 00:09:50stories
- 00:09:50of knights and fair maidens and
- 00:09:54conan doyle's legendary chivalry is
- 00:09:57recounted by his own children
- 00:10:00while appealing to the imaginative side
- 00:10:02of the future writer
- 00:10:03these heroic fantasies may also have
- 00:10:05been an escape for the young conan doyle
- 00:10:07from the reality of his own harsher
- 00:10:09environment
- 00:10:10conan doyle had been brought up quite
- 00:10:13poor
- 00:10:14and he was the leader of a street gang
- 00:10:15in edinburgh he brought that in in one
- 00:10:17of the earliest church home stories
- 00:10:19for the baker's treated regulars in an
- 00:10:21effort to provide for his family he
- 00:10:23applied for a place in edinburgh to
- 00:10:25study medicine
- 00:10:26while his application was successful he
- 00:10:28was far from the typical student
- 00:10:31while studying medicine at the
- 00:10:32university of edinburgh conon doyle
- 00:10:34lodged here in
- 00:10:35george square now surrounded by
- 00:10:36university buildings in fact they still
- 00:10:38have a plaque on the wall here that
- 00:10:39commemorates his tenure
- 00:10:41he left here in 1880 to embark upon the
- 00:10:44greatest adventure of his young life an
- 00:10:47adventure that he later recalled
- 00:10:49would turn him into a man
- 00:10:52it was drilled into him you must do well
- 00:10:54he must go into profession
- 00:10:56and what better profession to go into
- 00:10:57than a doctor because you'll be
- 00:10:59comfortable for the rest of your life
- 00:11:01and i
- 00:11:02i mean he always said he hated stony
- 00:11:03house he didn't particularly like
- 00:11:05edinburgh
- 00:11:05university and he regarded it more of a
- 00:11:08drudgery to get through it but he didn't
- 00:11:10actually particularly
- 00:11:11like the work and didn't find it
- 00:11:12particularly easy either although still
- 00:11:14studying
- 00:11:15on the morning of february 28 1880
- 00:11:18conan doyle joined the crew of the
- 00:11:20greenland whaler
- 00:11:22hope on a voyage of several months in
- 00:11:24the dangerous occupation of seal and
- 00:11:26whale hunting
- 00:11:30he returned to edinburgh with a 50 pound
- 00:11:32share of the crew's profits
- 00:11:34this period of his life was to have a
- 00:11:36profound effect on the young man
- 00:11:39i went on board the winner a big
- 00:11:41struggling youth
- 00:11:43came off a powerful well man
- 00:11:46um he certainly didn't pass you know out
- 00:11:48of edinburgh with with flying colours
- 00:11:50he was rejected for every single
- 00:11:52hospital appointment he went for
- 00:11:53i was forced almost to go on whaling
- 00:11:55ships and so on to earn his money
- 00:11:57because there's only a certain type of
- 00:11:58person who would go on a waiting ship to
- 00:12:00this you know austere
- 00:12:02uh hard life that he was
- 00:12:05with these very different life
- 00:12:07experiences under his belt
- 00:12:08he returned to edinburgh to resume his
- 00:12:11studies at the medical school
- 00:12:12he could have no idea that his time here
- 00:12:15was to give him the inspiration for the
- 00:12:17creation of homes
- 00:12:18[Music]
- 00:12:19it was commonplace for students to
- 00:12:21undertake extramural studies
- 00:12:23which conan dole did in the course of
- 00:12:25those studies he encountered the man
- 00:12:27who more than any other become a true
- 00:12:30inspiration
- 00:12:31for the character of sherlock holmes and
- 00:12:33that man
- 00:12:34was dr joseph bell he first met
- 00:12:38bell because he taught colin doyle
- 00:12:41clinical
- 00:12:41surgery at edinburgh university he was a
- 00:12:44very popular
- 00:12:46surgeon there he'd have packed audiences
- 00:12:49of the students
- 00:12:50and not only would he uh show them the
- 00:12:52surgery techniques
- 00:12:53but he'd make various deductions and
- 00:12:55observations
- 00:12:56about the the people he was dealing with
- 00:13:00it was noted by many who knew bell that
- 00:13:02the eminent lecturers physical
- 00:13:04attributes were remarkably similar to
- 00:13:05those of the fictional sherlock holmes
- 00:13:09conan doyle has recorded his
- 00:13:12memories of bell who was
- 00:13:15thin high nosed
- 00:13:18eagle faced and had a jerky way of
- 00:13:21walking and a high
- 00:13:23strident voice well holmes's voice
- 00:13:26isn't mentioned in descriptive terms
- 00:13:30very often but when you
- 00:13:31go back to the stories it is described
- 00:13:34as a high strident voice just like
- 00:13:36joseph bell
- 00:13:38many of sherlock holmes's other
- 00:13:40characteristics seem to relate directly
- 00:13:42back to bell
- 00:13:44the character of the poet sportsman and
- 00:13:47bird watcher
- 00:13:51however most significantly in relation
- 00:13:53to sherlock holmes
- 00:13:54there is also the fundamental feature of
- 00:13:56his famously brilliant diagnostic mind
- 00:14:01joe bell was not just a medical
- 00:14:04diagnostician
- 00:14:06which he was brilliant at he was also
- 00:14:09a master of looking at a person
- 00:14:13and being able to tell their trade
- 00:14:17their place of residence their status in
- 00:14:20life
- 00:14:21sherlock holmes is best known for his
- 00:14:23deductive
- 00:14:24reasoning and that was something very
- 00:14:27much that came from konando's medical
- 00:14:28training
- 00:14:29joseph bell is known to have used that
- 00:14:32sort of
- 00:14:33argument he would look at clues from
- 00:14:35just seeing the complaints
- 00:14:37and things about the patient bell could
- 00:14:39work out a lot about his background
- 00:14:43doyle probably first met bell
- 00:14:47now in 1878 at
- 00:14:50a clinical surgery outpatient
- 00:14:53class the students were present and the
- 00:14:57first
- 00:14:58patient was shown in before the patient
- 00:15:01could open his mouth
- 00:15:03bill said to the patient ah my man
- 00:15:07i see you have been in the army
- 00:15:12not long discharged uh non-commissioned
- 00:15:15officer highland regiment
- 00:15:17recently stationed in barbados
- 00:15:20and when asked you know how on earth he
- 00:15:22could know all of these things bell says
- 00:15:24you see gentlemen
- 00:15:25the man was respectful but did not
- 00:15:27remove his hat
- 00:15:28they do not do that in the army but he
- 00:15:30would have learned civilian ways had he
- 00:15:32not long been discharged
- 00:15:33he has an air of authority and he is
- 00:15:35obviously scottish
- 00:15:37as to barbados his complaint is
- 00:15:39elephantitis
- 00:15:40which is west indian and not british
- 00:15:42[Music]
- 00:15:46well the students of course love this
- 00:15:49performance well that's what it was
- 00:15:52this was him showing them how to be
- 00:15:55observant
- 00:15:56doyle remembered all that and noted it
- 00:15:59down and
- 00:16:00came to use it years and years later
- 00:16:02when he created sherlock holmes
- 00:16:07although elements of bell are clearly in
- 00:16:09holmes's behavior
- 00:16:10and conan doyle seems to have
- 00:16:12acknowledged this in a letter he wrote
- 00:16:14to his old professor
- 00:16:16there is ample evidence that holmes is
- 00:16:18also influenced
- 00:16:19by other people he encountered during
- 00:16:21his student life
- 00:16:22[Music]
- 00:16:23but he actually embodied several people
- 00:16:26especially
- 00:16:27in the very early stages he drew on
- 00:16:29these several people to make homes but
- 00:16:31after he'd drawn on them
- 00:16:33holmes began to move by himself
- 00:16:38we're here in dean cemetery some
- 00:16:40distance from the center of edinburgh
- 00:16:42and the university's medical faculty and
- 00:16:45over by a boundary wall of the cemetery
- 00:16:47is the grave of dr joseph bell to whom
- 00:16:50conan dole said
- 00:16:51he owed sherlock holmes homicidal
- 00:16:54scholars would seem to be in agreement
- 00:16:56because in all honesty the only real
- 00:16:57similarity between
- 00:16:58sherlock holmes and dr joseph bell is
- 00:17:01holmes's amazing
- 00:17:02ability for deduction so the benign
- 00:17:06character of bell
- 00:17:07may not have been the strongest
- 00:17:08influence in the creation of sherlock
- 00:17:10holmes
- 00:17:12looking further into conan doyle's life
- 00:17:14more disturbing influences behind the
- 00:17:16character begin to emerge
- 00:17:19is there a darker side to this story
- 00:17:24[Music]
- 00:17:26well in 1875 a man by the name of dr
- 00:17:30brian charles waller had become the
- 00:17:32door's lodger
- 00:17:33and seems to have been he that was
- 00:17:34influential in persuading conan dole
- 00:17:36to study medicine indeed brian charles
- 00:17:39waller
- 00:17:40would become one of the early influences
- 00:17:42for the real sherlock holmes
- 00:17:44sherlock holmes has a dark side to him
- 00:17:47it's been suggested that this is
- 00:17:50influenced by
- 00:17:51a man whom conan doyle must have known
- 00:17:55fairly well
- 00:17:56brian charles waller as the
- 00:18:00doyle's financial situation
- 00:18:03worsened due to charles doyle's heavy
- 00:18:07drinking
- 00:18:08the rent which waller paid to the doyle
- 00:18:12family
- 00:18:13no doubt saved them from the workhouse
- 00:18:16bran charles waller
- 00:18:17who was medical doctor of pathology and
- 00:18:20was seeking a
- 00:18:21place in the university and called
- 00:18:22himself a consulting pathologist
- 00:18:25and in fact conor doyle would use that
- 00:18:27initially to launch sherlock holmes
- 00:18:29that holmes was a consulting detective
- 00:18:31he was also
- 00:18:32a very bossy individual extremely full
- 00:18:35of himself
- 00:18:36quite sure that he knew the answers very
- 00:18:38rapid in his
- 00:18:39decisions and in certain ways so aware
- 00:18:43of how much he knew as to be positively
- 00:18:45dislikeable
- 00:18:46one of the important things that bran
- 00:18:48charles waller put into the character of
- 00:18:50sherlock holmes
- 00:18:51was the aspects of him which are not
- 00:18:53likable
- 00:18:54watson begins by disliking homes quite a
- 00:18:57good deal
- 00:18:58and is conquered by discovering that
- 00:19:00holmes actually isn't a charlatan
- 00:19:02that there is a great deal in his work
- 00:19:05dweller seems to have been
- 00:19:07quite a good doctor a good research
- 00:19:09doctor
- 00:19:10although as a commentator on other
- 00:19:12doctors he was vicious beyond belief
- 00:19:14and in fact holmes's rudeness about
- 00:19:17everybody
- 00:19:17from the creations of edgar allan poe to
- 00:19:20the scotland yard inspectors
- 00:19:21is very much taken from waller whether
- 00:19:24or not holmes was influenced
- 00:19:26by walla kernendoll's relationship with
- 00:19:28him appears to have been very complex
- 00:19:30and possibly disturbing for him
- 00:19:32i'm not sure that arthur conan doyle got
- 00:19:35on very well with
- 00:19:36walla he was a big big influence on the
- 00:19:39family
- 00:19:40what we do know definitely is that
- 00:19:44mary doyle conan doyle's mother after
- 00:19:47her husband died
- 00:19:48moved from edinburgh in fact was
- 00:19:51given a cottage in yorkshire
- 00:19:55on brian charles wallace estate
- 00:19:58he lived at the big house she lived in
- 00:19:59the cottage
- 00:20:01he may have been in love with conan
- 00:20:03doyle's elder sister
- 00:20:05there are some signs that he was he
- 00:20:06wrote a poem about her music
- 00:20:08but he may also have been in love with
- 00:20:11conan doyle's mother
- 00:20:13walla evidently got on very well
- 00:20:16with mrs doyle but
- 00:20:19another curious fact is that one of his
- 00:20:21sisters
- 00:20:23and mark this his sisters was named
- 00:20:26brian
- 00:20:27could it be that the waller influences
- 00:20:30in shawler cones
- 00:20:31were behind doyle's murder of his
- 00:20:33character but this was a fictional
- 00:20:35attempt
- 00:20:36to get rid of a disturbing aspect of his
- 00:20:38life
- 00:20:39it's conceivable that this could be one
- 00:20:41of the reasons behind the murder of
- 00:20:43sherlock holmes
- 00:20:51accusations of adultery may have been
- 00:20:54made
- 00:20:55whether there was anything to it is i
- 00:20:58think very doubtful but certainly
- 00:21:00conan doyle may have feared that there
- 00:21:02really was a physical relationship
- 00:21:04between his mother and bran charles
- 00:21:06waller and it certainly would account
- 00:21:08for it was resenting waller more and
- 00:21:09more
- 00:21:13[Applause]
- 00:21:15surely such family arrangements together
- 00:21:17with his father's incarceration in the
- 00:21:19asylum
- 00:21:20must have had a profound psychological
- 00:21:22effect on the younger
- 00:21:23conan doyle because of such early
- 00:21:26psychological experiences
- 00:21:28his father's descent walla's influence
- 00:21:31at the hardships of his early life
- 00:21:34conan doyle unsurprisingly brought
- 00:21:35darker elements to the character of
- 00:21:37homes that could be found
- 00:21:39disturbing holmes has been described as
- 00:21:43a manic depressive and there's
- 00:21:44there certainly is evidence for heavy
- 00:21:47mood swings in the stories
- 00:21:49a lot has been made of the fact that he
- 00:21:51took cocaine
- 00:21:53and occasionally morphine watson reports
- 00:21:56that when holmes was bored
- 00:21:58and his mind not challenged he took
- 00:22:00cocaine in a seven percent solution
- 00:22:03this was not a heavy dose but it was
- 00:22:05clearly enough to be habit-forming
- 00:22:07dr watson on several occasions warns
- 00:22:11homes
- 00:22:12against taking cocaine but he continued
- 00:22:15to do it
- 00:22:16oh yeah it's very dangerous substance
- 00:22:18and it'd be very quickly addictive to it
- 00:22:20this unsettling aspect of the home's
- 00:22:22character has many questioning the
- 00:22:24author's motives for representing his
- 00:22:26hero as flawed and fallible
- 00:22:28but the connections to his early life
- 00:22:30seem to emerge clearly
- 00:22:33there of course it's a euphemism for
- 00:22:35conor doyle's father's drink
- 00:22:37so for homes to be on cocaine not all
- 00:22:40together surprising
- 00:22:42[Music]
- 00:22:44the homes had a serious addiction all
- 00:22:46watson's descriptions of homes nervous
- 00:22:48activity
- 00:22:49makes clear the restlessness
- 00:22:52the ability to work for days without
- 00:22:54adequate sleep and even without rest at
- 00:22:56all abrupt changes of mood and equally
- 00:22:59abrupt descents
- 00:23:00into a comatose state old tend to
- 00:23:03suggest the extended use of a strong
- 00:23:06narcotic
- 00:23:09in addition to the psychological
- 00:23:11influences on the shaping of the
- 00:23:12sherlock holmes character
- 00:23:13there is also the society itself in
- 00:23:15which holmes is set and the stories
- 00:23:17unfold
- 00:23:18conan doyle could not have failed to be
- 00:23:20aware of the darker aspects of the time
- 00:23:23in which he lived
- 00:23:27victorian society in the late 19th
- 00:23:30century
- 00:23:31was faced apparently with success
- 00:23:34and yet with a constant fear of things
- 00:23:37going wrong
- 00:23:39the sherlock holmes stories are set
- 00:23:40between 1881 and 1903.
- 00:23:44during this time the latter part of the
- 00:23:46victorian period
- 00:23:47the british empire was at its zenith and
- 00:23:50london was the centre of all things
- 00:23:53however despite the apparent stability
- 00:23:55of the empire
- 00:23:56many felt this was the final chapter of
- 00:23:59an era
- 00:24:01there is a paradox about sherlock holmes
- 00:24:04what is the extraordinary quality that
- 00:24:06makes this eccentric 19th century
- 00:24:08victorian detective
- 00:24:09such a phenomenon what was it about him
- 00:24:11that so gripped the victorian public's
- 00:24:14imagination
- 00:24:16there seems to have been something in
- 00:24:17these stories that met a need in society
- 00:24:20as it entered the exciting different yet
- 00:24:22frightening world of the 20th century
- 00:24:24a century that threatened to pull apart
- 00:24:26the fabric of everything
- 00:24:27that was known and everything that had
- 00:24:29seemed certain
- 00:24:33readers of sherlock holmes short stories
- 00:24:35were drawn by the reassurance of the
- 00:24:37all-knowing detective
- 00:24:38who would always make things right in
- 00:24:40the end
- 00:24:42even then people were starting to get
- 00:24:45railways the london underground had
- 00:24:46started motorcar was coming in
- 00:24:49later on into the new century but the
- 00:24:51world of the sherlock holmes stories
- 00:24:53is gas light and handsome cabs
- 00:24:56trains yes steam trains but people
- 00:24:58aren't looking at modern technology
- 00:25:00and i think people were looking back to
- 00:25:02an earlier safer
- 00:25:04age when they were on the brink of
- 00:25:06really quite a social revolution
- 00:25:08the whom short stories took often became
- 00:25:11celebrated in the 1890s a time when
- 00:25:14london was mushrooming a tremendous
- 00:25:16speed and very
- 00:25:17frighteningly for the average reader of
- 00:25:20a magazine
- 00:25:21who would find within this magazine a
- 00:25:23series of stories
- 00:25:24about a man who could make sense out of
- 00:25:27an enormous
- 00:25:28howling metropolitan wilderness who
- 00:25:30worked on
- 00:25:31sound professional grounds and
- 00:25:33professionalism was coming in more and
- 00:25:34more
- 00:25:35somebody who wasn't official and the
- 00:25:37adventure
- 00:25:38the omniscience the professionalism
- 00:25:42the science all opening up an exciting
- 00:25:45new world
- 00:25:46while making sense of the frightening
- 00:25:47one that exists
- 00:25:49and so it was in the autumn of 1887
- 00:25:53prior to the arrival of jack the ripper
- 00:25:54on the streets of whitechapel the
- 00:25:56following year
- 00:25:58london was ready for the arrival of the
- 00:26:00brilliant but eccentric detective
- 00:26:02sherlock holmes certainly as far as
- 00:26:05villains were concerned the readers
- 00:26:07would be familiar
- 00:26:08from the press of people like jack the
- 00:26:10ripper and therefore had a belief in
- 00:26:13people with ultimate evil and the
- 00:26:15dreadful crimes that they could commit
- 00:26:16and they would draw upon these
- 00:26:18experiences when reading the sherlock
- 00:26:20holmes stories
- 00:26:21when when watson would write about
- 00:26:23people who was the worst man in london
- 00:26:25or
- 00:26:25you know an evil person and so on
- 00:26:30the dark and the light would have been
- 00:26:32the everyday fair for colin doyle
- 00:26:34now practicing as a junior doctor in
- 00:26:36south sea in southern england
- 00:26:38during the long wait for patients in its
- 00:26:40consulting room he did write stories and
- 00:26:42later recalled how he divided his time
- 00:26:45between his patients and literature it
- 00:26:48is hard to say
- 00:26:49which suffered most there is cannon
- 00:26:52doyle
- 00:26:53new in his medical practice in south sea
- 00:26:56not that many patients during the summer
- 00:26:58months
- 00:26:58mainly full in the winter months with
- 00:27:00cough and colds and that that sort of
- 00:27:01thing
- 00:27:02so during those long periods he started
- 00:27:03to write he wrote a few letters to
- 00:27:05newspapers and a few short articles
- 00:27:07but he had aspirations to write a novel
- 00:27:10after several early rejections
- 00:27:12holmes appeared for the first time in a
- 00:27:13200-page novel
- 00:27:15with the title a study in scarlet conan
- 00:27:17doyle found an unusual outlet for its
- 00:27:19debut
- 00:27:20the 1887 edition of the colorful
- 00:27:22beaton's christmas annual
- 00:27:24it was one of the highlights of the 1887
- 00:27:26annual and it was from there that he was
- 00:27:28approached by
- 00:27:30australian magazine to to go and
- 00:27:32actually
- 00:27:33make the sherlock holmes stories the
- 00:27:36home stories had come
- 00:27:37at the right time and the readership
- 00:27:39grew rapidly setting conan doyle and his
- 00:27:41creation on course to making publishing
- 00:27:46history
- 00:27:48well i'm walking along up the windpole
- 00:27:50street off the merrily bone road and
- 00:27:51here on the left is number two
- 00:27:53up on wimpole street because it was here
- 00:27:56that conan doyle set himself up
- 00:27:57as an eye specialist but his patients
- 00:27:59were conspicuous by their episodes so he
- 00:28:01sat there
- 00:28:02waiting for them to arrive he began
- 00:28:04tinkering with the characters of
- 00:28:06holmes and watson and this really is an
- 00:28:08important address as far as both conan
- 00:28:10doyle
- 00:28:10and sherlock holmes are concerned
- 00:28:12because although perhaps not the
- 00:28:14birthplace of sherlock holmes this is
- 00:28:16certainly the location
- 00:28:17where sherlock holmes began to mature
- 00:28:22the home short stories now took off
- 00:28:25and very quickly the circulation climbed
- 00:28:27to 500 000
- 00:28:29and then the real proof emerged when
- 00:28:32publisher after a publisher had to have
- 00:28:34their family magazines
- 00:28:35so in fact an entirely new world was
- 00:28:39created by sherlock holmes in a whole
- 00:28:40series of ways
- 00:28:42he didn't think much of any of the other
- 00:28:43murder mystery story
- 00:28:45uh tellers out there and he was the
- 00:28:46first one who tried to construct it
- 00:28:48properly and tried to do the
- 00:28:49characterization so
- 00:28:50and definitely it was the public
- 00:28:52feedback that just grew and grew and
- 00:28:54grew and made him so popular
- 00:28:56by the time conan doyle was serializing
- 00:28:58sherlock holmes in the strand
- 00:29:00the hound of the baskervilles in 1901
- 00:29:02and then later with the valley of fear
- 00:29:04people were so hooked they made sure
- 00:29:06they didn't miss an episode
- 00:29:08in that sense really conan doyle
- 00:29:11some of the modern soaps not only had
- 00:29:14conan doyle arguably created the soap
- 00:29:16opera but he had also definitely created
- 00:29:19a new kind of fiction
- 00:29:20the sherlock holmes stories were the
- 00:29:23beginning
- 00:29:24of detective stories as a genre
- 00:29:28and they were in their way
- 00:29:31the beginning of what we see now mostly
- 00:29:34on television
- 00:29:35the modern day detective fiction novel
- 00:29:38and
- 00:29:39play or television series is mainly
- 00:29:41based on the formula put forward by kern
- 00:29:43doyle
- 00:29:44not just the fact that it's two
- 00:29:45characters it's also the fact of the
- 00:29:47deductive reasoning and so on
- 00:29:49uh without that you probably wouldn't
- 00:29:50have the very popular csi series
- 00:29:55it certainly wouldn't be unfair to say
- 00:29:57that conan doyle
- 00:29:58is the father if not the godfather of
- 00:30:01all
- 00:30:02modern detective fiction the new
- 00:30:04innovation of the detective story was
- 00:30:07taking the literary
- 00:30:08world by storm in a world filled with
- 00:30:10the likes of edgar allan poe
- 00:30:12and robert louis stevenson they may have
- 00:30:15all used detective characters
- 00:30:17and the mystery story to bring their
- 00:30:19works to life yet many are now forgotten
- 00:30:22it was the original quality of sherlock
- 00:30:23holmes that would give birth to the
- 00:30:25coming revolution in literature
- 00:30:27based on mystery and detective work
- 00:30:31watson and holmes were the first
- 00:30:33detective pair
- 00:30:34and since then virtually every other
- 00:30:36successful
- 00:30:37detective has been a pair puerto and
- 00:30:39hastings
- 00:30:40and police often say no they must be
- 00:30:42descendants of homes and
- 00:30:45and watson generally the formula these
- 00:30:49days is to have a detective pair
- 00:30:51one clever one not so clever
- 00:30:54however conan doyle's likable and
- 00:30:56believable characters
- 00:30:58are matched by equally unlikable
- 00:31:00characters
- 00:31:01careful studies of the darker
- 00:31:03manifestations of human nature
- 00:31:07what was it in victorian society or
- 00:31:09indeed conan doyle that created
- 00:31:11characters like moriarty
- 00:31:13were they based on some perceived evil
- 00:31:15in society that the writer
- 00:31:17had identified these are villains that
- 00:31:20are as full-blooded and
- 00:31:21life-like as the hero himself it's also
- 00:31:25very significant
- 00:31:26that the villains are normally
- 00:31:28middle-class or aristocratic figures
- 00:31:31the ruffian with the blunderbuss is not
- 00:31:33the problem
- 00:31:34it's figures who should be helping to
- 00:31:36make society
- 00:31:38keep society safe who are in fact
- 00:31:40exploiting and destroying it
- 00:31:42[Music]
- 00:31:43moriarty is something of a
- 00:31:46mythical figure he's always
- 00:31:49there on the edge but
- 00:31:53he's not evil although holmes
- 00:31:57i think describes him as evil what
- 00:31:59really seems to have
- 00:32:01inspired conan doyle to depict
- 00:32:05thoroughly bad characters
- 00:32:08is actually domestic violence the
- 00:32:11probable
- 00:32:11influence of his own father's alcoholism
- 00:32:16and any violence that that might have
- 00:32:18given rise to within his own family
- 00:32:22and we do see that in the the stories
- 00:32:24and that
- 00:32:25is actually more horrifying
- 00:32:28certainly to the the present day reader
- 00:32:31than
- 00:32:32professor mariarty is ingenious
- 00:32:35schemes i do think there is certainly
- 00:32:39a better link there because people in
- 00:32:41those times they weren't so
- 00:32:43sophisticated
- 00:32:44and there was great superstitiousness
- 00:32:46among
- 00:32:47the general public who wanted to believe
- 00:32:49in things like
- 00:32:50ghosts and spectral hounds and so on so
- 00:32:53there i think it did feed upon
- 00:32:55what the public either expected existed
- 00:32:58or hoped might exist
- 00:33:02it seems then that what made him such a
- 00:33:04phenomenon as the
- 00:33:05edwardian age dawned was that the
- 00:33:07stories had captured a popular mood
- 00:33:09and that most could identify strongly
- 00:33:11with the adventures
- 00:33:13of holmes and watson there was certainly
- 00:33:16an appetite
- 00:33:17in the public for horrible murders
- 00:33:21the horror the apparently motiveless
- 00:33:25evil
- 00:33:27of the jack the rip murders holmes
- 00:33:30was present not as an escapist figure
- 00:33:34not telling escapist stories but saying
- 00:33:36there are bad things
- 00:33:38happening but they can be dealt with
- 00:33:41and the stories are full of social
- 00:33:43tragedy things which holmes can only
- 00:33:45explain
- 00:33:47and tragedies which he cannot remedy
- 00:33:50that's one of the great things about the
- 00:33:51stories
- 00:33:52they don't try to give you simply
- 00:33:55an entry into a world which doesn't
- 00:33:57exist and you have
- 00:33:59a whole host of villains all of which
- 00:34:01are
- 00:34:02perfectly characterized and perfectly
- 00:34:04painted for the reader so they can
- 00:34:05actually believe in these characters
- 00:34:06and again it's because they were so
- 00:34:08believable that when he was killed off
- 00:34:10that people thought he was a real person
- 00:34:12and wore the armbands in the street in
- 00:34:14his memory
- 00:34:21it's not difficult to imagine the
- 00:34:22readership of the strand magazine
- 00:34:25walking around their london picking up
- 00:34:27their latest history
- 00:34:29to read holmes's latest adventures in a
- 00:34:31familiar
- 00:34:32setting that they knew and understood
- 00:34:35[Music]
- 00:34:36[Applause]
- 00:34:38and such was his popularity that within
- 00:34:40a matter of months
- 00:34:42holmes had eclipsed his creator and it
- 00:34:44would be the fictitious sherlock holmes
- 00:34:46who would go on to achieve immortality
- 00:34:49leaving his
- 00:34:50author with a dilemma
- 00:34:53the question is having created this
- 00:34:55whole world of characters
- 00:34:57and in particular having created the
- 00:34:59character of sherlock holmes
- 00:35:00why did he choose to kill him off to
- 00:35:04murder his own creation
- 00:35:07doyle was enjoying the newfound fame and
- 00:35:10financial success
- 00:35:11yet as a writer was frustrated that his
- 00:35:13life was being devoted to
- 00:35:15and overwhelmed by the all-powerful
- 00:35:17holmes character
- 00:35:19he wanted to write serious fiction
- 00:35:22by late 1891 conan doyle was growing
- 00:35:25tired of his creation
- 00:35:27and the parallel existence of the
- 00:35:28sherlock holmes character with his own
- 00:35:30life
- 00:35:31perhaps feeling that holmes was
- 00:35:32overshadowing his more serious work
- 00:35:35i mean the character did take over
- 00:35:37calendar's life without a doubt
- 00:35:39conan doyle certainly had higher
- 00:35:40aspirations for his writing
- 00:35:42the character of sherlock holmes
- 00:35:44overtook the life of karndar
- 00:35:46for some conan doyle was perhaps not a
- 00:35:49writer in the grand
- 00:35:50tradition and his home's creation had
- 00:35:52led him into the pulp fiction category
- 00:35:55in this sense it's not hard to
- 00:35:56understand how holmes could have become
- 00:35:58bigger than he
- 00:36:00in fact i would say again i'll be
- 00:36:02contentiously
- 00:36:03that he wasn't a literary person i don't
- 00:36:05think he hardly read any other books at
- 00:36:07all
- 00:36:07even though he had library i'm not
- 00:36:09actually sure he read anything i don't
- 00:36:10think he was well read person
- 00:36:13from what is known of his life and his
- 00:36:14influences three possible reasons
- 00:36:17emerge for the writer's motivation in
- 00:36:19removing homes from his life
- 00:36:22the simple answer would perhaps relate
- 00:36:23to his feelings about himself as an
- 00:36:25author
- 00:36:26the first reason being his ambition to
- 00:36:28do something a little more interesting
- 00:36:30the second could be about his need to
- 00:36:32confront his own
- 00:36:34possible shortcomings as a truly great
- 00:36:38writer
- 00:36:40doyle wants to be remembered not for his
- 00:36:42fictional creation
- 00:36:43but more for his historical novels his
- 00:36:45historical writing his more serious work
- 00:36:48and i think that's probably why he
- 00:36:49wanted to kill him off and he was quite
- 00:36:51ambitious for himself
- 00:36:52so although these books had made him a
- 00:36:55good career of money he then wanted to
- 00:36:56go on and had high aspirations
- 00:36:58kenandoa was very pleased with his
- 00:37:01creation
- 00:37:01but he felt certainly from halfway
- 00:37:05through
- 00:37:06the first series of short stories that
- 00:37:09the home stories were hack work they
- 00:37:11brought in the money what he
- 00:37:13really wanted to do was to write
- 00:37:16stories of chivalry of daring do
- 00:37:19this is the sort of thing that he
- 00:37:21thought was really important
- 00:37:26the third argument is perhaps more
- 00:37:28complex than the obvious
- 00:37:29namely that he was tired of the
- 00:37:31character could it be that the
- 00:37:34darker aspect of his life was somehow
- 00:37:36bound up with his home's character
- 00:37:38in a way that his creator could no
- 00:37:40longer tolerate
- 00:37:42overwhelmed by the sherlock holmes
- 00:37:44phenomenon conor dull was finally
- 00:37:46rejecting his dark
- 00:37:47alter ego and his early life experiences
- 00:37:50[Music]
- 00:37:52there was perhaps just one other reason
- 00:37:56there was i think nothing in sherlock
- 00:37:58holmes which conan doyle
- 00:38:00really disliked but the stories are
- 00:38:03written
- 00:38:04unbelievably close to the surface
- 00:38:09conan doyle wrote them at full steam
- 00:38:13he made very few alterations in most of
- 00:38:16them
- 00:38:16after he had written them that means
- 00:38:18that they were actually reflecting
- 00:38:20his own life much more perhaps
- 00:38:24than we realized it's apparent that
- 00:38:27conan doyle was writing about the more
- 00:38:28difficult sides of his own life when he
- 00:38:30writes of alcoholism
- 00:38:32drug addiction and violence it's not
- 00:38:34surprising therefore that having spoken
- 00:38:37of them he should wish to dispose of
- 00:38:38them permanently
- 00:38:39through his fictional character even
- 00:38:43before he finished writing the first
- 00:38:45dozen stories he told his mother that he
- 00:38:47wanted the last one to be
- 00:38:49absolutely the last he wanted to kill
- 00:38:51holmes off in his mother's day
- 00:38:53you can't you mustn't you
- 00:38:57she knew a good thing when she saw one
- 00:39:01however his mother's words went unheeded
- 00:39:04his creator was about to make the
- 00:39:06biggest decision of his career
- 00:39:10conan dole was rapidly coming to the
- 00:39:12conclusion that he must kill
- 00:39:13sherlock holmes but how would he carry
- 00:39:16out the murder
- 00:39:17deciding on a radical solution to his
- 00:39:19dilemma
- 00:39:20conan doyle wrote to his mother
- 00:39:22informing her how he intended
- 00:39:24winding him up for good and all he takes
- 00:39:27my mind
- 00:39:28from better things conan doyle did in
- 00:39:30fact write a second
- 00:39:32series and at the end of it he was
- 00:39:35absolutely determined to get rid of
- 00:39:38sherlock holmes
- 00:39:40in the final problem published in the
- 00:39:42strand in december 1893
- 00:39:44holmes encountered professor moriarty
- 00:39:46his arch enemy
- 00:39:47for the last time in a mutually fatal
- 00:39:50showdown
- 00:39:52having been on holiday to switzerland
- 00:39:55he was introduced to the famous pauls at
- 00:39:58breikenbach which he thought would make
- 00:40:00a splendid
- 00:40:01resting place for poor sherlock
- 00:40:10getting rid of holmes was not to prove
- 00:40:12as easy as he had first planned
- 00:40:14he said that he fully intended to leave
- 00:40:16him there
- 00:40:17quote even if i buried my banking
- 00:40:19account along with him
- 00:40:20and the public of course were not happy
- 00:40:22with that at
- 00:40:24all the decision was to rob the
- 00:40:26victorian public to the core
- 00:40:28after the final problem had gone to
- 00:40:30print doyle received letters from
- 00:40:32distraught readers in tears
- 00:40:34they could not let homes go when holmes
- 00:40:38was killed off in the final problem
- 00:40:39uh actual some of the city workers went
- 00:40:41around london wearing black armbands
- 00:40:43in memory of sherlock holmes thinking
- 00:40:45that he was a real character
- 00:40:47and the sales australian magazine then
- 00:40:49plummeted
- 00:40:51members of the royal family were said to
- 00:40:53be distraught
- 00:40:54there was a mass revolt from the general
- 00:40:56public with the slam magazine
- 00:40:58and conan doyle as their targets what is
- 00:41:01certainly true is that the publisher the
- 00:41:04editor
- 00:41:04and the author received angry letters
- 00:41:08from readers
- 00:41:09conan doyle gleefully quotes one in his
- 00:41:12autobiography
- 00:41:13from a lady it began you
- 00:41:18brute
- 00:41:21the fears of conan doyle's mother was
- 00:41:22soon realized as 20
- 00:41:24000 readers cancelled their strand
- 00:41:26magazine subscription
- 00:41:28outraged by the death of their detective
- 00:41:30hero
- 00:41:31conan doyle was overwhelmed by the
- 00:41:33reaction
- 00:41:34i was amazed at the concern expressed by
- 00:41:37the republic
- 00:41:38[Music]
- 00:41:41however he was soon to be distracted
- 00:41:43from this public uproar by personal
- 00:41:45tragedy which would shake the author's
- 00:41:47world to its
- 00:41:48foundations his wife louisa was
- 00:41:50diagnosed with tuberculosis
- 00:41:53conan doyle chose to nurse her himself
- 00:41:55and his dedication and devotion
- 00:41:57kept her alive into the 20th century
- 00:42:00but this will be only the first in a
- 00:42:01series of blows for the writer
- 00:42:04with the death of his father charles and
- 00:42:06later his son kingsley in the great
- 00:42:081914-18
- 00:42:09war it may have been these combined
- 00:42:12stresses that sowed the seeds for the
- 00:42:13author's new passion for the occult and
- 00:42:15spiritualism
- 00:42:17the belief that the spirits of the dead
- 00:42:18can communicate with living
- 00:42:21or as he turned it life beyond the veil
- 00:42:26seeking comfort for these personal
- 00:42:28tragedies he became one of its greatest
- 00:42:30exponents
- 00:42:34but the next development of his life was
- 00:42:36to prove that he was still on top of his
- 00:42:38game
- 00:42:39as the supreme writer of detective
- 00:42:42fiction
- 00:42:45for the next eight years doyle excluded
- 00:42:47homes from his life and concentrated on
- 00:42:49his other work
- 00:42:49but in 1901 he had an idea for perhaps
- 00:42:52his most legendary work to date
- 00:42:54one that would leave its mark for
- 00:42:55generations to come
- 00:42:57but this novel needed a detective he
- 00:43:00didn't want to create a new character
- 00:43:01why not use homes the hound of the
- 00:43:05baskervilles was a landslide success
- 00:43:07and remains one of the most frequently
- 00:43:09performed stories today
- 00:43:12what he didn't do then was bring homes
- 00:43:14back to life
- 00:43:16he presented the hound of the
- 00:43:17baskervilles as an adventure that had
- 00:43:20occurred before
- 00:43:22the events at reichenberg falls
- 00:43:26an american publisher said name your
- 00:43:29figure so conan
- 00:43:30named a figure that he thought was way
- 00:43:31too high and would just send the
- 00:43:33american publisher packing
- 00:43:35and the publisher turned around and said
- 00:43:36fine when are you going to send the
- 00:43:37first one
- 00:43:38this may current kernel i think it's
- 00:43:40still true today the highest paid author
- 00:43:42per word in existence uh he might have
- 00:43:45been overtaken
- 00:43:46i guess by jk rowling but there's very
- 00:43:49few others
- 00:43:49who can make that claim the hounds
- 00:43:53reception showed that the passion for
- 00:43:54this great detective was as strong as
- 00:43:56ever
- 00:43:57inevitably the story was so popular
- 00:44:00it was suggested that he might actually
- 00:44:03think about
- 00:44:04bringing homes back to life and after
- 00:44:06all
- 00:44:07as someone pointed out he provided homes
- 00:44:10with a death
- 00:44:11that didn't require a body to be
- 00:44:14produced
- 00:44:18finally conan doyle surrendered to the
- 00:44:20public demand for more home stories
- 00:44:23in 1903 he resurrected homes in the
- 00:44:26empty house
- 00:44:28with an explanation of how homes had not
- 00:44:30really plunged into the falls after all
- 00:44:33well there's one or two opinions on the
- 00:44:35significance of the the mystery years or
- 00:44:37the great hiatus as it's known
- 00:44:38but to explain the absence konando had
- 00:44:42homes going off by himself meeting the
- 00:44:45dalai lama
- 00:44:46and doing various other things for crown
- 00:44:48heads of europe and so on
- 00:44:50and basically we could say going to find
- 00:44:53himself having a
- 00:44:54sabbatical for a few years but in
- 00:44:57reality
- 00:44:58holmes had never really gone away
- 00:45:01shortly before his re-emergence an
- 00:45:03entrepreneurial american actor william
- 00:45:05gillette
- 00:45:06expressed an interest in reviving the
- 00:45:08home's character by playing the part on
- 00:45:11stage
- 00:45:12however gillette wanted to update the
- 00:45:14story and with some apprehension he
- 00:45:17wrote to conan doyle
- 00:45:18humbly putting forward some minor
- 00:45:20changes
- 00:45:22william gillette actually wrote to
- 00:45:23cullendale and said
- 00:45:25may i marry sherlock holmes off condor
- 00:45:28was so disinterested by this time he
- 00:45:29said
- 00:45:30you may do with him you know whatever
- 00:45:31you want to and
- 00:45:33he did this reaction to gillette seems
- 00:45:36to suggest the continuing
- 00:45:38complex relationship which conan doyle
- 00:45:40had with the character he had
- 00:45:45when the created arrived in england and
- 00:45:47met with doyle to read the almost
- 00:45:48completely revised play to him
- 00:45:51conan doyle gave him his full attention
- 00:45:53and as the meeting drew to a close
- 00:45:55spent a moment in thought his
- 00:45:57announcement is as revealing
- 00:45:59as it is contradictory it's good to see
- 00:46:02the old chap again
- 00:46:04i think kanindor's relationship with his
- 00:46:06his character certainly towards the end
- 00:46:08of his life was more of a jekyll and
- 00:46:10hyde relationship
- 00:46:11on the one side he probably quite loved
- 00:46:14the character because
- 00:46:15it gave him power it made him well known
- 00:46:17it gave him money of course
- 00:46:18but on the other side it detracted from
- 00:46:20what he really wanted to do which was
- 00:46:22the spiritualism and his historical
- 00:46:23writings and so on
- 00:46:24so it was very much a double-edged sword
- 00:46:26for him and a love-hate relationship
- 00:46:30this was 1914 conan doyle could not have
- 00:46:33known
- 00:46:33that the fictional world he had created
- 00:46:35was soon to be eclipsed by tragedy
- 00:46:37and the old order that the writer had
- 00:46:39known was to be lost in the trenches of
- 00:46:41northern
- 00:46:42france
- 00:46:45with the outbreak of world war conan
- 00:46:47doyle's personal life was to be
- 00:46:49tragically changed
- 00:46:50it was to the spiritualist movement that
- 00:46:53conan doyle would turn again
- 00:46:55conan doyle's interest in spiritualism
- 00:46:57didn't really flourish i suppose until
- 00:47:00after the great war
- 00:47:01when both his son kingsley and his
- 00:47:03brother innis
- 00:47:05were killed particularly he became a
- 00:47:07spiritualist because after world
- 00:47:10war one he was so much aware of the
- 00:47:12people who had died because of it
- 00:47:14including his son and his brother
- 00:47:15he did a lot of travelling for
- 00:47:17spiritualism he went to australia to
- 00:47:20america giving lectures he could write a
- 00:47:22story get a good income
- 00:47:24from it and then plow it back into what
- 00:47:26he really believed was his
- 00:47:28main purpose in life to extend the
- 00:47:30message of spiritualism
- 00:47:35conondor's legacy was to extend far
- 00:47:38beyond that which he could have imagined
- 00:47:39in creating the home's character
- 00:47:41through just a series of short adventure
- 00:47:43stories he had given birth to a new
- 00:47:45popular culture
- 00:47:46brought one of the most enduring heroes
- 00:47:49to a new generation of readers
- 00:47:51and brought the science of deduction
- 00:47:53into the 20th century
- 00:47:56had this resolved his demons could
- 00:47:58holmes now be left to fade away
- 00:48:00into obscurity when he
- 00:48:04said that holmes had retired to sussex
- 00:48:07to keep
- 00:48:08bees conan doyle himself received
- 00:48:11letters
- 00:48:12addressed to sherlock holmes care
- 00:48:15of arthur conan doyle
- 00:48:20calendar continued writing sherlock
- 00:48:21holmes stories from time to time
- 00:48:23almost to the end of his life it was a
- 00:48:26mood of resigned acceptance
- 00:48:28he would write a story and accept
- 00:48:30whatever figure
- 00:48:32slightly deranged publishers were
- 00:48:33willing to give him for it
- 00:48:36having murdered holmes in the final
- 00:48:38problem then resurrecting him
- 00:48:40and restoring him to public adoration he
- 00:48:43decided simply to let his hero retire
- 00:48:46gracefully from london
- 00:48:48mirroring the author's own life at this
- 00:48:50time
- 00:48:51for the world's greatest detective long
- 00:48:53walks on the sussex downs
- 00:48:55and beekeeping would become the
- 00:48:57activities of holmes's later years
- 00:49:00and by 1927 conan doyle had decided that
- 00:49:04it was time for his creation
- 00:49:05to take his last bow as he penned the
- 00:49:09last lines of the adventure of shoshkom
- 00:49:11old place it was clear that he had
- 00:49:14finally
- 00:49:15wearied the great holmes adventure
- 00:49:18he broke it off leaving the public
- 00:49:20wanting much more
- 00:49:21he wasn't going to become a soap
- 00:49:23manufacturer
- 00:49:25he wanted to go into new ways of writing
- 00:49:26and indeed when the final stories were
- 00:49:29published in book form as
- 00:49:30the case book of sherlock holmes conan
- 00:49:33doyle added his own farewell
- 00:49:35to his creation i fear that mr sherlock
- 00:49:38holmes
- 00:49:39may have become like one of those
- 00:49:40popular tennis who having outlived their
- 00:49:42time
- 00:49:43are still tempted to make repeated
- 00:49:45farewell vows to their indulgent
- 00:49:47audiences
- 00:49:48this must cease and he must go the way
- 00:49:50of all flesh
- 00:49:52material or imaginary he died on july
- 00:49:56the 7th
- 00:49:571930 a new york newspaper
- 00:50:00devoted its front page to him and
- 00:50:01treated its readers to the
- 00:50:03unintentionally humorous headline
- 00:50:05colon doyle dies of sherlock holmes fame
- 00:50:10but it was hero that delivered the most
- 00:50:12memorable announcement
- 00:50:14confirming for many the extraordinary
- 00:50:16relationship that had now been
- 00:50:18established between author and creation
- 00:50:20sir arthur conan doyle is dead
- 00:50:24long live sherlock holmes
- 00:50:29doyle had left behind him an enduring
- 00:50:31and substantial legacy
- 00:50:33the four novels and 56 short stories
- 00:50:36about his fictional detective
- 00:50:38ironically his other writings are for
- 00:50:40the most part forgotten
- 00:50:42[Music]
- 00:50:44it is perhaps significant that when
- 00:50:46edinburgh wanted to honor the birth of
- 00:50:47its favorite son here on pickety place
- 00:50:49they chose
- 00:50:50not a statue of arthur conan doyle but a
- 00:50:52statue of his creation sherlock holmes
- 00:50:54in death as in life conan doyle was
- 00:50:57overshadowed or eclipsed
- 00:50:58by his famous creation indeed with a
- 00:51:01cruel twist of irony given that
- 00:51:03charles's childhood was blighted by his
- 00:51:05father's
- 00:51:05alcoholism the only true memorial to the
- 00:51:08birth of
- 00:51:09conan doyle here aside from the rather
- 00:51:11non-descript plaque on the wall
- 00:51:12is on the other side of the road where
- 00:51:14we have a pub called
- 00:51:16the conan doyle we're still faced with
- 00:51:19the fact
- 00:51:20that today people will think of sherlock
- 00:51:23holmes without thinking of conan doyle
- 00:51:25it is unfair without
- 00:51:28conor doyle there would have been no
- 00:51:30sherlock holmes
- 00:51:32what is about this eccentric 19th
- 00:51:35century detective
- 00:51:36that made him so unique what is that
- 00:51:39extraordinary quality that makes him
- 00:51:41such a phenomenon and why is he still
- 00:51:44relevant
- 00:51:44even today what is it about him that
- 00:51:47still has the ability to
- 00:51:48hold our attention and pull in 21st
- 00:51:51century audiences with blockbuster
- 00:51:52movies and tv
- 00:51:53programs all over the world it's curious
- 00:51:57i suppose that a character who was
- 00:51:59created
- 00:52:00more than 120 years ago should still
- 00:52:04be popular and still considered relevant
- 00:52:09he's something of a bohemian which
- 00:52:12appeals to the rebel in all of us
- 00:52:14for the victorian audience sherlock
- 00:52:16holmes was seen in advance of his his
- 00:52:18time ahead of his time
- 00:52:19in his deductions and his mannerisms and
- 00:52:21so on for an audience in the 21st
- 00:52:24century
- 00:52:24it's very much the reverse he's seen as
- 00:52:26a link back in time
- 00:52:28to a another perhaps better time as
- 00:52:30people would perceive it
- 00:52:32but where his values and where his
- 00:52:34instincts and
- 00:52:35where his deductions are equally valid
- 00:52:37now as they were then
- 00:52:40despite the passions that sherlock
- 00:52:42holmes raised over his fictional
- 00:52:44lifetime
- 00:52:45in the years that have followed and as
- 00:52:47interesting stories have grown
- 00:52:49a growing number of made claims that
- 00:52:51there was a real homes
- 00:52:54the man of course is fictional this at
- 00:52:57least seems certain although there is a
- 00:52:59world that wills him to exist
- 00:53:03we're attracted i think
- 00:53:07to something that's safely dangerous
- 00:53:11safely because it's back in the past
- 00:53:16safely also because we know that
- 00:53:18sherlock holmes is there and he'll get
- 00:53:20us out of it
- 00:53:23whilst mystery and intrigue still
- 00:53:25surrounds the legend of
- 00:53:26sherlock holmes there is something in
- 00:53:29these stories
- 00:53:30that makes the reader try to dig
- 00:53:33beneath the surface to discover for
- 00:53:36themselves
- 00:53:37something larger than the stories
- 00:53:40perhaps the reason is simple doyle
- 00:53:43or watson was a marvelous storyteller
- 00:53:47the original homes adventures are still
- 00:53:49best sellers
- 00:53:50and have been translated into more than
- 00:53:5250 languages
- 00:53:54the legend has evolved and taken on a
- 00:53:57life of its own
- 00:53:58at the same time ensuring an unusual
- 00:54:00afterlife
- 00:54:01for both homes and his creator
- 00:54:03[Music]
- 00:54:04tourists still make their pilgrimage to
- 00:54:07baker street
- 00:54:08searching for the actual home of the
- 00:54:10great detective
- 00:54:12but why do they still come and pay
- 00:54:14homage to homes
- 00:54:16and by default conan doyle there is the
- 00:54:19fact that for modern audiences and
- 00:54:21modern readers and scholars
- 00:54:22they will use it as a window looking
- 00:54:24back in time at the almost perfect
- 00:54:26characterization of the victorian period
- 00:54:29the types of characters places
- 00:54:32and how things actually worked in
- 00:54:33victorian society
- 00:54:35modern life over the last century or so
- 00:54:38has lost a lot of the certainties that
- 00:54:41we had before
- 00:54:42now you don't know what's going to
- 00:54:45happen in the next year five years
- 00:54:47and you don't really know who you can
- 00:54:49trust either
- 00:54:50and moving back to look for sherlock
- 00:54:52holmes who is going to solve
- 00:54:54the problem and save the world is
- 00:54:57quite a comforting thing to do
- 00:55:00there is clearly something of conon
- 00:55:02doyle about sherlock holmes
- 00:55:03maybe it's just his humanity the
- 00:55:05combination of the light and the dark
- 00:55:07together
- 00:55:07something perhaps central to the makeup
- 00:55:09of every human
- 00:55:12there is a little bit of sherlock holmes
- 00:55:13in us all and there's also a little bit
- 00:55:15of us that would like to be transported
- 00:55:17back
- 00:55:17to this victorious of the fog filled
- 00:55:21streets and so on when everything was
- 00:55:23exciting we had a
- 00:55:24british empire was in its full stream in
- 00:55:26this little veneer
- 00:55:28as it were of victorian respectability
- 00:55:31that they would like to inhabit
- 00:55:33but would conan doyle have been
- 00:55:35gratified by the immortality of his
- 00:55:37character
- 00:55:38in the face of his attempts to dispose
- 00:55:40of him i wouldn't know the answer to
- 00:55:42that
- 00:55:42but there is something endearing about
- 00:55:45holmes i suppose and
- 00:55:47and watson too a couple of
- 00:55:50good friends who solve problems and it
- 00:55:52seems
- 00:55:53that it's a formula that
- 00:55:56dial stuck on and it worked
- 00:56:00but the main relevance really is in the
- 00:56:02character of sherlock holmes
- 00:56:05as i've said the the bohemian the man
- 00:56:09we would perhaps all like to be
- 00:56:14whether he was aiming for such a close
- 00:56:16relationship is debatable
- 00:56:18however some do see sherlock holmes as
- 00:56:20conodor's voice on humanity whether the
- 00:56:22author
- 00:56:23liked it or not sherlock holmes
- 00:56:25continues to live
- 00:56:27i think most of all because when you get
- 00:56:30right down to it
- 00:56:31human beings know that what
- 00:56:33differentiates them from animals
- 00:56:35are their mind and sherlock holmes is
- 00:56:38the celebration of
- 00:56:40mind it is turning mind into
- 00:56:43a fascinating believable
- 00:56:46likable admirable figure so long as we
- 00:56:50are going to be able to maintain
- 00:56:51ourselves as human beings
- 00:56:53sherlock holmes seems justifiably likely
- 00:56:56to endure
- 00:56:58when we respond to sherlock holmes
- 00:56:59perhaps the truth is that we are
- 00:57:01responding to
- 00:57:02conan doyle
- 00:57:03[Music]
- 00:57:07kanando may have been the man who
- 00:57:09murdered sherlock holmes
- 00:57:10but both character and author live on in
- 00:57:13the minds of those who continue
- 00:57:15to read his works
- 00:57:25[Music]
- 00:57:44[Music]
- 00:58:02[Music]
- 00:58:04you
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Sherlock Holmes
- Detective Fiction
- Victorian Era
- Literary Legacy
- Character Analysis
- Public Reaction
- Storytelling
- Drug Addiction
- Cultural Impact