The Philosophy of Sherlock Holmes by Philip Tallon

Author:Philip Tallon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

The Many Lives (and Deaths) of Sherlock Holmes

The Kantian argument seems a promising defense of Conan Doyle's rights to do with Sherlock Holmes whatever he wishes. The problem with relying too much on this argument is that it is not clear we can continue to assign full ownership of Sherlock Holmes to Conan Doyle (or his estate) after a relatively short period. The Sherlock Holmes as we know him is not solely the product of Conan Doyle's labors. His original stories featuring Holmes and Watson are certainly at the core of our image of Sherlock Holmes today, but they are far from the only influence. Sherlock Holmes as an icon has certain attributes that are not to be found in anything that Conan Doyle wrote. This was true even during Conan Doyle's lifetime (at least as early as the Great Hiatus).

To begin with, Sidney Paget's illustrations helped shape the image of Sherlock Holmes in the mind of the audience. Actors like Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett were popular (at least in part) because they looked like Paget's illustrations of Holmes. When we see Holmes as a tall, lanky figure with slicked-back hair, it just seems right, but that's because of Paget's illustrations. Paget is also credited with adding some elements to the portrayal of Holmes that have become the costume by which most people recognize him, most notably his deerstalker cap and Inverness coat, with its cape. Nowhere in the writings of Conan Doyle are these specific details mentioned. As Paget's labors mixed with Conan Doyle's on thirty-seven stories and one novel, it would seem like Paget deserves at least some of the credit of being the author of the popular Sherlock Holmes. Paget's style was so definitive that after his death in 1908, other illustrators imitated it when depicting Holmes.

Paget's image of Holmes was further popularized by the actor William Gillette who, beginning in 1899, starred in seven different Broadway productions of Sherlock's adventures. Gillette wore the deerstalker cap and the Inverness coat as part of his costume, and he also smoked the distinctive large calabash pipe that most people associate with Holmes. In Conan Doyle's stories, Holmes smokes several different kinds of pipes, but it is the question-mark-shaped calabash that sticks in people's minds as they imagine Holmes pondering a problem. In fact, that particular pipe goes against the portrayal of Holmes in Conan Doyle's stories because the kind of tobacco that Holmes is said to prefer would not have been well suited for a calabash pipe.

In many ways, Basil Rathbone's portrayal of Holmes in fourteen films just reinforces the elements of Paget's and Gillette's presentations of Holmes. However, those films also add well-known elements to the Sherlock Holmes mythos. The oft-repeated phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson!” is one of the best-known movie quotes and is often included in any homage to Holmes. The closest that Holmes ever comes to saying something like that in Conan Doyle's stories is in “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” when he

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