The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book
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2. What musical instrument does Holmes play?
3. Who is Holmes’s archenemy?
4. Who is the woman who proved to be a challenging opponent and possible romantic interest for Holmes’s in “A Scandal in Bohemia”?
5. What is the name of Holmes’s tobacco shop?
6. What is the name of Holmes’s second landlady?
7. For which branch of science does Holmes have a passion?
MODERATE
8. What are Holmes’s first words to Dr. Watson?
9. Of which beverage does Holmes drink large quantities?
10. Who gives Holmes his gold snuff box with an amethyst in the center?
11. What type of liquor does Holmes occasionally drink?
12. Who is the landlady of 221B Baker Street mentioned only in “A Scandal in Bohemia”?
13. Which section of the newspaper does Holmes peruse daily, looking for clues?
14. According to Holmes, how many different perfume scents exist?
DIFFICULT
15. How many steps lead from the outer hall of Holmes’s house on Baker Street to his room?
16. At which bank does Holmes have his account?
17. What after dinner drink does Holmes enjoy on occasion?
18. How many windows are in Holmes’s sitting room?
19. In which story does Holmes actually say to Watson, “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”?
20. In which publication does Holmes publish two monographs on the differences of the human ear?
QUIZ 2 CHARACTERS ACCORDING TO HOLMES
Character descriptions are Dr. Watson’s forte, but occasionally Holmes uses his art of observation to bring a character to life. His concise, sharp descriptions leave no mystery as to the type of character he is dealing with, be it a notorious villain or an innocent victim. In this quiz, who are the fifteen characters described by Holmes and in which story or novel does each appear?
1. “He is one of the most dangerous men in England—a ruined gambler, an absolutely desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience.”
2. “I managed to see him on a plausible pretext, but I seemed to read in his dark, deep-set, brooding eyes that he was perfectly aware of my true business. He is a man of fifty, strong, active, with iron-gray hair, great bunched black eyebrows, the step of a deer, and the air of an emperor—a fierce, masterful man, with a red-hot spirit behind his parchment face. He is either a foreigner or has lived long in the tropics, for he is yellow and sapless, but tough as whipcord.”
3. “This man is the greatest financial power in the world, and a man, as I understand, of most violent and formidable character.”
4. “a little wizened fellow with a cringing manner and a shambling style of walking. He wore an open jacket, with a splotch of tar on the sleeve, a red-and-black check shirt, dungaree trousers, and heavy boots worn. His face was thin and brown and crafty, with a perpetual smile upon it, which showed an irregular line of yellow teeth, and his crinkled hands were half closed in a way that is distinctive of sailors.”
5. “He was a man of excellent birth and education, who had squandered a fortune upon the turf, and who lived now by doing a little quiet and genteel book-making in the sporting clubs of London.”
6. “a big, ginger moustached man of the slow, solid Sussex breed—which covers much good sense under a heavy, silent exterior.”
7. “I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for.”
8. “His appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a pair of very penetrating eyes, which present a singular contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid the common crowd of mendicants, and so, too, does his wit, for he is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be thrown at him by the passers-by.”
9. “He has an extraordinary faculty for figures, and audits the books in some of the government departments. [He] lodges in Pall Mall, and he walks round the corner into Whitehall every morning and back every evening. From year’s end to year’s end he takes no exercise, and is seen nowhere else, except only in the Diogenes Club, which is just opposite his rooms.”
10. “He was not generally popular among the undergraduates, though it always seemed to me that what was set down as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural diffidence. In appearance he was a man of an exceedingly aristocratic type, thin, high-nosed, and large-eyed, with languid and yet courtly manners.”
11. “He is extremely tall and thin, his forehead domes out in a white curve, and his two eyes are deeply sunken in his head. He is clean-shaven, pale, and ascetic-looking, retaining something of the professor in his features. His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward and is forever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion.”
12. “He was a hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and energy, the very opposite to me in most respects, but we had some subjects in common, and it was a bond of union when I found that he was as friendless as I.”
13. “Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart, but I could not look upon her perfect clear-cut face, with all the soft freshness of the downlands in her delicate colouring, without realizing that no young man would cross her path unscathed.”
14. “He is a poorly educated man, small, active, with his right leg off, and wearing a wooden stump which is worn away upon the inner side. His left boot has a coarse, square-toed sole, with an iron band round the heel. He is a middle-aged man, much sunburned, and has been a convict.”
15. “a steady, solid, bovine man with thoughtful eyes, which looked at me now with a very troubled expression.”
QUIZ 3 SHERLOCK HOLMES GAZETTEER
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson ventured through the streets of London from the wealthy Hyde Park district to the opium dens in the seedy side of town. Below are twenty locations and addresses mentioned in the canon. They are divided into two parts: the early Sherlock Holmes stories and the stories published after Conan Doyle resurrected his detective. Match the following places with the correct character or incident.
PART 1
Place
1. No. 3 Lauriston Gardens
2. Hotel Dulong
3. King’s Pyland Stable in Devonshire
4. Grimpen Mire
5. Lancaster Gate
6. Hurlstone Manor
7. Pondicherry Lodge
8. Great Alkali Plain
9. Stoke Moran
10. Englischer Hof in the village of Meiringen, Switzerland
Person/Incident
A. Hotel in Lyons, France, where Holmes was convalescing—“The Reigate Squires”
B. Location where the body of Enoch J. Drebber was found—A Study in Scarlet
C. Area where Holmes hid out while conducting his investigation—The Hound of the Baskervilles
D. Residence of Reginald Musgrave—“The Musgrave Ritual”
E. Residence of Grimesby Roylott and Helen Stoner—“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”
F. Dartmoor stables owned by Colonel Ross—“Silver Blaze”
G. Residence of Hatty Doran—“The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor”
H. Hotel near Reichenbach Falls where Holmes and Watson stayed—“The Final Problem”
I. Home of Major Sholto—The Sign of Four
J. Desert where John Ferrier and Lucy were rescued—A Study in Scarlet
PART 2
Place
1. Fighting Cock Inn
2. The Haven in Lewisham
3. Fulworth Cove
4. 45 Lord Street in Brixton
5. 427 Park Lane
6. Simpson’s Tavern
7. Camden House
8. Tuxbury Old Park
&n
bsp; 9. Skibbareen
10. Lower Gill
Person/Incident
A. Inn owned by Reuben Hays—“The Adventure of the Priory School”
B. Restaurant in the Strand frequented by Holmes and Watson—“The Adventure of the Dying Detective” and “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”
C. Residence of Colonel Emsworth—“The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier”
D. Holmes’s retirement village—“The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane”
E. Address of Inspector Stanley Hopkins—“The Adventure of Black Peter”
F. Moor near the Priory School—“The Adventure of the Priory School”
G. House across the street from 221B Baker Street from which Sebastian Moran tried to shoot Holmes—“The Adventure of the Empty House”
H. Home of Josiah Amberley—“The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”
I. Coastal town in Ireland where Holmes spied for the British government—“His Last Bow”
J. Murder site of Ronald Adair—“The Adventure of the Empty House”
QUIZ 4 WORDS OF WISDOM
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Wit and wisdom came as naturally to Sherlock Holmes as studying a man’s hat and deducing that he was once well off, had recently fallen on hard times, had turned to drink, and that his wife no longer loved him. This short-answer quiz contains twenty Sherlock Holmes quotes. From which story or novel was each quote taken?
HOLMES ON THOUGHT AND TRUTH
1. “It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.”
2. “Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.”
3. “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
4. “Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. And their passing moods may reflect the passing moods of others.”
5. “I play the game for the game’s own sake.”
HOLMES ON CRIMES AND CRIMINALS
6. “If criminals would always schedule their movements like railway trains, it would certainly be more convenient for all of us.”
7. “Crime is common. Logic is rare.”
8. “When the crime is coolly premeditated, then the means of covering it are coolly premeditated also.”
9. “We should get the big fish, but the smaller would dart right and left out of the net.”
10. “This empty house is my tree, and you are my tiger.”
HOLMES ON PHI LOSOPHY AND RELIGION
11. “Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog.”
12. “There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
13. “A loaf of bread and a clean collar. What does man want more?”
14. “The wages of sin, Watson—the wages of sin!” said he. “Sooner or later it will always come. God knows, there was sin enough.”
15. “I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”
HOLMES ON WOMEN
16. “There is a danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.”
17. “Women are never to be entirely trusted—not the best of them.”
18. “One of the most dangerous classes in the world,” said he, “is the drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in others. She is migratory. She has sufficient means to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions and boarding houses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When she is gobbled up she is hardly missed.”
19. “You can’t play with edged tools forever without cutting those dainty hands.”
20. “Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart.”
QUIZ 5 DR. JOHN WATSON
Dr. John Watson, like Sherlock Holmes, has many characteristics in common with his creator. Both Dr. Watson and Conan Doyle started their careers as medical doctors and ended as writers; Conan Doyle wrote historical fiction, books on spiritualism, and pamphlets and articles expressing his political beliefs, while Watson was content in chronicling Sherlock Holmes’s cases. Both served as surgeons in the military, both were married more than once, and both men were tall, well-built, and athletic. As they aged, both men put on weight, although they continued to maintain a strong, healthy constitution. Holmes often commented on Watson’s way with the ladies as being attributable to his “natural advantages.” This quiz contains fifteen short-answer questions about Dr. Watson, his family, background, and experiences as Holmes’s sidekick.
1. What is the approximate year in which Dr. Watson was born?
2. Where did Watson receive his medical degree and in what year?
3. At which hospital did Watson serve as a staff surgeon?
4. What sport did Watson play when he lived in Blackheath Common?
5. What type of gun does Watson own?
6. Where was Watson stationed when he was injured in battle?
7. What type of pipe tobacco does Watson prefer?
8. In the entire canon Watson mentions three different medical practices. What are their locations, and in what year was he at each?
9. In what month and year does Watson marry Mary Morstan?
10. In which story does Watson consult his wife about bringing a case to Holmes’s attention?
11. In which story does Watson’s wife refer to him as James rather than John?
12. What is the name of Dr. Watson’s inefficient housekeeper, who is given notice by Mrs. Watson?
13. In what year did Watson reenlist in the army?
14. Where does Watson keep his written records of Holmes’s cases?
15. How many total years have Watson and Holmes worked together?
QUIZ 6 PROFESSOR MORIARTY
Considered by many Holmes fans as the only Conan Doyle character who could give Holmes a mental run for his money, Professor Moriarty is the master criminal in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Details about the professor are revealed in the book The Valley of Fear, when Inspector MacDonald comes to Holmes for assistance in a case. But not until the story “The Final Problem” do Holmes and Moriarty face off in a battle to the death. In this story Holmes professes his desire to rid society of this notorious character: “But I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.” This quiz contains ten short-answer questions about Sherlock Holmes’s archenemy.
1. What is Professor Moriarty’s first name?
2. How many brothers does Moriarty have?
3. What subject did Moriarty teach when he was a college professor?
4. What is the name of the book Moriarty wrote, which Holmes describes as “a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it”?
5. What is the professor’s teaching salary?
6. Who is the French painter who painted the portrait which hangs over Moriarty’s writing desk?
7. What happens to any member of Moriarty’s gang who breaks the rules of the organization?
8. Who is Moriarty’s chief of staff, and how much does he get paid?
10. When is the only time that Dr. Watson actually sees Moriarty?
QUIZ 7 MYCROFT HOLMES
Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older brother, makes an appearance in two stories: “The Greek Interpreter” and “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.” Holmes clearly looks up to his older brother with admiration and trust. During Holmes’s Great Hiatus, Mycroft was the only person whom Holmes trusted with his secret. And the feeling of admiration and respect are definitely mutual, for Mycroft relies on Holmes on two occasions in the abovementioned stories. While both men are gifted in the area of deductive reasoning, the similarity ends there. Where Holmes tackles problem solving with an intense nervous energy, Mycroft takes an indifferent view of any case which causes him to stray from his daily routine. According to Holmes, “If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an armchair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he had no ambition and no energy.”
Mycroft Holmes has been the subject of many parodies and pastiches through the years, and one of the most enjoyed speculations is that Mycroft Holmes might very well have been the father of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. This quiz contains ten short-answer questions about Sherlock Holmes’s only sibling.
1. How much older is Mycroft than Sherlock Holmes?
2. To which private club does Mycroft Holmes belong?
3. At what time could you find Mycroft at his club?
4. What does Mycroft claim as his livelihood?