by Bruce Wexler
Paget was not the first illustrator to vivify the great man. D. H. Friston had drawn four illustrations for the first Holmes tale, ‘‘A Study in Scarlet,’’ for its initial publication in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. The drawings are accomplished and moody, but while Holmes appears complete with his sideburns and caped coat, he looks far too young, fresh, and (uncharacteristically) enthusiastic. When Ward, Lock & Company reissued the story in 1888, a new set of illustrations were prepared, this time by Conan Doyle’s own father, Charles Doyle. They are generally considered the worst illustrations ever to grace his work, and are very naïve, almost ‘‘cartoony.’’ In the second edition, Ward, Lock replaced Charles Doyle’s work with illustrations by George Hutchinson. But Paget became the most popular illustrator of the Canon in Britain, with his artistic and highly finished style. He produced 356 illustrations for thirty-eight Sherlock Holmes stories before his premature death in 1908. He also painted the famous portrait of Holmes, which appeared to have been painted from life, though this did not appear in the books themselves.
Holmes and Watson examine an old oak tree with a girth of twenty-three feet in Sidney Paget’s illustration for “The Musgrave Ritual.”
Paget’s masterly rendition of the timely assassination of Charles Augustus Milverton.
While Paget defined Holmes for British readers, a more varied set of illustrators were employed for the American editions. Over some years, a composite image of Holmes gradually emerged from the pens of artists such as W. H. Hyde, Harry Edwards, and G. Patrick Nelson. But it was the artist Frederic Dorr Steele who created the definitive American Holmes in his illustrations for Collier’s Weekly. These were first published in the magazine in 1903. Steele used the famous Sherlockian actor, William Gillette, as his model for the great detective, in the same way that Paget had used his brother Walter. Of all the American illustrators of the canon, perhaps only Steele can challenge the quality of Paget’s work. His image of Holmes was to endure in the American consciousness until the 1940s. Many Sherlockian scholars assert that while the original image of Holmes belongs to Paget, Steele evolved a more refined version of the man in his work. When Harper’s Weekly took over the publication of the Sherlock Holmes stories, W. H. Hyde illustrated them. Hyde’s work also has a highly finished, atmospheric quality, and compares favorably with that of both Paget and Steele.
After Paget’s early death in 1908, no single British artist seemed able to assume his Holmesian mantle. For His Last Bow, seven different artists were commissioned to illustrate each of the seven different stories, drawing a total of forty-two pictures between them. These artists were Arthur Twiddle, Gilbert Holiday, Joseph Simpson, H. M. Brock, Alec Ball, Alfred Gilbert, and Sidney’s brother, Walter Paget.
D.H. Friston’s frontispiece to the 1887 version of A Study in Scarlet was the first ever illustration for the Holmes stories. Holmes already has his Inverness Cape and famous magnifying glass.
As of 1914, when the Strand commissioned Frank Wiles to produce thirty-two illustrations for The Valley of Fear, he pretty well assumed Paget’s relation to the great detective. But his connection with the stories was never quite as ‘‘exclusive’’ as Sidney Paget’s had been. The Strand also used Alfred Gilbert to illustrate Holmes extensively during this period. His illustrations have an intense realism that many readers greatly admired. But the honor of being the last artist to illustrate an original Holmes story went to Wiles. He created the images for the author’s final three detective stories, including the very last, ‘‘Shoscombe Old Place.’’
George Hutchinson’s illustration of Holmes’s first meeting with Dr. John Watson. It appeared in the 1904 edition of A Study in Scarlet.
In many ways, these illustrators fulfilled the function that was to be assumed by movie and television adaptations in the twentieth century, by fixing the image of Holmes in the collective imagination. Many of these screen versions were also heavily indebted to the original graphic artists, whose work inspired both their mise-en-scene and casting. Scenes from the famous Jeremy Brett Granada television series often look exactly like an animated version of Sidney Paget’s work, and many actors who have played the role of Holmes have based their interpretations of the role on Paget and Steele’s iconic portraits.
American illustrator Frederic Dorr Steele used the actor William Gillette as the model for his illustrations of Holmes. These appeared in Colliers magazine.
Sidney Paget has become a highly sought-after artist in his own right. In 2004, his original drawing of Holmes and Moriarty, locked in mortal combat at the edge of the Reichenbach Falls, sold for $220,800 at Christie’s New York.
J. Allen St. John produced this brilliant rendering of Holmes and Watson against a familiar London backdrop for the cover of the Chicago Tribune “Books”section of February 1949.
Father of the Great Detective
Although Sherlock Holmes was not the first crime solver to appear in print, his appearance was fundamental in establishing the genre of detective fiction, one of the most successful literary forms ever.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin is generally credited as being the world’s first fictional detective, and Conan Doyle himself acknowledged his influence, describing him as ‘‘the best detective in fiction . . . [he] is unrivalled.’’ Dupin first appeared in print in 1841 in a short story, ‘‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’’ and many of the main ingredients of the genre of detective fiction were established in this single tale. But the inspiration behind this fictional character was almost certainly a real person, Eugene Francois Vidocq (1775–1857). Forger-turned-cop and first director of the Paris Surete Nationale, Vidocq had published a four-volume set of ghost-written Memoires (published in 1828 and 1829) that were very successful and widely read. Many consider him the ‘‘father of modern criminal investigation,’’ as he was the first investigator to employ record keeping, criminology, and ballistics to solve his cases. Victor Hugo based two of his Les Misérables characters on Vidocq: Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Poe’s fictional interpretation of the great detective was immediately successful, although Sherlock Holmes was dismissive of Dupin’s detecting abilities. He describes him to Watson as a ‘‘very inferior fellow . . . He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine.’’
Actor Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in the Granada Television series. He starred in forty-one episodes, produced between 1984 and 1994. The series truly recaptures the atmosphere of the original stories and is constantly rerun.
Another fictional detective of whom Holmes speaks contemptuously is Monsieur Lecoq. Created by Emile Gaboriau, Lecoq was also based on the real life character of Vidocq, and appeared in five novels and a single short story between 1866 and 1876. Like Vidocq, he was ‘‘an old offender reconciled with the law.’’ When Watson asks Holmes, ‘‘Does Lecoq come up to your idea of a detective?’’ Sherlock Holmes sniffs sardonically, ‘‘Lecoq was a miserable bungler.’’ In reality, Conan Doyle’s character eclipsed Lecoq, and stole his considerable following.
Several other first-rate authors of the Victorian period were quick to spot the potential of this new genre, and to invent their own crime-busting heroes. Wilkie Collins created his famous Sergeant Cuff (Woman in White), while Charles Dickens offered his Inspector Bucket (Bleak House). British novelist Edmund Yates (1831-1894) ascribed the success of these books to their ‘‘creepy effect, as of pounded ice dropped down the back.’’
Popular “pulp” versions of classic detective stories thrived from the 1920s onward.
Conan Doyle can certainly be credited, not only with taking an existing literary form and ensuring its meteoric rise in popularity, but with adapting and extending the existing framework of the genre. Not only was he the first to create a series of stories around a single detective character, but he was also the first to endow his hero with a ‘‘modern’’ kind of intelligence and set of moral values that gave a new realism to his crime so
lving work. Sherlock’s interest in chemistry and forensics is especially germane to this. But it is the fascinating character of Holmes himself that is Conan Doyle’s most important contribution to the evolution of crime fiction. He is the progenitor of a long and distinguished dynasty of fictional detectives that continues to evolve to this day.
During Conan Doyle’s lifetime, several contemporary authors tried to emulate his success, but their efforts were largely overshadowed by the popularity of Holmes. After his death, the first major fictional detective to gain the attention of the British public was G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown. Like Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown first appeared in the Strand in a series of short stories (fifty-one in total), which were then published in five compilations between 1911 and 1935. Unlike Holmes, Brown’s methods of detection are intuitive rather than deductive. Chesterton went on to establish the British Detective Club for detective story writers. Members were obliged to swear an oath that their sleuths would not rely on ‘‘divine revelation, feminine intuition, mumbo-jumbo, jiggery-pokery, coincidence, or Act of God’’ to help solve their cases.
Charming period jackets for Raymond Chandler’s novels. Chandler developed the “hardboiled” detective genre created by Dashiell Hammett. Author Mickey Spillane also wrote about a new breed of detective with flawed, rather than heroic personalities.
In Britain, the period between the wars became known as the Golden Age of detective story writing, and some of the greatest-ever fictional sleuths date from this time. These characters include Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey, Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, and Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn. The success of the genre at this time in history may well have been due to its escapist nature. People in the post-war period were looking for healing and comfort; an ordered world where the guilty were punished and the innocent were vindicated was hugely attractive. In Britain, publishing forms were also changing, and full-length novels (often produced as paperbacks) took over the popular niche formerly occupied by serialized short stories.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the world of detective fiction was developing in an entirely different direction. Popular ‘‘pulp’’ detective story magazines were prevalent. Black Mask magazine was launched in 1921. It was to have a huge influence on the genre, for in 1923, the magazine published Dashiell Hammett’s first detective story, ‘‘Arson Plus.’’ The story featured a completely new kind of detective; a tough but chivalrous hero, hard enough to walk the mean streets, but ‘‘not himself mean.’’ He was known simply as the Continental Op, and was the first recognizable member of the ‘‘hard-boiled school’’ of fictional American detectives. A world away from the ‘‘gentlemanly’’ work of contemporary British writers, hard-boiled became the ‘‘house style’’ of the American Golden Age of detective fiction. Several practitioners adopted Hammett’s hard-boiled style, the most notable being Raymond Chandler. In 1939, Chandler introduced his brooding detective Philip Marlowe in the novel The Big Sleep. But this dark kind of detective story was not the only variety popular in post-war America. In 1925, Earl Derr Biggers introduced his inscrutable Oriental detective, Charlie Chan, in The House Without a Key. Chan was a completely unique, ‘‘benevolent, and philosophical’’ character, who was also to have a long and successful movie career.
Not all of the great detective writers who enjoyed Sherlock Holmes’s legacy wrote in English. French-Belgian Georges Simeon created one of the world’s best-known sleuths, Inspector Maigret, in 1931. The prolific Simeon wrote seventy-five Maigret novels and twenty-eight short stories about the detective, finishing in 1972. P. D. James accurately complimented Simeon as having ‘‘combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal.’’
After the Second World War, one of the first new American detective storywriters to be published was Mickey Spillane. Spillane introduced his famous hero, Mike Hammer, in his 1947 novel I, The Jury. Critically, his work moved the genre into a whole new area of gratuitous sex and violence, which provoked general outrage. But this did not hinder the great commercial success of Spillane’s work, and he was far more interested in book sales than critical approval. Characteristically, he referred to his readers as ‘‘customers.’’ He described his work as ‘‘garbage,’’ but insisted that it was ‘‘good garbage.’’
Mike Hammer was the first of a completely new breed of American ‘‘detective,’’ whose personalities were actually flawed, rather than merely eccentric, as in the endearing style of Holmes and many of his imitators. By contrast, sleuths of the British post-World War II generation were far more ‘‘decent,’’ tending to be intellectual, sensitive, and burdened with high moral standards. This cultured coterie included Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Reginald Wexford, P. D. James’s Adam Dalgleish, and Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse.
From the 1970s onwards, another new trend was embraced by detective storywriters on both sides of the Atlantic: the female sleuth. British writer P. D. James introduced Cordelia Grey in 1972, while American writers Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, and Sara Paretsky unveiled Sharon McCone, Kinsey Millhouse, and V. I. Warshawski, respectively.
By the 1980s and ’90s, a new generation of male detectives had also come a long way since the strong silent type embodied by Holmes. This British archetype was usually brusque, often personally unsuccessful, but essentially right thinking. Examples include John Rebus by Ian Rankin, Charlie Resnick by John Harvey, and the duo of Dalziel and Pascoe by Reginald Hill. Perhaps the only famous exception to this troubled cast is Caroline Graham’s Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby (the hero of her Midsomer Murder series), whose only serious personal problem is his wife’s terrible cooking.
By stark contrast, contemporary American ‘‘detectives’’ are still often far more seriously damaged individuals. They struggle to overcome substance abuse and/or personal demons, while carrying the scars of each case on to their next investigation. This tortured crew includes James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux, Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder, and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch.
Although modern detective ‘‘heroes’’ may seem to have moved a long way from the more obviously admirable nature of Holmes, it is interesting to note that the stories in which they appear still pivot around the character and the investigative skills of the hero detectives (with or without their Watsons), rather than the impersonal forensic technology of modern crime fighting. There is still an iconic place for the great detective in our culture, and it was the character of Sherlock Holmes that carved the cultural niche in which many others now stand.
The genre itself continues to gain popularity at every cultural level, from the essentially popular to the highly literary. Fiction bestseller lists continue to be crowded with wave after wave of imaginary crime fighters, while the best of the classic detective stories have lost none of their appeal and continue to be widely read and adapted for other media.
CHAPTER THREE
“The Air of London is sweeter for my presence.”
SHERLOCK HOLMES
“London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.”
DR. JOHN WATSON, “A STUDY IN SCARLET”
“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Sherlock Holmes in ‘‘The Great Wilderness’’
The Baker Street sign has a silhouette of its most famous resident in the top right hand corner.
Apart from the detecting duo themselves, “the great wilderness of London” is the most famous presence in the early Sherlock Holmes stories. Indeed, Holmes’s encyclopedic knowledge of London is one of his greatest professional skills, facilitating the solution of many cases. In the minds of his readers, Sherlock’s reputation became irrevocably interwoven with the streets of the British capital, and this close connection conti
nues to fascinate. To this day, many tourists visit London with the intention of walking the streets the great detective walked and viewing the landmarks that Conan Doyle describes through Holmes’s eyes. Many of the street names and places and interest with which Holmes was familiar have not only survived, but have remained almost unchanged for over a century: Pall Mall, the street where Mycroft Holmes has his club, The Diogenes; Simpson’s on the Strand, where Watson and Holmes dine; The British Museum where Holmes studies; Covent Garden Market where Holmes visits a dealer in geese; the railway stations at Charing Cross (from where Irene Adler escapes), Victoria, Waterloo, and Baker Street; Pope’s Court, just off Fleet Street, where the Red-Headed League has its headquarters; Charing Cross Hospital, where Holmes is taken after the attack outside Piccadilly’s Café Royal; Bow Street, where the man with a twisted lip begs; the theaters Holmes visits, the Haymarket, Lyceum, Covent Garden Opera House, and the Albert Hall (opened in 1871); the River Thames, where Holmes and Watson chase Jonathan Small in pursuit of the Agra Treasure; Lloyd’s Bank in Pall Mall, where Watson keeps his deposit box, stuffed with un-recounted Holmes adventures. The upshot of this is that it is still perfectly possible to walk in the great man’s footsteps around the capital city.
