Holmes, part 2

We should remember that the short story made a slow appearance as a distinct literary form in England, where the 3-volume novel had been the only type of fiction from the beginning of the 19th Century. However, with the rise of successful magazines for the newly-literate middle class, short stories found favor with the public.

The short story, Poe had said, had to be read in one sitting and achieve a 'unity of effect.' The detective story was the perfect form for the short story, as it strove to proceed inevitably to a pre-determined denoument with the added effect of celebrating reason and science in the Victorian age of progress.

Still, Arthur Conan Doyle (pictured above) was committed to the novel form, and to keep himself busy during a slow medical practice, he cranked out a historical novel that never found a publisher. Then, in imitation of Poe (who he admired), he wrote "A Study in Scarlet." It's a long short story, really, with a bloated historical section in the middle about the Mormons -- just what you'd expect of a historical novelist trying to write in a new genre. This appeared in a Christmas Annual in 1887 and was dismissed.

Then an American firm, Lippencott Magazine, noticed it and asked Doyle for another. "The Sign of Four" was published in 1889.

English reviewers were unimpressed.

Doyle believed Holmes obscured his higher work, that is, his historical novels. But his so-called higher work wasn't bringing in money. So he offered The Strand Magazine a series of detective stories which would be based on his childhood hero, Dupin, and his medical school hero, Dr. Bell, a diagnostician who could tell much about a person by carefully observing details (as in Holmes saying to Watson, "I perceive you have been in Afghanistan.").

Doyle conceived of a series of self-contained episodes, not a continuing serial. This was a breakthrough in itself, something Poe had attempted but not quite carried off. Like Poe, Doyle found newspaper reports helpful for plot ideas, as well as brief news items in The Strand where his Holmes stories appeared. At first he wrote only 6 stories for The Strand, hoping to return to his 'serious' fiction. The editors and the public insisted on more tales so strongly by the time the 4th story appeared that Doyle set a price so high that he expected it to be refused. But The Strand agreed immediately, to Doyle's consternation, and he was obliged to produce 6 more 'adventures.' At this point he thought of killing off Holmes. He told his mom, and she wrote back: "You won't! You can't! You mustn't!"

Doyle believed 12 stories were plenty and he tried again to return to his 'serious' work. But The Strand begged him for more. In 1892 he offered to do a dozen more for L 1,000, a price so high he figured they would turn him down. The Strand accepted, and "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" was produced. This time, though, Doyle carried out his earlier threat, and in "The Final Problem," a heavy-hearted Watson tells of Holmes' death in Switzerland's Reichenbach Falls with his arch-enemy, master criminal Professor Moriarty.

Doyle was deluged with letters from grief-stricken readers. People wept openly in the streets. Women wore veils and men wore black armbands in public. The Strand lost 20,000 subscribers. No wonder they said to readers: "There will be a temporary interval in the Sherlock Holmes stories. A new series will commence in an early number. Meanwhile, powerful detective stories will be contributed by other eminent writers."

Despite an international protest, Doyle refused to change his mind for ten years. He worked on dismal historical novels, visited America, and served in a British hospital during the Boer War (his book about this experience got him knighted in 1902).

Then, in 1901, a friend mentioned a legend about a demonic hound in the misty bogs of Dartmoor. And a story took shape.