Like many works in literary history that began to be snubbed and later ascended to the top, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was rejected three times in a row in 1886. Eventually, a man named Ward. Locke's company reluctantly accepted it and published it in an internal company publication.
Unexpectedly, after only a month of hard work, the novel was frantically reprinted by outside newspapers.
The greatest fictional character in the history of world detectives - Sherlock. Holmes officially debuted.
In 1888, Britain was at its peak during the Victorian period, and colonial plunder led to unprecedented social prosperity. The development of physics, chemistry, botany, and military disciplines has dazzled the world and indirectly spawned the earliest middle class in Britain.
In a busy and complex age, this materially driven middle class strongly embraced individual competence and empiricism. They showed a strong interest in the thrilling plots of coincidence, suspense, and conflict, and the crazy worship of the meticulous logic of "Sherlock Holmes", a seemingly illusory character, became the first loyal fans of Conan Doyle's Holmes.
Since then, from Britain to the United States, Germany, and other countries, Holmes has crossed the ocean and captured a group of fans.
Beginning with the first episode of "Sherlock Holmes" in 1886, Conan Doyle continued to create for 8 years, gradually becoming unhappy.
As a doctor, Conan Doyle got tired of the unsympathetic name "Detective Novelist" and finally "pushed Holmes down" the waterfall in "The Last Case" in 1893.
In 1890, The name of Holmes was widely spread in Britain and the Western world, attracting the attention of international students in the late Qing Dynasty.
In 1896, in Liang Qichao's "Times", an English-translated novel "Sherlock Holmes Detective" was published.
As the first foreign literary work to be translated, The Sherlock Holmes detective also attracted the attention of many people when it was first published. However, at that time, China was in the period of the Restoration Movement, and this work occupied a valuable role in the position of the Restoration Movement, the "Current Affairs Newspaper", which caused many people to be dissatisfied.
Moreover, the translator translated The name of Holmes as "Holmes. Sherlock", which translates Watson's name as "Slippery Shock", also seems unusual.
Therefore, this novel, which is well-known in the Western world, has encountered an unprecedented cold reception in China, which is unexpected by Westerners.
In 1932, Mr. Lu Xun recalled in "Wishing for the Friendship of Chinese and Russian Characters":
"We once saw the changes in "Sherlock Holmes Detective" in Liang Qichao's "Current Newspaper", and in "New Novel", we saw the novelty of "Journey to the Bottom of the Sea" written by Joswinu, which is known as a science novel... The stories of Bao Detective, adventurer, English girl, and African barbarism can only be scratched on the swollen body when drunk."
Mr. Lu Xun stood on the stage of the responsibility of the times and the national field of home, and he would not know how much reading miracle this "Sherlock Holmes" that he thought was "drunk and idle to watch" would create in the past and in the future.
However, Mr. Lu Xun gave sharp criticism that such novels actually occupied a valuable corner of the newspaper, believing that he was wasting propaganda resources and helping those who were "idle and bored to break their sleep."
At the end of the 19th century, the decadent government of the late Qing Dynasty was like a candle in the wind, and the benevolent people were bent on saving the country and the people. Mr. Lu Xun's evaluation of "Sherlock Holmes" spoke the voice of many advanced thinkers at that time.
For Chinese literature at that time, the great changes that Russia had entered society first were more attractive and more practical to Mr. Lu Xun and others. Therefore, "Sherlock Holmes" had almost no readers in China at that time, and the reading myth was shattered.
However, the significance of "Sherlock Holmes" is not then, but in the future.
Because, the author Conan Doyle is a doctor and an experienced chemist. If you look at the forefront of modern disciplines, this is still a leading book for popularizing the discipline of chemistry.
In 1904, the modern translator Zhou Guisheng began to translate The Case of Sherlock Holmes after reading Conan Doyle's original work. Although few people read it at the time, some translators who were deeply involved in modern Western disciplines were keenly aware of the book's significance for the future.
In 1893, Conan Doyle was in the most collapsed state of his life, because he wrote Holmes "dead".
For Conan Doyle, his desire was to be a great, thoughtful writer, not a novelist who was talked about on the streets of the city. Although "Sherlock Holmes" made him famous and gained a lot of wealth, he did not want to live in the shadow of his characters.
Every time he went out, passers-by would come up and ask, "Hey, sir, when are you going to write about Holmes's next case?" ”
When he "pushed Holmes down" the waterfall in "The Last Case", Holmes fans expressed an incomparably strong anger!
They denounced Conan Doyle in the streets, sent him letters of threat, refused to buy any newspaper of the magazine, and even had fans petition the Queen to resurrect Sherlock Holmes...
After a few years of silence, Conan Doyle, who was harassed day and night by life and work, finally lifted his pen under pressure from all sides and resurrected Holmes.
The resurrection of Sherlock Holmes made fans cheer, while Conan Doyle suffered in Holmes's shadow. Until 1927, he completed 4 novels and 56 short stories to meet expectations.
Holmes is a fictional character, but this virtual character has a long-lasting vitality, attached to Conan Doyle's body, becoming the greatest character in the history of the world's detective suspense novels.
However, Conan Doyle also created a modern miracle!
The "fans", a group of modern meanings, were born from the middle class of sherlock Holmes's generation. Their enthusiasm, loyalty, and desperate madness for their "idols" have been "passed down" to this day.
Holmes has a wide audience worldwide. In Japan, the role of Conan was born; in the United States, the "Sherlock Holmes Club" was established in many places; in britain, film and television works appeared in an endless stream, and they were popular every time; in China, there were also a large number of roll fu fans!
Why is Sherlock Holmes so sought after?
In Conan Doyle's book, Holmes was intimately acquainted with the great cases of the Entire Middle Ages, possessed a wealth of knowledge of chemistry, botany, and medicine, and was filled with love and sympathy for the common people, and with disdain and contempt for high society. In the cases he handled, not a single criminal had slipped through the net, and no superior person had escaped justice.
This kind of "lone heroism" has a strong attraction to people who have lost their sustenance and faith in the material age. Taste the thrill of "controlling your destiny" in the virtual space, absorb the rigorous and meticulous wisdom of the virtual characters in the real world, and find the fertile soil for your dreams in the ordinary life... This is the fundamental reason why Holmes was worshipped.
According to statistics, from the birth of Sherlock Holmes to the present, his fans have reached as many as 120 million people.
Among those who worship him are students, peasants, policemen, stars, entrepreneurs, and clerks, but there are no thinkers, philosophers, and scholars.
Mr. Lu Xun did not like "Sherlock Holmes" because such novels did not have practical significance in that time and space, and were not beneficial to saving the country and awakening people's hearts. His ideal is to awaken people's hearts, save the country and save the people! Chinese of that era did not pursue Holmes, because the knowledge of chemistry, medicine, and detective disciplines in this book had never been popularized before, and many people were confused when they read it.
Many people now like Sherlock Holmes because in this time and space, "Sherlock Holmes" has a wide range of practical value. Some people use this to study the history of Britain, some people borrow the wisdom of Holmes to solve cases, some people use this to exercise the ability to think carefully, some people use this to cultivate the ability to learn and think...
The Creator gave man the most complex brain, but did not teach man the fully open way.
The great detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Conan Doyle, is obviously ahead of most people in the direction of using the brain. The reason why "Sherlock Holmes" has endured for a long time is precisely because the author has eliminated the sense of dislocation between virtual characters and real society, and has exerted human intelligence based on material society to the extreme, making people unable to distinguish between true and false.
And Conan Doyle is different from ordinary people's brain holes, the suspense setting of the story, the logical and meticulous way of thinking and the implicit humor of the expression method, which is also the main reason why countless readers can't bear to let Holmes leave.
Friends who like Holmes can take a look.
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