From the time of Conan Doyle to today, Holmes and the private investigators he represents have gone from being lonely heroes who turn the tide of the tide to a special police force that picks up the slackers and fills in the gaps—a romantic era has passed. Then, another two years later, the popularity of the British drama "Sherlock" tells us that London, and even the world, still needs Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes, who never ends
Written by / Lin Hai
Support / Museums of London
Statue of Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street underground station.
Wearing a long black trench coat, wearing a deer hunting hat and smoking a pipe are the classic images of this Victorian detective.
In 2009, "Sherlock Holmes" left too many hot praise and suspense. Holmes, who saved London from danger, sat on the half-broken London Bridge railing, and the freighter below was spitting black smoke on the Thames. Two years later, in Shadow Games, Holmes and Watson try to maintain elegance and meticulousness, but time has flown into the 20th century incomprehensibly. The times move slowly forward in the theme of science and industry. From the time of Conan Doyle to today, Holmes and the private investigators he represents have changed from a lone hero who turned the tide of the tide to a special police force that picked up the slackers - a romantic era has passed, which inevitably makes all nostalgic Holmes fans regret. However, another two years later, the popularity of the British drama "Sherlock" tells us that London, and even the world, still need Sherlock Holmes.
In 1876, arthur conan doyle, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Edinburgh's Medical School, decided to become a doctor. Five years later, he earned a bachelor's degree in medicine and began working as a doctor. Conan Doyle's first job was as a ship doctor on an Arctic whaling ship; during his 7-month voyage, he was exposed to stories of spiritism and supernatural witchcraft and was intrigued. The following year, he signed up to work as a doctor on a West African steamboat and traveled to the Coast of West Africa, where he nearly lost his life from a fever. In 1883, he began to open a clinic in Portsmouth. However, the income can only barely make ends meet. Out of interest, he switched to writing detective novels. However, this attempt was unsuccessful, and a study in scarlet (1887) was thrown several times, either sinking into the sea or waiting for a polite rejection letter.
Portrait of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Manuscript of The Study of Blood Letters, 1886. The Study of Blood Letters is conan Doyle's first detective novel.
Conan Doyle's first two novels, The Study of The Blood Letter, and The Sign of the Four (1890), did not attract attention or repercussions. In 1891, strand magazine (1891-1950) was the first to publish Conan Doyle's short story featuring Sherlock Holmes, which caused a sensation. With the advent of the Sherlock Holmes Series, Conan Doyle's writing began to be a great success. Holmes became a household name, and his residence at 221 Baker Street became a tourist attraction. Even on the streets of the United States, people often greet each other and ask, "Do you know Sherlock's recent new case?" ”
Two editions of Beaton's Christmas Annual Edition are the Study of Blood Letters.
△ 1887. This was the first public publication of the detective novel, and the response was mediocre.
Cover of Sherlock Holmes, first published in New York in 1903.
At the same time, however, Conan Doyle, the "father of Sherlock Holmes," was probably not willing to always be famous for his "non-existent figures." In 1894, the seventh year of the Sherlock Holmes series, he began to tire of Holmes's "endless erosion of his life" and wrote in a letter to his mother: "I consider killing Holmes... Kill him, a hundred. He took up too much of my time. ”
The Adventures of Silver Flame.
△ Painted by Sidney Edward Paget, 1892. The Adventures of the Silver Flame is part of a Series of Sherlock Holmes novels and ranks 13th among Conan Doyle's 19 favorite Sherlock Holmes stories.
The streets of Victorian London.
△ Horse-drawn carriages were the main means of transportation at that time, in 1890.
In the end, Conan Doyle did exactly what he did in The Last Case: Holmes dueled with the leader of the criminal gang and professor Moriarty, the top mathematician, and fell off a cliff together — which is the end of the movie "Shadow Game". The cruel news of the 37-year-old genius detective's death spread, and no one could accept such shock and sadness. There were many people on the streets of London wearing black cuffbands, and even women came to the door to scold Conan Doyle as a beast. Some people demonstrated in protest, some people went to serial newspapers to smash the newspaper hall to vent their emotions, and some even threatened to murder the author. In the words of Russell Miller, a biographer of Conan Doyle, "Infatuation makes one irrational, regret turns into anger, and people blame all the pain of loss on one person: this is the creator of Holmes, Conan Doyle." ”
Holmes's final showdown with his sworn enemy Moriarty at The Reichenbach Falls.
Illustrated by Victorian illustrator Sidney Edward Paget, 1893. Paget's illustrations, along with Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story series, were published in strand magazine and complemented each other.
Private investigators used to mean hands of justice outside the state apparatus, sometimes hating the police and sometimes tearing each other down. Sherlock Holmes is such a character who is both good and evil. He describes himself as a "consulting detective" who asks the police for help when they encounter difficulties, and he can often solve problems skillfully through observation and deduction. It is said that Conan Doyle was inspired by an observant teacher who studied at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh to create the character of Sherlock Holmes. He collects all the clues in his mind between elegant conversations and laughter, and uses his outstanding logical reasoning ability to build a web of details, so that the real murderer can finally be caught, and these scenes make the audience addicted.
Map of London.
Holmes has a real-time updated map of London in his head, and he knows clearly which sections of the road cannot be turned and which streets can only be one-way, so as to cross the streets and alleys in the city and track down the murderer.
In "Shadow Game", released at the end of 2011, Holmes and Watson seem to have come to the modern era on a time machine. The enemy they faced was no longer the old-fashioned earl who pretended to be a ghost and seduced people with witchcraft, but an arms group armed with machine guns and cannons that vigorously promoted the War between France and Germany. When Holmes galloped for his life in the woods, and his opponents simply and rudely pursued and killed with scopes, scale plates and large-caliber howitzers, when Holmes and Watson each carried a submachine gun and transformed into an undead "blue wave" to fire, the story of the private detective was about to end. Sure enough, the director borrowed the words of the villain Professor Moriarty and said: "Even if you stop me, war will break out." Science and industry will eventually push humanity into the path of development of war. This is exactly what happened, and although they foiled Professor Moriarty's plot to explode and cultivate hatred to ignite the flames of war, they were ultimately unable to stop the gunshots in Sarajevo and the "squeaking" activation of the "meat grinder" of the Somme.
Movie poster for Four Signatures.
Australia, 1923. Four Signatures is Conan Doyle's second detective novel. With the popularity of the "Sherlock Holmes Series", The works of Conan Doyle began to be a great success and were widely disseminated.
The third season of the hit "Sherlock" in 2013 once again set off a Sherlock's fever. The legendary detective, who has been personable and scheming for hundreds of years, has once again emerged from his apartment in Building B at 221 Baker Street. Sherlock's world has entered the second decade of the 21st century, and he has also used an electron microscope and a BlackBerry mobile phone to locate the victim through GPS. His best friend, Dr. Watson, also has a new identity — a military medic returning from the battlefields of Afghanistan. However, all the new elements did not prevent Sherlock Holmes fans from pursuing the show. In their view, even today, London, and even the world still need Holmes.
△ BBC hit drama "Sherlock" sherlock played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is affectionately known as "Roll Fu" by Chinese audiences. Cumberbatch won emmy awards, Golden Satellite Awards and other best actor awards for the series.
The inspiration for Sherlock was born in 2006. Renowned Sherlock Holmes enthusiast Mark Gatis was invited to the Capitol to address the annual Sherlock Holmes Society Dinner. At the meeting, he revealed to the audience a BBC meeting to discuss whether it was possible to recreate Conan Doyle's work and make a Christmas special. As a result of the meeting, he and BBC failed to agree. But, in Gatis's words, as he "sighed in the endless circular corridor and foamed at the laymen who didn't know what they were thinking," he happened to meet a producer who had just returned from The Afghan capital, Kabul. "As he passed, I touched his arm and whispered, 'I noticed that you've been to Afghanistan recently.'" ’”
In addition to pipes and deer hunting hats, typewriters, chemical experiments, pistols, these are also Sherlock Holmes's standard and crime-solving tools.
This sentence planted an idea in the screenwriter's mind, and then he and the producer and director let the idea germinate and became a modern version of "Sherlock". At a dinner at the society that evening, Gatis said: "A young military doctor, wounded in Afghanistan, with no friends, alone in London. He entwined the appetite of his audience, "In the midst of a period of hardship, I met a classmate who was studying medicine, and the man said that he knew a man who was looking for a roommate, and that person was not bad, but it was a little strange..." In this way, Gatis peddled him and the BBC's new Sherlock to the world's most difficult and stubborn Sherlock Fans. As a result, they agreed with the plan to bring Holmes to the modern age.
Sherlock Holmes has long been one of london's symbols. His silhouette of a heather pipe and cloak contrasts with the narrow streets of old London. His residence, Building b at 221 Baker Street, became a well-known tourist attraction. The Royal Society of Chemistry even intends to award Sherlock Holmes the title of "Honorary Fellow". Moreover, in 2002 that vision was finally realized. Time flies, and screenwriter Gatis gives Sherlock Holmes a new life. According to this, he was called "the new generation of Conan Doyle". In an interview before filming the second season, he said: "We were overwhelmed by the warm welcome and feedback that New Holmes and Watson received, which was something we had never imagined before. We simply can't wait for a new adventure. Next year, there will be magical new puzzles, old friends and new enemies coming together — whether two-legged or four-legged. We may also see this calm and rational master fall, whether in love or on a cliff. ”
Sherlock Holmes would usually spend his leisurely time in his apartment in Building B, 221 Baker Street, smoking a pipe and waiting for a delegate to come to the door.
Calmness and sanity, though, were not the most appealing features of Holmes. In the eyes of Sherlock Holmes fans, although the background of "Sherlock" was directly moved to 21st century London, it is still a real Sherlock Holmes in the bones, and the taste and essence are preserved. He is still so arrogant, reasoning so fast that everyone can't keep up, with a slight "anti-social" psychology, almost a British "rock'n' roll style". His arrogance reflects the superiority of wisdom and the psychological motivation to constantly seek adventure. His indifference or repression of his relationships, or even the subtle expression of his feelings, are all preserved intact. The individualism of Holmes is in delicate contrast with the specialization of modern criminal justice – and this is the charm of Holmes.
As Holmes became a household name, his residence at 221 Baker Street became a popular tourist attraction.
Since the background has moved to the 21st century, a lot of details still have to be updated, and at this point, screenwriter Gatis shows his advantages as a veteran Sherlock Holmes fan. The play is full of hints and tributes to the original work, so that hardcore fans can harvest the fun of confirming the original at any time. For example, the case "Pink Study" in the first episode is changed from the original "Study of Blood Words", and even the murderer's method of murder is basically the same. Both The Blind Banker and Deadly Game can also find their origins in the original text. At the same time, due to being in a modern city, the details have also been cleverly modified: the pipe that is inseparable from the original work has to be painfully cut due to the European law prohibiting indoor smoking in public places. Holmes had to replace it with a nicotine patch; the coachman became a taxi driver; the pocket watch he carried with him was duly replaced by a mobile phone. Holmes used to publish papers on logic from time to time, but now he simply has a website of his own to discuss the "science of reasoning". His partner, Dr. Watson, still plays the role of narrator who chronicles the legend of Sherlock Holmes. However, at this time, Dr. Watson recorded and conveyed Holmes's joys and sorrows to the public in real time through his blog.
Victorian London, 1890.
It is worth mentioning that many of the details in the "Sherlock" drama are real in reality, such as the previously mentioned Sherlock Holmes's own website "The Science of Reasoning" and Watson's blog, which can be found in the real Internet, and the content will continue to be updated with the development of the plot, and even the characters in the play will continue to interact with the public. Even the speedy café where Sherlock Holmes and Watson often patronize to buy sandwiches in the play is real. In this Gower Street café, there is even a sale of Sherlock-themed food, especially Sherlock rolls (chicken, bacon, cheda cheese, lettuce, pepper, red onion, cucumber, chili sauce – tightly wrapped, like Sherlock's unexplored personality) and Watson rolls (grilled vegetables, spinach, tomatoes, onions, brie cheese, sour cream – safe, warm, healing, like Watson's personality). It is said that the Moriarty sandwich may be launched in the future, but I wonder what kind of flavor the sandwich named after the big villain will have.
In "Sherlock", the furniture in the Sherlock apartment at 221 Baker Street is not only a detective, but also a good violin.
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Brilliant typography presentation
This article is excerpted from the September 2015 issue of Civilization
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