Day 366

Well, I know I was absent yesterday. Actually, I was busy in my professional work. Although, this was the reason of my absent for two years. But I can’t ignore the professional life. That’s also a part of the life. Main thing is that now I’m getting time to write also. I know that I’m boring you people but I think that I should write on those topics on which I need to write.

Anyway today I wanted to write on something which was in my mind. But I have dropped it for the time being. I’m going to write on it. But maybe tomorrow or some other day. Then what should I do today? This is the thing which is disturbing me. I want to have some light topic today.  Well, reading fictional novels is my hobby. Last night, after a long time, I was reading novel of Sherlock Holmes. Name of the novel is ‘The Hound of the Baskerville’. I have read this numerous times. But every time, I feel that I’m reading this for the first time. Actually, in my view, this is the effect of writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Indeed, his creation Sherlock Holmes isn’t the first fictional character but it’s a legendary fictional character. It also said that many readers believed him to be a real person.

Well, it’s a fact that Sherlock Holmes is the most admired detective character in the world. Many writers have tried to create another detective character while having Sherlock Holmes in their mind. This fact forced me to think which led me to a question. Why Sherlock Holmes become ace detective character? Why is he so much popular even after a century? What’s the magic of Arthur Conan Doyle which makes him and his fictional character a legend? For this I made further enquiry. You can say that I felt like Sherlock Holmes and tried to solve this case. You can laugh at this but it’s the fact.

I further studied the novels of Sherlock Holmes. Since starting, I found that Dr. Watson is Holmes’s constant companion. Every time, Sherlock has to explain the method of deduction to Dr. Watson. Well, I must admit this but many times I was forced to think that Dr. Watson was an idiot companion of Sherlock Holmes. I think this was true. But on further studying the novels again, I felt that Dr. Watson was just a way for Arthur Conan Doyle to explain his way of deductions which he explained through Sherlock Holmes. Indirectly, Doyle’s purpose to create Dr. Watson was to explain his deductions to his readers.

Second factor which I found was that the opponents of Sherlock Holmes were mentally equivalent to him. They were master of the crime. One of them was Prof. James Moriarty. In Red Headed League, the villain was John Clay. Actually, John Clay was a pawn of Prof. Moriarty. Since then Sherlock Holmes found that he is dealing with a person who is of the same in terms of analytical reasoning and deduction. In the Final Problem, where Sherlock Holmes falls in the pit along with Prof. Moriarty, there were few incidences where Prof. Moriarty has tried to kill Sherlock Holmes. Well, there are many examples where the villains made smart moves and were undetected. Just like in The Hound of the Baskerville, the villain was Rodger Baskerville’s son named as Rodger again was in disguise of Stapleton.

Third reason which I found was the use of forensic science as the aid of solving cases. I think this was the master stroke of Doyle to have impact on his writing as well as on his readers. This method wasn’t much in practice before Doyle created Sherlock Holmes. But now days it has become a common practice for the detective writers. But this was something new in that time. Well, in The Sign of Four, the method of finger prints was introduced to crack the case.

Well, these were my observations which I found by reading the stories again and again. Actually, I started the reading with the intention of finding the causes but got diverted by the flow of the plot and story. So I began to read it again. It took me time to reach the conclusion which I wrote above.