Introduction
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous fictional detectives ever created. He created over 60 stories with the character, and Sherlock Holmes can still be seen today in modern media in TV shows, movies and even in video games. Although, as Sherlock Holmes gained its popularity among fans and readers across the world, it lost its popularity by the creator himself. Arthur Conan Doyle was a creator of much more than just detective stories, and thought that Sherlock Holmes was distracting him from writing more serious literature. The author of the beloved detective novels and short stories was worried that Sherlock was actually holding him back and preferred historical novels that he found to be more important in the grand scheme of humanity. Because of this, the author tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes in order to focus on more important literature that would make a greater affect on the people of his time. Many fans of Conan Doyle were very displeased by this and after 8 years, the author brought back Sherlock Holmes after pressure from fans, family and his editors.
This project explores Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work of Sherlock Holmes, comparing the stories “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, “The Adventure of the Final Problem” and finally “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone” in order to discover if Doyle’s dislike of Sherlock outshining the rest of his work, affected the short stories and their creation. Finding similarities and differences within their writing and underlying themes.
Helpful Links
About Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Encyclopedia of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, including a biography, list of all of his work and all adaptions of things Conan Doyle.
The Speckled Band, Annotated – Annotations on historical context and literary elements
Annotations Analysis – A summary of the annotations and explanation for the usage of the annotations
Stylistic Comparisons Analysis – Similarities and differences in short stories “Speckled Band”, “Final Problem”, and “Mazarin Stone”
Project Conclusions – An overview of the annotations and analysis of this project