Sherlock Holmes' Past Lives
Dachuan @ 2005-06-25 15:37
Sherlock Holmes' Past Lives
Charles. Mcgrath Washington Post columnist
Recently, there have been a large number of Sherlock? The book featuring Sherlock Holmes has been published. This well-deserved and most well-known novel character still lives in people's hearts today. Even if his creator Conan Doyle personally "killed" him in the last case (written in 1893), it didn't help. We are all familiar with the beginning of the story told by Dr. Watson: "With a deep heart, I began to write ..."
Conan Doyle ignored his mother's thousand entreaties, and arranged for Holmes to wrestle with Professor moriarty, the "Napoleon of the criminal world", and fell into the abyss under the Lessingbach Waterfall. In fact, because The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is deeply loved by the public, his long historical novel, which he values more, has been ignored, and Conan Doyle has always been bitter. He once said, "I have long been impatient with his name," adding that after writing so many detective novels featuring him, "I now feel that hearing him is like hearing foie gras pie. I have eaten too many foie gras pies before, so when I hear people talking about foie gras pies, I feel queasy. "
But readers don't think so, and letters urging Holmes to resurrect are flooding in. Many "lucky fans" actually wear black gauze on the streets of London to show "mourning" and protest. At first Conan Doyle was stubborn and never gave in. But at 190 1, when he needed it very much, he wrote The Hound of Baskerville, and Holmes came back. This story, in the form of a memoir, tells an event that happened many years ago-this was certainly done by Conan Doyle on purpose. But by 1903, he simply got rid of this excuse. In The Empty House, the most complicated and elaborate story in Sherlock Holmes series, he reveals that Sherlock Holmes is still alive, but he just plays dead. After subduing Professor moriarty with Japanese sumo, he arranged the scene, leaving the illusion of death, then went abroad for a holiday and returned to England a few years later.
From then on, Conan Doyle was out of control, and a * * * wrote 3 1 detective novel. His seal was written in 1927, only three years before his death. Conan Doyle's death not only did not end Holmes' "afterlife", but opened the door to convenience. Since then, various themes created by Sherlock Holmes have gradually developed into a spectacular entertainment kingdom. There are at least 100 movies, and almost as many plays and radio plays are about him. As for all kinds of books inspired by the image of Sherlock Holmes, they are even more numerous. If these books are piled up, even the library can't hold them. This includes countless sequels and imitations. Nicholas is famous? Meyer's trilogy connects Holmes with Freud, Wilde and the Phantom of the Opera Theatre.
At the same time, a large number of "Fu Fan" works with research style are constantly being thrown out. Many of these works stem from the fanaticism of Fu fans who are addicted to the game of "confusing the real with the fake". These devout and fanatical fans insist that Sherlock Holmes and Watson are real people. In order to solve some contradictions in Conan Doyle's original works, these fans have written a lot of papers and even monographs. (For example, the date and train time of correcting mistakes, or how many times Watson has been married in his life, and where the wounds injured in the Afghan war are, all of them are identified. They also added things that were missing from the original work: for example, when was Holmes' birthday, or did he go to Cambridge or Oxford, and so on.
Some works are too whimsical, for example, C. Allen Bradley and William A.S. Sargent think that the prototype of Sherlock Holmes is actually a woman. Where's Kenneth Lanza hinted that Holmes and Irene? Ejdero (Bohemian scandal) not only fell in love, but also gave birth to an illegitimate child, the later "easy chair detective" Nile? Wolves. In any case, when they put forward these speculations and conjectures, they were serious. This adds another question to the mystery of Sherlock Holmes: Why does it always revolve around Sherlock Holmes? Why did he, rather than other novel characters, inspire people's fanatical loyalty and love?
Sherlock Holmes, in Conan Doyle's words, "is simply the most perfect reasoning and observation machine in the world". In fact, he is not a very likable figure. Speaking of which, it's hard to find someone like him in reality. Raymond. Chandler once said that Sherlock Holmes "represents a gesture more than some unforgettable conversations he said." He is a dead, arrogant guy and a drug addict. Four signs show how he uses cocaine three times a day to overcome fatigue. He has no friends except Dr. Watson. Moreover, although some people disagree, we can be quite sure that he is still a virgin. These are all proof of Holmes' inhumanity, but they add to his charm. He fascinates us, perhaps because he is a mysterious figure, very different from anyone we know or read. He is a password that we can't crack.
Several recently published books may provide some clues for us to understand the mystery of Sherlock Holmes' charm. Among them, The Complete Works of A New Review of Sherlock Holmes is two thick volumes written by Leslie? Edited by klinger. There are wide eyebrows on the page, which are used to comment and annotate every story. There are three novels: Caleb? Carl's Italian secretary, Michael? The ultimate solution of Chaban (novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner), and Mitch? Carlin's little trick.
Sherlock Holmes written by Carl is a typical representative of a Victorian figure-he is extremely rational, disgusted with sexual desire and superstitious. It is implicitly mentioned in the book that we love reading Sherlock Holmes' stories so much because these stories vividly reproduce the world of19th century: those trains, two-wheeled carriages, stables, alleys, shopkeepers, street urchins, a hierarchical and orderly Victorian society, in which you can almost tell a person's occupation from the style of his boots or shirt cuffs. One of the reasons why the ranks of Fu fans can grow is that these detective novels provide so many interesting details and texts for mining.
Sherlock Holmes is barely a bohemian figure, but he is also a defender of Victorian order. All Sherlock Holmes stories are caused by an event that threatens the social order and reasonable arrangement of existence, and Sherlock Holmes has successfully restored the orderly operation of the world without exception. Therefore, it is really amazing and interesting to see that Chapan and Carlin's novels have pulled Holmes out of the Victorian world and devoted him to our time. At this point, Holmes became a somewhat confused person.
Both novels are set in the 1940s. At this time, Holmes, old and frail, was still a little silly, and had already lived a retired life as a beekeeper in Sussex. He is about 80 or early 90 years old, and the gloom of World War II lingers in the novel, reminding us and Sherlock Holmes that the stable Victorian era is gone forever. In Chapan's novel The Final Solution, Holmes returns to London after the German air raid. In Carlin's "Trick", the time background is that one night a few years later, Holmes and a Japanese friend come to Hiroshima, which has become a ruin. On these two occasions, Holmes fell into great disappointment, but at the same time he marveled at the endless life and vitality in a brand-new and unpredictable way.
There are some coincidences between the two novels, both about Sherlock Holmes' attachment to a little boy. Sherlock Holmes in the novel has to endure the pain of loneliness and isolation, which is because he used to advocate rationality and a single-goal life.
The image of Sherlock Holmes in both books is not so tall, but it is very touching. Carlin's novels are even more so and more satisfying. The novel doesn't even bother to arrange suspense plots, but presents a touching image of a dying hero. This Sherlock Holmes' ability is weakening, and his faith and the world he once owned are collapsing. He realized that despite his talent, he never understood what love was.
This is a Sherlock Holmes full of humanity, not a superman. In the book, he experienced various twists and turns of fate. One thing we can't deny is that although we sympathize with Sherlock Holmes at this time, we can't really like a Sherlock Holmes who looks like ourselves. In our opinion, such a familiar figure should be Dr. Watson. In fact, Watson is a substitute for readers. The real Sherlock Holmes is a Victorian superhero and a fictional character. The question is not whether we agree with him or not, but when he rushes out of No.22 Baker Street1B and walks out of the messy and trivial life of citizens, he must take us with great adventures. This is what fascinates us. (compiled by Li Haixi)